Questions to Ask Your Parents

What did your house smell like when you were a kid?

Then ask: Which room did you spend the most time in?

What did you do after school when you were ten?

Then ask: Who were you with?

What were you afraid of as a child?

Then ask: Who made it better?

What toy or game did you love most as a kid?

Then ask: Do you know what happened to it?

What was your favorite meal growing up?

Then ask: Who cooked it, and could you make it now?

What did you get in trouble for as a kid?

Then ask: Was it worth it?

Who was your favorite teacher?

Then ask: What did they see in you?

What did your family do on weekends?

Then ask: What did you wish you were doing instead?

What did you dream of doing when you were little?

Then ask: How close did you get?

What is a childhood memory you have never told me?

Then ask: Why did it never come up?

Who was your best friend in high school?

Then ask: Are you still in touch?

What music did you play loudest as a teenager?

Then ask: What did your parents say about it?

What was your first job?

Then ask: What did you buy with your first paycheck?

What rule did you break most as a teenager?

Then ask: Did your parents ever find out?

When did you first feel like a grown-up?

Then ask: Did you feel ready?

How did you decide where to live after you left home?

Then ask: What did you miss most about home?

What was the bravest thing you did in your twenties?

Then ask: Would you do it again?

What did you spend too much money on when you were young?

Then ask: Do you still have it?

Who was an older person who changed the way you saw things?

Then ask: Did you ever tell them?

What did your parents worry about when you were a teenager?

Then ask: Were they right to worry?

What was your first date like?

Then ask: What did you think of each other afterward?

When did you know this was the person you wanted to marry?

Then ask: Who did you tell first?

Who was your first love?

Then ask: What happened?

What was your wedding day like?

Then ask: What went wrong that day?

What was the hardest year of your marriage?

Then ask: What got you through it?

What is the best advice anyone gave you about love?

Then ask: Did you follow it?

What do you still argue about after all these years?

Then ask: Who usually wins?

What does your partner do that still makes you laugh?

Then ask: Have you ever told them?

What did your parents' marriage teach you?

Then ask: What did you decide to do differently?

What would you tell me about choosing a partner?

Then ask: What did you learn the hard way?

How did you pick my name?

Then ask: Which names almost made it?

What was I like as a baby?

Then ask: What did I do that nobody warned you about?

What was my first word?

Then ask: Who was in the room?

What was the hardest age to raise me?

Then ask: What did you try that worked?

What did I do as a kid that made you proud?

Then ask: Did you tell me then?

What is the funniest thing I said as a kid?

Then ask: Do you remember where we were?

What did I get in trouble for most?

Then ask: Were you secretly laughing?

How am I most like you?

Then ask: And how am I most different?

What did you do differently with each of your kids?

Then ask: Which of us was the easiest?

What do you wish someone had told you about being a parent?

Then ask: Would you have listened?

What was the worst job you ever had?

Then ask: What did it teach you?

How did you choose your career?

Then ask: Would you choose it again?

Who was the best boss you ever had?

Then ask: What did they do that others did not?

What was the biggest risk you took with work or money?

Then ask: How did it turn out?

What did your family teach you about money?

Then ask: What did you have to unlearn?

When was money tight for us?

Then ask: How did you manage without us noticing?

What purchase was worth every penny?

Then ask: And what was the biggest waste?

What did you give up for work?

Then ask: Was it worth it?

If you could have had any job at all, what would it be?

Then ask: What stopped you?

What did your first home of your own cost?

Then ask: What did you have to give up to afford it?

What do you know about your grandparents?

Then ask: Which one would I have liked most?

Where did our family live before here?

Then ask: Why did they leave?

What family story gets told at every holiday?

Then ask: How much of it do you think is true?

Is there a family recipe I should learn?

Then ask: Who taught it to you?

What object in your house should never leave the family?

Then ask: What is the story behind it?

Who was the black sheep of our family?

Then ask: What did they do?

Which holiday tradition came from your side of the family?

Then ask: How did it start?

What language did your grandparents speak at home?

Then ask: Do you remember any words?

Who in our family did I never meet but should know about?

Then ask: What would you want me to remember about them?

What hard times did the family go through before I was born?

Then ask: How did people get through them?

What do you regret not doing?

Then ask: Is it too late to do it now?

What are you most proud of in your life?

Then ask: Who helped you get there?

What do you know now that you wish you knew at my age?

Then ask: Would I listen if you told me?

What was the hardest thing you ever went through?

Then ask: What got you through it?

When were you happiest?

Then ask: What made it so good?

What have you changed your mind about as you got older?

Then ask: What changed it?

What would you like your grandchildren to know about you?

Then ask: What do you think would surprise them?

What do you worry about for me?

Then ask: And what do you hope for me?

Is there anything you have always wanted to tell me?

Then ask: What made it hard to say?

What small thing makes almost any day better for you?

Then ask: When did you start noticing it?

What weird food did you love as a kid?

Then ask: Would you eat it now?

What is the dumbest thing you ever did on a dare?

Then ask: Who dared you?

Which fashion trend are you most embarrassed you wore?

Then ask: Are there photos?

What did you believe as a kid that turned out to be completely wrong?

Then ask: When did you find out?

What is the worst haircut you ever had?

Then ask: Who cut it?

What lie did you tell your parents that they believed?

Then ask: Do they know now?

What is your most useless talent?

Then ask: When did you discover it?

Which celebrity did you have a crush on?

Then ask: What was it about them?

What is the worst gift you ever got?

Then ask: Did you pretend to like it?

If you could relive one silly day from your life, which would it be?

Then ask: Who would you bring along?

What was my mom or dad like when they were my age?

Then ask: What did they get in trouble for?

What was school like when you were a kid?

Then ask: What was the strictest rule?

Did you have a pet when you were little?

Then ask: What was its name?

What did you have instead of phones and tablets?

Then ask: Was it ever boring?

What was your favorite candy when you were little?

Then ask: Can you still buy it?

What is the best thing about being a grandparent?

Then ask: And the hardest thing?

What is a song you sang as a kid?

Then ask: Can you sing it to me?

What was the best birthday you ever had?

Then ask: How old were you?

What food did your mom make you eat that you hated?

Then ask: Did you eat it anyway?

What did you do for fun in the summer?

Then ask: Where did you go?

What can you teach me that you learned from your grandma or grandpa?

Then ask: When can we do it together?