I am all about being involved in my kids’ lives and showing an interest in what they do during the hours every day the are apart from me.
However, sometimes, trying to get my 8-year-old to talk about her day can be a little, well, challenging. In that I am all: “Who did you play with? What did you do at break? What did you learn? Did anything upset you?” and my little almost-tween is all: “It was good.” End of.
Well, thanks a lot, kid, that was really informative… *rolls eyes*.
However, I am all about stealing ideas from other mamas on how they do this whole parenting thing, and firmly believe we have so much to learn from each other.
Recently, I came across an article on how actress Busy Philipp gets her daughters, Birdie, 10, and Cricket, 5, to spill the beans after school or after summer camp.
Lucky for Philipps, her girls’ school makes it a little easier on parents these days:
“Nowadays, schools make it great for parents by sending out an email blast that lets you know what your kids have been doing all day,” Philipps explains. “For example, the school that my kids go to sends an email with an ‘Ask Me About’ section that highlights a few things they learned. Like, ‘Ask me about…The Great Wall of China’ or ‘Ask me about… Little House on the Prairie.’ It’s so helpful because I know that if we ever get to a place where Birdie isn’t being open or forthright about her day, I can simply reference that email and say: ‘I read that you were talking about X. What did you think about that?'”
Of course, Philipps is the first to acknowledge that one of her kids may not be so quick to reply. “There’s a chance that Birdie might respond and say that she’s not interested in talking to me. She does *not* think I’m cool. Part of the problem is that I try to tell her all the time how cool I am. My little one thinks I’m the coolest, but Birdie currently finds me to be truly horrifying.”
Yikes. When your mum is a famous actress and her kids still don’t find her cool, what hope is there for the rest of us?
Anyway, we are totally stealing this after-school conversation starter. And look, I know my daughter’s school is not sending out these type of e-mails, but I reckon if I look in her homework folder, I will get a good idea of stuff we can talk about, and it seems like a good place to start.
(Feature image via Busy Philipps/Instagram)
