Thought for Food
My kids are 13 (almost 14!), 12 and 8. They all attend public school and this means that they spend more time outside of the house than they do in it – the hours they are awake anyway. Add this to the fact that they spend every other weekend at their dad’s along time with their friends some of the weekends they are home with me and I have some serious competition for their attention!
Over the years, I have tried and implemented many ideas to help us stay connected such as movie nights, game nights, eating dinner together. My favorite idea by far is that each night during dinner, along with the regular conversations about what we did each day and how things are going at school, we add a family question into the mix.
The point is that everyone has to answer. The youngest answers first (makes it easier for him to come up with his own answer rather than copy what the others say) and the grown ups answer last. It has been a great way to stay in touch with what my kids think and feel, for them to get to know me as a person not just a mom, and a great tool to talk about life issues.
Here are some of my favorite questions we have asked recently
- What is one thing you would like to change about yourself? What are you doing about it today?
- What do you like most about yourself and why?
- Name something that we have done as a family that you would like to do again/more often?
- What is one thing that you would like to change about the family or the house rules? (must answer with respect and politeness)
- Tell each family member one thing you like about them.
- Are you better at listening or talking?
- What is your most/least favorite subject at school? What do you like or dislike about it?
- Share something you learned today. If you didn’t learn anything, grab the dictionary and learn a new word
- If you could travel anywhere, where would you go and whom would you take with you?
- Share something you are grateful for and why?
Questions like these make dinner time one of my most favorite things.
