18 Guaranteed Meal Time Conversation Starters

Article posted in: Lifestyle

In honor of September being National Family Meals Month, here are some guaranteed conversation starters, courtesy of The Family Dinner Project, that you can use at the dinner table. While little kids don’t usually need much prodding to get them to talk, you may be interested in more than why Madison at daycare is a stupid-head. And your teenagers, who may often be immune to anything more than a one-word response, might even want to offer complete-sentence answers in response to some of these gambits:

Kids 2-7 years old:

  • What’s your favorite silly face?
  • Name three fun things.
  • If you joined the circus, what animal would you be?
  • If you could do whatever you wanted all day, what would you do?
  • What superpower do you want?

Kids 8-13

  • What’s the best thing that happened to you today?
  • Describe your perfect day.
  • Describe the perfect day of someone else at this table.
  • What’s the best vacation we ever had?
  • Hogwarts or your school? Discuss.
  • Who do you think will be the next president, and why?
  • What’s your favorite holiday, and why?

Ages 14 and up

  • Describe your most unusual talent and how you use it.
  • What’s been the best year of your life so far, and why?
  • If you could choose one food that you eat regularly to never eat again, what would it be?
  • Can you describe the path the food on this table took to get here?
  • What is the most caring thing you’ve ever done? Or what is the most caring thing someone has ever done for you?
  • Actress Marilyn Monroe once said, “Designers want me to dress like spring…I don’t feel like spring. I feel like a warm red autumn.” What season do you feel like? Why?