Life Management Skills

The preceding section has described the many different social skills individuals will need upon their release. They will be interacting with a wider variety of people for a wider variety of purposes. They will once again be responsible for directing their own lives, rather than be told where to go at what time. While this freedom may be exhilarating, it also bears with it a significant set of new responsibilities that may not have been as much of a priority when students were in the controlled setting. Parenting and money management are two examples of responsibilities that without question require life management skills.

As referred to earlier in this guide, a significant portion of incarcerated youth are parents. These inmates may or may not have remained in contact with their children during their incarceration. For those who do remain in contact, the bulk of this contact is in supervised weekly visits. Clearly, their role as a parent is hindered by their incarceration. Even in correctional facilities that allow women to keep their young children with them, child care is much different inside than outside. To complicate matters even further, child care is more than feeding children and keeping them from harm. There is, also, a nurturing component that is not automatic for all parents.

Through nurturing, parents can help ensure that their children become confident, responsible, independent adults. But, the parents, themselves, must first be confident, responsible, and independent before they can hope to instill these attributes in their children. The task of the educator, then, is to encourage parents to help themselves in order to help their children. Children will mimic their parents and caregivers; the importance of role models has already been made clear. Students working to improve their reading skills, for example, are serving a dual purpose in terms of their children. First, parents’ efforts signify to the children that reading and education is indeed important and should be pursued. Secondly, parenting students can encourage family literacy by reading aloud to their very young children. Parents’ reading and speaking skills improve, children’s reading and comprehending skills improve, and the nurturing bond between parent and child strengthens.

Stopping the cycle of dysfunctional living is another way in which students can help themselves help their children. It is documented that violence often breeds violence, that abuse often breeds abuse. In light of this, incarcerated youth raised in dysfunctional settings must take extra precautions that their children are not raised in similar settings.

Dysfunctional living too often involves financial problems. Under pressure to provide for a family, caregivers may turn to illegal activities. Students must learn how to manage money so that priority needs can be met without resorting to crime. To do this, they must set their financial priorities. With this information, budgeting decisions, both big and small, can be made. Knowing that $100 must be used each month for day care may determine whether parents can afford a monthly payment for a car or if they should rely on public transportation. Educators can easily develop a powerful life management lesson by combining the two topics of parenting and financial responsibility.