“How was school?”
“Okay.”
“What did you do?”
“Nothing.”
“Anything interesting happen?”
“Not really.”
Have you ever had discussions with your child that resembled this one? Now that my kids are teens, I sometimes feel like I need pliers to get more out of them. There are days where they talk…and talk…and talk, but recently we hit a drought. I decided we needed help instigating discussion.
During the last three-day weekend, I gave each member of my family a two-page “Personal Inventory” questionnaire. I told them they could work on it when it worked best for them, but we would discuss it that evening. I was pleasantly surprised my family complied without complaint. I curled up under the covers with some hot tea and completed my own homework assignment.
Later that night, we had a deep, three-hour bonding time that gave me helpful insight. The only criticism was that there were too many questions. I condensed the inventory into one page and will now share it with you. Hopefully it will lead you into a deep conversation with your family. Feel free to tweak and customize it as needed.