It’s a simple question, but sometimes it’s hard to get your children to answer it. Here’s what I discovered works when asking my son about his day at school.

“How was school?”

“Good.”

“What did you get up to?”

Silence.

“Who did you play with?”

Silence.

My life has come to this. After years of begging my child to be quiet, now I’m pleading with him to talk to me!

“You’re not going to be a nagging mother are you?” my husband asks, sternly, after I receive a blank-faced response to every question.

“What was your favourite activity? Did you do painting? Did you eat all your lunch? What games did you play?” On and on it goes.

Feeling despondent, I caught myself lingering in the hall at bedtime and listening happily to my boys chatter away about their day. Tyson regaled Jack with stories of games and playtime fun. Then I realised it was a bit creepy for me to be eavesdropping on my children.

But what to do?

Then one afternoon, Tyson and I were home alone, so I suggested we turn off the Playstation and go for a ride on his scooter while I ran beside him. He nearly burnt the carpet getting outside!

As we meandered along, something amazing happened. Tyson started freely volunteering information about his day without being asked!

He told me stories about the little girl who wouldn’t share a toy phone, and the boy he played with on the swings and sat next to whilst painting at craft time.

I wanted to leap and shout from the mountain top, “I’ve cracked the code, parents! I actually got my kid to talk to me!”

Here is what I learnt: Tyson’s conversation coaxer is getting alongside him, preferably outside and minus technology. Mealtime is also critical talking time.

Every kid is different, and their conversation coaxer will be unique. Recently, Kidspot posted an article on this topic, with suggestions about getting your kid to talk.

So what’s your secret?

Originally published at Mum Daily. Image by CDC at Unsplash.