What are good questions to ask my child?

Ask what their favourite day has been, what they want to be different when they are grown, what they think you worry about, and what they remember best about home.

At what age does this work?

From about six with a parent writing the answers down, and at any age after that.

How do I keep the answers?

Go Family Story keeps written answers, photos, video and voice recordings for each child in one private archive you control.

Questions to ask your child

Most families record the parents and forget the children. These questions capture who your son or daughter is right now — what they love, what they worry about, what they remember of growing up — in words they will be glad to have later.

Questions to ask your child about their own life

Ask a few at a time. Younger children answer out loud; grown children often write more than you expect.

1.What is your very first memory?
2.What was your family known for in the neighbourhood?
3.What did our home feel like to you when you were small?
4.What did you dread?
5.What did you think about at bedtime as a child?
6.What did you get in trouble for most often?
7.Who was your best friend, and what were they like?
8.What was school actually like for you?
9.What were you good at that nobody praised?
10.What did you believe strongly at twenty that you no longer believe?
11.What was the hardest year of growing up?
12.When did you feel most alone?
13.What do you remember about our family holidays?
14.What was your wedding day like, if you had one?
15.What tradition of ours meant something to you?
16.When did you start feeling like an adult?
17.What are you most proud of in your own life?
18.What did you actually do all day?
19.What are you working towards now?
20.Who are the people who matter most to you today?
21.What do you want out of the next ten years?
22.What chance did you not take, and do you think about it?
23.What do you hope your own children know about you?
24.What should our family keep doing?
25.What was our home like from where you were standing?
26.What song takes you straight back somewhere?
27.What did you love about being small?
28.What frightened you as a child that we never knew about?
29.What did you and your brothers or sisters get up to behind our backs?
30.What has made you cry with happiness?
31.Which teacher or friend changed things for you?
32.What was the hardest year of school for you, and why?
33.When did you first feel like an adult?
34.What object of yours should stay in the family, and why?
35.What did you decide about your own life because of ours?
36.What did we get right as parents?
37.What did we get wrong?
38.What did you do on your birthday as a child?
39.What do you wish we had asked you about back then?
40.What are you proudest of in your life so far?
41.What are you working on now that matters to you?
42.What did you cook when you were learning to cook?
43.What do you find hardest about being an adult?
44.Who do you rely on most?
45.What do you want your own life to look like in ten years?

Turn these questions into a gift they'll keep

We send the questions for you. They answer free from their inbox, and every answer, photo and recording is gathered into one private archive — kept on a highly secure database, and downloadable by you at any time.

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Questions to answer about your child

Write down what you have watched happen: the first words, the turning points, the things they will not remember themselves.

46.What do you remember about the day they were born?
47.What do they refuse to compromise on?
48.What were they like as a baby?
49.What was the first thing about them that felt like them?
50.What do they say as a small child that you still repeat?
51.What did they do first thing in the morning?
52.What were they like at school?
53.What did they love before anyone taught them to?
54.What were they afraid of, and how did they get past it?
55.What was their work, and were they good at it?
56.What was the hardest stage, and how did you both survive it?
57.When did you first feel proud of the person they were becoming?
58.What do they teach you about yourself?
59.What do they teach you without meaning to?
60.What do they do better than you ever did?
61.What did they go through that you could not fix?
62.How did they change as they grew up?
63.What do you learn about love from watching them?
64.What is it like watching them leave home?
65.What do you admire about their life now?

Collect the answers in one place

Go Family Story sends three of these questions a week by private link. The person answers with a free account, and every answer, photo, video and voice recording is kept in one private archive that only your family can see.

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Common questions

What are good questions to ask my child?: Ask what their favourite day has been, what they want to be different when they are grown, what they think you worry about, and what they remember best about home.
At what age does this work?: From about six with a parent writing the answers down, and at any age after that.
How do I keep the answers?: Go Family Story keeps written answers, photos, video and voice recordings for each child in one private archive you control.