What Your 15-Year-Old Should Be Able to Do on Their Own

Fifteen is the hinge year. In three years, your kid will be legally an adult. They’ll sign leases, manage bank accounts, feed themselves, and solve problems without calling you first.

That’s 156 weeks. And the gap between what most 15-year-olds can do and what they’ll need to do is bigger than most parents want to admit.

This isn’t about being hard on your kid. It’s about being honest about what’s coming — and making sure they’re ready for it.

The baseline: what a capable 15-year-old looks like

Not every kid is the same. But by 15, these aren’t aspirational. They’re reasonable.

They can feed themselves

Not just microwave something. A 15-year-old should be able to plan a simple meal, buy the ingredients, and cook it. Pasta with sauce from scratch. Eggs any style. A stir-fry. A sandwich that isn’t just bread and lunch meat.

If your kid has been learning to cook since they were little, this is second nature by now. If not, start today. They have 156 weeks.

They can manage money

Not “they know money exists.” They can budget a fixed amount. They understand that spending now means not having later. They can comparison-shop. They know what things actually cost — rent, groceries, gas, a phone bill.

A 15-year-old who’s never had to manage their own money will learn the hard way at 18. The hard way is expensive.

They can do their own laundry

All of it. Sort, wash, dry, fold, put away. This seems small until you meet the college freshman who turns everything pink or brings their laundry home every weekend.

They can have a hard conversation

Disagreeing with a teacher. Returning something at a store. Calling to schedule their own appointment. Apologizing when they’re wrong. Asking for what they need.

Most teenagers avoid every hard conversation because an adult has always handled it for them. By 15, they need practice. Supervised at first if needed — but they do the talking.

They can wake up and get themselves somewhere on time

Without you as their alarm clock, their reminder service, and their ride coordinator. A 15-year-old should own their own schedule. Set their alarm. Know what time they need to leave. Get there.

If you’re still managing your teenager’s morning routine, you’re not helping them. You’re delaying the inevitable reckoning.

They can be alone

Home alone for a day. Not for a week — but they can handle a Saturday by themselves. They can problem-solve if something breaks. They know what to do in an emergency. They don’t need to text you every 20 minutes for instructions.

They can handle failure

When they bomb a test, they don’t need you to email the teacher. They know how to process what went wrong and try a different approach. This only works if you’ve been letting them fail at smaller things since they were young.

They can take care of basic hygiene and health

Without being nagged. Shower, teeth, deodorant, clean clothes — not because you reminded them, but because they understand why it matters. They can take an OTC medication for a headache. They know when a cut needs more than a Band-Aid.

They can navigate basic technology responsibly

Not just use it — manage it. They can write a professional email. They understand that the internet is permanent. They can troubleshoot a printer, fill out an online form, and manage passwords without writing them on a sticky note.

They can contribute to the household

Not as a favor. Not with nagging. A capable 15-year-old carries a real share of the household work — dishes, vacuuming, lawn care, taking out the trash, watching a younger sibling. These aren’t chores. They’re contributions from a family member who’s almost an adult.

The gap

Most 15-year-olds can’t do half of this. Not because they’re lazy or incapable — because nobody expected them to.

The pattern usually looks like this: parents handle things because it’s easier and faster. The kid never practices. By 15, the habit is set. The kid doesn’t do things because they’ve never had to. The parent does things because the kid “can’t.” And nobody pushes through the discomfort of changing the pattern.

This is the capability gap. It doesn’t fix itself. Waiting for maturity to solve it is a gamble.

How to close it

If your 15-year-old is behind on this list, the fix isn’t a lecture. It’s a handoff.

Pick one thing. Not five. One. Pick the one that matters most or the one that’ll be easiest to win. Early success builds momentum.

Hand it over completely. Don’t monitor. Don’t follow up. Don’t redo it when they do it badly. The whole point is that they own it — including the failures.

Let the natural consequences land. If they don’t do laundry, they wear dirty clothes. If they don’t budget, they run out of money. If they don’t wake up, they’re late. You surviving the urge to intervene is harder than anything they have to do.

Add the next thing once the first one is solid. Not before. Not simultaneously. One at a time. Each skill takes a few weeks to become habit. By the time they’re 16, they could own half this list. By 17, all of it.

Talk about why. Not in a “this is for your own good” way. In a “here’s what’s coming and I want you ready” way. Fifteen-year-olds respond to honesty about the real world far better than they respond to because-I-said-so.

The real deadline

The goal isn’t that your kid can do these things at 18. It’s that they do them automatically. Capability that only exists under pressure isn’t capability — it’s performance.

By 15, you’re not building from scratch. You’re building on the foundation from earlier years. If that foundation is solid, this is just the next layer. If it’s not, you have 156 weeks. That’s enough — but only if you start now.

Not with a conversation. With a handoff.

Pick one thing from this list. Hand it to your kid this week. Step back. Let them figure it out.

That’s how capability is built. One skill at a time, one week at a time, until the day they leave home and they’re ready.

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Your 15-year-old’s readiness isn’t luck — it’s a system. Want to track what you’re teaching? Start mapping your progress.