100+ Questions That Can Help Parents and Children Have Gripping Conversations for Hours

There is no one who is closer and more important to you than your own children. However, our regular lives often don’t give us a chance to get to know our children deeper or see them from a different angle. But if you can think outside the box and ask them something different other than, “How are things in school?” you will definitely learn many more interesting things about your daughter or your son, and maybe about yourself. And these conversations or discussions are way more useful for children than lecturing. Give it a try!

Bright Side has reviewed a lot of books and articles in order to find unusual, gripping, and provocative topics for discussion.

1. What to ask instead of “How was your day?”

• What was the most interesting event today?

• What have you learned today?

• What made you smile today?

• Have you done anything fun, silly, interesting?

• What amazed you today?

• Did you help someone today?

• Have you done anything good for yourself?

• Were you proud of yourself today? Why?

• Were you sad?

• What was difficult for you to understand?

• What games did you play with your friends?

• Who were you sitting next to during lunch?

• Who among your classmates do you want to be friends with?

• Who among your classmates is completely different from you?

• Which teacher do you like the most? And who do you not like a lot?

• If you were the teacher for one day, what would you teach your classmates?

• Did anything irritate you?

• Did anything unfair happen?

• Was there something that made you shy?

• What did you disagree with today?

• If you could live today one more time, what would you do differently?

• What were you unable to do this week? And what did you succeed in?

2. What to ask to develop creative thinking

• If it were raining food, what food would you like it to be?

• What animal would you like to ride: an elephant or a giraffe?

• If you could give colors different names, what names would you give them?

• If our cat were able to talk, what would it say?

• If you could ask any wild animal a question, what would you ask?

• If you had your own cave, what would be inside of it?

• What would you use to build an indestructible wall?

• Which animal do you think could drive a car well?

• What invention do you think this world needs?

• What would happen if you had a time machine?

• How would the world work if people had not invented the concept of money?

• If you had a magic wand, which 3 wishes would you make?

3. What to ask to find out who your children are inside

• Which 5 words would you use to describe yourself?

• What do you like about yourself? What do you not like?

• If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

• If you could become a different person for one day, who would you be?

• If you were a superhero, which superpower would you have?

• If you could go anywhere, where would you go?

• What sounds do you like?

• What are some things that adults don’t understand?

• What was the best compliment you’ve ever heard?

• What activity makes you happy?

• Which holiday do you like more than others?

• How do you care about other people?

• What makes you feel happy?

• What do you feel when I hug you?

• What can make you cry?

• What makes you angry?

• What scares you?

• Which would you like to be able to do: fly like a bird or swim like a fish?

• If you had a million dollars, what would you spend the money on?

• If you had enough money to not work, would you still work?

• If you opened your own store, which things would you sell?

• If you wrote a book, what would it be about?

• Do you like giving presents to other people?

• What is your ideal day?

• What can you do that you could teach others?

• What else would you like to learn to do?

• What was the happiest/the saddest day of your life?

• Of all the things you know, what do you think will be the most necessary thing in your adult life?

• If you could travel back in time and see yourself 3 years ago, what advice would you give to yourself?

• What are you most proud of?

• Who among your friends do you like the most and why?

• What do you do if someone insults you?

• If you grew up and became famous, what would you be famous for?

• What can you do to help other people today?

• If you could spend one day with a person, who would it be and what would you do?

4. What to ask about life and how the world works

• What makes a person smart?

• What do you think other people feel?

• Why do you need to go to school?

• What will our life be like in the future?

• What would you change about this world if you could?

• Is it easy to be a child? What about being an adult?

• How do you know that you grew up?

• Should a child respect all adult people?

• Should you always listen to your parents?

• Can we punish children and what can we punish them for?

• Does a person have the right to steal food if they are starving?

• Can you always do what you want?

• Why do people lie?

• Can you always say what you want?

• Why do people get divorced?

• Why do people argue? Can’t they just discuss things in a calm way?

• Why do adult people smile so rarely?

• Why do people smoke if it is so harmful?

• What is a good mood and a bad mood?

• What should you do when you are old?

• What is the soul and where is it located?

• What is love?

• How do you know that someone loves you?

• Is there such a thing as eternal love?

• What is happiness?

• Can you always be happy and never feel sad?

• Can you be happy without money?

• Why don’t rich people share money with poor people?

• Are all people equal?

• Is the world a beautiful place if there are such things as wars and famine?

• Is there a way to avoid wars?

• Is there anything good about problems and difficulties?

• Can you be rude with someone who was rude to you or should you stay polite?

• Is it okay to envy people?

• What is art for?

• Who decides what is beautiful and what is not?

• Should you accept yourself as you are?

• If you could make a law that everyone in the world would have to obey, what would it be?

• Can you change your destiny?

• What is the meaning of life?

Bonus: Situations for discussion

In order to make discussions even more interesting, you can talk about difficult and even provocative situations, as Michael Parker recommends in his book Talk With Your Kids: Conversations About Ethics. Here is an example:

“Imagine that you have just invented a time machine. You hop into it and pull the lever that says ‘Past.’ There is a billowing of smoke and your machine lands in 1889. You are in a cute-looking room with a bassinet. You can hear a baby cry inside of it. You see that there is a little baby boy. You take a look at the bassinet itself and read ‘Adolf Hitler’ on the name tag. Because you live in the 21st century, you know that he was the reason millions of people died in World War II. You can hear footsteps coming up the stairs.

You can’t put the baby in the machine with you (it only carries one person at a time). If you are found in the room in 20 seconds time, you will be arrested. You can’t come back here: the machine is not reliable enough. You only have 20 seconds.

A. Do you throw the little Adolf out the window and jump back into the time machine?

B. What do you think about baby Hitler?

1. Was he already evil? Was he born evil?

2. If he became evil later, what would make him evil?

3. Is it okay to punish him for something he has not done yet?”

Which topics do you like discussing with your children?