Family Life can get so busy that we never sit down and have conversations with family members. Below are some family conversation starters. They include a quotation around a topic, like “gratitude”, and then three prompts to start and guide your conversation. Feel free to create your own storytelling with family prompts to create lively conversations. 

Try just listening to each family member without offering your judgements, ideas to help “fix” the situation, or stories which were triggered in your memory while listening to another person’s words. This is so difficult to do as we want to help others. Just listening helps to build trust and takes the pressure off you and everyone else to respond to our natural impulse to help others. Just listening is a real gift. Try just listening to others, unless it is your turn to talk about the prompt (or question). Begin to notice what changes in your conversations and relationships. For most of us, this will take more than one or two family conversations to begin to learn how to just listen. Be patient.