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Dinnertime is the part of the day when everyone’s schedules finally align. It’s a golden opportunity in our busy lives to catch up and strengthen relationships. But sometimes, as much as you try to strike up a discussion with your kids, you hear only one-word answers. This is completely normal. One tip for families — ask some deeper dinner table questions where everybody gets to participate.

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Switch off the TV, put away the smartphones, and spark a meaningful dinner conversation with this list of 25 questions to get you started. You can write these topics on slips of paper and draw them from a jar, or put them down on note cards and shuffle them into a stack. Try to fit in at least one of these conversation starters at the dinner table every time you sit down together!

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1. If you were going to live on a deserted island for a year and were only allowed to bring three personal items with you, what would they be?

2. What’s your favorite smell? Does it remind you of any good memories?

3. How would you spend a million dollars if you could?

4. Would you rather not hear or not see?

5. Is there extraterrestrial life on other planets? What do you think they might look like?

6. What’s the most recent joke you heard?

7. What did you do with your friends today?

8. What were two great things that happened today, and one not-so-great?

9. What superpower would you have for life and how would you use it for good?

10. If you could work in any career for one week, what would it be?

11. What’s your favorite song on the radio at the moment and why?

12. How would you describe a good friend?

13. What’s your favorite family activity we do together and why?

14. What’s the earliest memory you have?

15. What’s one talent you have that you’re really proud of?

16. If you could pick a different name for yourself, what would it be?

17. If you could go back to any time period, when would it be? Would there be any historical people you’d want to meet?

18. What are you planning to do after dinner tonight?

19. What do you think is your lucky number and why?

20. What’s the best gift you could give to someone?

21. If you won a vacation to anywhere in the world for a week, where would you go?

22. How did you meet your best friend?

23. If there was one type of cuisine you had to eat for the rest of your life, what would it be?

24. What’s one thing you hope will never change?

25. If you could write the next great bestselling book, what would it be about?

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