Before, they used to actually leave the house several days a week!
They used to go into a different structure, separate from your home,bustlingwith activity!
They used to eat a lunch you didnt make and have conversations you had no way of overhearing.
But you should still venture to get them talkingand here are a few tips to get you started.
Give them some space
Kids are often at their crankiest immediately after school.
You are their safe space, after all.
Id tell him I missed him and Id start yammering on about my own day.
Theyre barely out of the experience; they dont want to talk about it yet.
(And if theydo, theyll come to you.)
If you ask what they learned, theyll say they learned nothing.
Ask a boring question, expect a boring answer.
If you want them to dig a little deeper, youll probably need to up your prompting game.
Ask them what theyre learning about in history class (gee, anything we could learn from?)
or whether the spelling test was as hard as they thought it would be.
However, I wouldnt go overboard here.
Sometimes parents can go a littletoofar with the cutesy conversation prompts.
Who made you smile today?
is going to make your tween groan and roll their eyes at you, and rightfully so.
It shouldnt be an interrogation; it should be about your family reconnecting after another long pandemic day.
It has created a natural segue for me to then say, What about you?
Whats on your agenda today?
Also, talking about your day in the morning gives you perfect follow-up fodder for later.
