Mealtime Conversation Starters

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Dismayed by the dismal silence around your dinner table? Sure, sometimes it’s easier to turn on the television than talk with your family. But mealtimes are the perfect opportunity to draw your loved ones closer together, so don’t let this precious time go to waste. A little prompting and patience is all it takes to get a great conversation going.

To help launch your roundtable discussion, choose topics you think will pique your family’s interest and introduce them over the course of the meal. Be sure to pick topics that everyone can take part in, particularly if your family includes small children. Encouraging children to engage in friendly discourse will build social and verbal skills that will benefit them throughout life, and also instill the belief that their ideas and opinions are worth listening to. If picking topics that everyone in the family can participate in seems a bit difficult at first, try some of these ideas to get the ball rolling:

• What three famous people, living or dead, would you most like to have dinner with and why?
• What was your most memorable meal ever? Where and with whom did you eat it?
• What is the sound you love the most? Why?
• What place would you most like to visit? What would you do once you got there?
• What is the one food you could never bring yourself to eat?
• What is the most important/interesting thing that happened to you today?
• Who is your personal hero? (This could be anyone, not just a famous person.)
• What do you think was the most important invention of the 20th century?
• Who do you think was the most influential person of the 20th century?
• What new inventions do you think will come along to change the way we live in the 21st century? (Space colonies? Virtual reality games and television? Computerized houses? Etc.)