101 Questions To Ask Your Parents (Mom and Dad)

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101 Questions To Ask Your Parents (Mom and Dad)

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Parent interviews with children in the household are becoming increasingly popular. Not only can these help you learn more about your parents, but they can also give you an insight as to why they are the way that they are.

Questions to ask parents can quickly tell you more about your parents, and help you form a closer bond with them.

These are some great questions to help you strike up a conversation, form a closer bond with your parents, and get to know them on a deeper level. 

Benefits Of Asking Your Parents Questions

Some schools assign a parent interview to children, so you’re required to ask your parents questions. However, there are plenty of reasons that you should be asking your parents questions outside of that.

My children have done this with me, and it was not a part of a school assignment. My previous step-children also used to ask me random questions like these. There were quite a few benefits for both of us. 

You Get To Know Each Other

As we grow older, we change. This applies to both parents and children. You can see this in the changes to the answers to these questions.

For example, when my daughter was very young, her favorite color was pink. Then, it was glitter (clear and sparkly.) At one point it was also rainbow. Now, it is cyan.

As adults, we also change and grow. So, as both parents and children grow, you need to keep learning about each other in order to maintain the relationship and have a close connection.

Without getting to know your questions for parents, you don’t stay close with them. 

Not only do these questions help you get to know your parents, they help your parents get to know you. You can offer information as a response to their answer.

For example, when your mom tells you her favorite color, you can tell her yours. Asking your parents questions opens the door for them to ask you questions. 

Asking Parents Questions Can Help You Learn A Lot

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When you ask your parents insightful questions, you can learn a great deal.

Not only can you learn about your family history or parenting methods from previous generations, but you can also learn a significant amount of knowledge about life in general.

As people grow older, they learn more life lessons. Your parents are full of knowledge that they can pass down to you. 

Positive Communication Is The Result

Conflicts between parents and children are extremely common. Often, it is the result of a misunderstanding or poor communication between parents and children.

When the two of you sit down to discuss anything, even if it’s just talking about silly questions and answers, it creates a foundation that encourages positive communication in the future. 

Questions You Can Ask Your Parents

Do You Really Know Your Family? A Fun Family Game Filled with Conversation Starters and Challenges

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Asking your parents questions sounds like a great idea, but your mind might come up blank when you’re trying to think of questions to ask them. This comprehensive list will guarantee that you have plenty to ask!

Whether you’re trying to make your mom smile, get to know your dad, or simply start a conversation with your parents, these are great questions to start with. 

Funny Questions To Ask Moms

Questions to ask your parents don’t always have to be deep and insightful questions. Sometimes, you just want to see your mom crack a smile.

Other times, you can use funny questions to start up a conversation with your parents. Sometimes, reaching out with a silly question can be exactly what your relationship needs. 

• If you could pick one favorite kid, who would it be? You can only pick one. 
• What did you get in trouble for most as a kid?
• What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done?
• If you saw another mom’s underwear showing, would you tell her?
• When you were little, what’s one thing that you did that annoyed your parents?
• Have you ever broken the law?
• What’s the coolest thing about you?
• If we were both teenagers, would we be best friends?
• If I were a snail, would you still love me?
• Why did you name me this?!?!

Questions To Ask Dads

Traditionally, dads worked outside the home. While this created a household in which a parent was always home, this often had a negative impact on how close fathers were with their children.

Today, we still see this. More dads are taking on a parenting role or becoming closer with their children, but due to generational differences, they don’t always know how to open up with their children.

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Asking your dad questions can get some conversation going and learn more about your father. 

• What’s your biggest strength?
• What do you love about mom?
• If you could break one law, and not get into trouble, what would it be and why?
• If you could have any superpower, which one would you pick and why?
• Would you still love mom if she were a cat?
• How did you and your friends spend time together growing up?
• Is it intimidating knowing that I’m way cooler than you?
• What was your first job?
• Are you happy with your career?
• If you could change one thing about your life, what would it be and why?

Open-Ended Questions For Parents

There’s nothing wrong with asking your parents questions that can be answered in a yes or no fashion. However, these questions aren’t going to get them talking quite like open-ended questions will.

Open-ended questions are questions that cannot be answered with a simple yes or no. Instead, they encourage parents to open up a bit. Often, these questions can be answered with a story or two. 

• How did the two of you meet?
• Can you tell me about the day I was born?
• What do you like about your generation? What’s something that you dislike about it?
• What are your earliest memories?
• If you could go do anything in life, what would it be?
• Would you guys rather throw away love or money?
• If we could live anywhere in the world, where would you pick?
• Do you ever wonder what it would be like to live in an RV and be a nomad?
• What are your best memories of being married to each other?
• How would you both feel if I accidentally set the house on fire?

Questions To Ask Parents For Young Children

If you want to help a younger child get to know their parents a bit better, you can tell them questions to ask their parents.

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These will help smaller children initiate conversations with their parents. Not only will this help them form a closer bond, but it can also help children build their social skills. 

• What’s your favorite dinosaur?
• Can you tell me your full name?
• What’s your favorite food?
• Do you have a middle name?
• What’s it like being a mommy or daddy?
• What do you like to do?
• Where were you born at?
• What’s your favorite part of the park?
• What do you love about me?
• If you could be any superhero, which one would you be?

Getting To Know You Questions To Ask Parents

As we grow up, it doesn’t take long to realize that some parents don’t open up on their own. We learn more about our parents as we grow older.

Asking some insightful questions for parents can help you learn more about their life, their views, and what their dreams are.

• When you were younger, what did you want to be when you grew up?
• What was your first job? Did you like it?
• What’s your favorite color?
• If you had enough time to do any hobby, and money was no problem, what would you pick?
• If you could change one thing about your life, what would it be?
• What are your political beliefs?
• Who was your first boyfriend?
• Where have you traveled before?
• Where is somewhere that you want to go but haven’t been yet?
• Have you ever been arrested?

Questions To Ask Parents To See If They Know You

While we love getting to know our parents, sometimes children are bound to wonder if their parents know them. This can be very insightful, particularly for older children and parents themselves.

If your parents don’t know you well, it can be a sign that they are not as involved in your life as you would like them to be. If they do know you particularly well, it can be a sign that they are paying more attention than you realize. 

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• What’s my favorite color?
• Who’s my best friend?
• What do I like to do?
• If you could buy me any present in the world, what would you buy me?
• What was my first pet?
• What was I scared of when I was little?
• What’s my favorite game to play?
• What size shoes do I wear?
• When do I prefer to go to bed?
• Am I scared of spiders?

Interesting Questions To Ask Your Parents

Sometimes, you don’t need to ask your parents deep, thought-provoking questions. You just want to initiate a conversation or you’re curious about something.

There’s nothing wrong with that! Check out their responses to these questions. They’re interesting, but not too deep for the most part. 

• What were you going to name me if I were the opposite sex?
• What type of music did you like growing up?
• What’s the first thing you would do if you woke up and you were instantly the opposite sex?
• What’s your favorite season and why?
• What’s the worst thing about being an adult?
• Do you vote?
• What’s your favorite sport?
• Where is the coolest place that you have ever been?
• Do you have any life regrets?
• Do you have any scars or birthmarks?

Random Questions To Ask Your Parents

Questions don’t always have to fall in a category when you’re conducting a parent interview or just getting to know your parents. These random questions for parents can still help you learn about them. They have the potential to create an engaging conversation if that is your goal too. 

• What was your first car?
• Have you ever lived anywhere other than here?
• What’s your biggest fear?
• When you were little, did you want kids?
• What’s something that you love about our life?
• What was your favorite memory of high school?
• What’s one thing you think is different about our family compared to other people?
• How old were you when you were in your first relationship?
• If you could have three wishes, what would they be and why?
• Do you agree more with capitalism or socialism?
• What’s one thing that you’ve done in your life that would surprise me?

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Questions To Ask Parents About Parenting

Learning about parenting from your parents is important. They’ve already been down this road, so they are packed with parenting wisdom.

Earlier generations may have had some different parenting views, but some of their parenting methods provide benefits that we don’t see in today’s parenting.

You can learn a great deal from parents that can help you raise your own children as well. Sometimes, we need that extra insight as we get older. 

• What’s the most difficult part of raising a child?
• Is being a grandparent different than being a parent? How?
• How do you get a baby to sleep through the night?
• Is it possible to spoil an infant?
• What are some traditional parenting practices that you think should still be used today?
• What kind of parent did you think you would be before you had children?
• Which is more difficult, raising infants or teenagers?
• What’s one thing that you love about being a parent?
• What’s one parenting method that you think all parents should adopt?
• What do you think the benefits are of having children at the age that you did?

Questions To Ask Parents About Their Life

You can learn quite a bit about your parents through questions. You’ll discover their values, life lessons that they have learned, and why they are the way that they are.

These questions will help you learn more about your parents’ lives, including what it was like before they had you. 

• What was your childhood like?
• Were you close to your parents?
• Did your family focus on communication or more on discipline?
• What was one important lesson that you learned from your first job?
• What’s one thing that your parents did that you do with us?
• Are there questions that you wish you had asked your parents as a child?
• What life lessons do you think are important to pass down?
• How did you learn work ethic and become so resilient?
• If you could go back in time, what would you tell your younger self?
• What are the best memories of your life so far?

In Conclusion

Asking your parents questions, regardless of your age, can benefit you in so many ways. You can learn more about them, their generation, and you can learn quite a few life lessons. These questions are a great place to start.