Here's what happens in a lot of homes at the end of the school day:
Parent: How was your day?
Kid: Fine
You can substitute any number of one word answers there. It leaves a parent frustrated and the kid is confused, because they answered the question.
I know, because I've seen it play out in our home lots of times. Even now, when the kids are older.
If you really want to know what their day was like, ask an open-ended question... not something that can be answered with just one word.
Here are some for starters, from the parenting website Little Things:
- What made you smile today?
- Did anyone help you today? How?
- What games did you play?
- Who’s your favorite friend at school? Why?
- Who was kind to you today?
- What did you do to be kind today?
- What did your teacher say to you?
- What did you learn for the first time?
- What did you read about?
- What made your frustrated today?
Once you get into the habit of asking the question the right way, it will lead you to other questions you can ask. And hopefully, they'll be a little more open with their answers.
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