Trust me. If you need so much time 'prepping for college' that you can't spare a few minutes helping out with the house chores, you're not college material.
It's never an 'either chores or college, pick one', and no, people that cook and clean their own home aren't looking for a professional career in that, and cleaners didn't 'choose' that profession because they were conditioned as toddlers to clean.
Prepping might barely get you into some college or might get you to smoothly sail through the best colllege you can find.
I'd prefer my kid would build games or solder or have fun with math or play with physics or chemistry than do the dishes or cook.
Besides, you asked if college is more important than life skills. And yes, it is. So much that even 'prepping' which at such young age is just getting your kid into anything other than mundane is worth more.
Also, life skills are so easy to acquire at later age by anyone with at least mediocre IQ that they basically come free if you mange to raise your kid's IQ by 10 points.
>college is more important than life skills. And yes, it is.
We would have to define "life skills".
I would consider life skills the ability to navigate hierarchies and bureaucracies (like the DMV, or dealing with bosses). I would also include knowing how to deal with challenges like a broken down vehicle. Balancing a checkbook, cleanliness, halfway decent nutritional sense.
But hey, as long as you got that PhD in Russian literature, I'm sure everything will turn out fine.
It's never an 'either chores or college, pick one', and no, people that cook and clean their own home aren't looking for a professional career in that, and cleaners didn't 'choose' that profession because they were conditioned as toddlers to clean.