Dinner conversations with Dad

Ever sat around the dinner table and wondered what questions you could ask your dad to really find out more about him?
Remember all families have been through good and bad times. There were many years before you were born that your Dad had a life probably very different to the life we all have today. Find out, you might be pleasantly suprised.

Experience, Knowledge and History

Through it all there is a wealth of experience, knowledge and history that can be explored with pre-thought crafted questions to get the conversation started. Good questions can be fun and they can also help create bonds and show that there is something larger that themselves.

Below are questions that could be written/printed onto cards and taken to your next family dinner, or even on your next zoom call if you don’t catch up for dinners? Its a good idea to pre-warn your dad so that they can weave their answers to demonstrate that they have travelled a road that has had pebbles and rocks but in the end it worked out through good decision making to show the younger generation listening that you have resilience and come through it well or at least ok.

Table Questions:

1. How many houses have you lived in over you life so far?
2. What do you remember about those houses you lived in as a child? Which one did you like the best and why?
3. How did you cope without internet? What do you love about having internet today?
4. Has there been a family member who has been a good life coach? and why?
5. What was your favourite book, TV show, Movie when you were my age?
6. Tell me about a family reunion or family party that you remember attending when you were a child?
7. Was there a favourite story that your grandfather or grandmother told you as a child? Tell us
8. What was the most embarrassing thing that your mum or Dad did to you?
9. What were the best memories you had as a child on holidays?
10. Did you parents ever loose their jobs? What happened? How did they start over?
11. What did your grandparents do with you that you loved?
12. How are you different than your parents? What did they do that you didn’t enjoy?
13. If you could go back to a period of time in your childhood, when would that be?
14. How did you parents change after they retired?
15. If there was anything you could know about our family history or a relative that has died? what would you want to know?
16. What was the hardest thing you went through as a child and how died you cope with it?
17. Which family relative did you like the most and why?
18. Has anything ever happened in the family that took a while to come to terms with?
19. What career job would you have liked to do but never did?
20. What hobbies did you have as a child? Which one did you out more time into?
21. What Primary and Secondary schools did you go to? When did you finish school and why?

Making dinner party memories is easier than you thought, try some more questions here: 40 more dinner table questions

If you’re still lucky enough to have your Grandfather or Grandmother in your life, the answers to their question may be very different to those of your Dads.

Why don’t you write them out onto cards and bring them along to your next dinner and learn a little more about your dad or grandad? Share your experience below, we would love to hear how it went. Did you learn something you never knew? Something insightful or suprising?