Friday Q & A — interviews

Hello! I just came across a post on your blog from March 5th 2008. It was about motherhood and you talked about your father cornering you and your siblings for interviews {that blog post is back HERE…it’s called “7 Motherhood ideas I love”}.  I have to say, you seem like you have an amazing father! I only wish I could be that amazing of a mother. I do try. I would love to start interviewing my 6 year old daughter but I’m stuck on how to get the ball rolling. What kind of questions would your father ask you? Which ones were the most important to ask in your opinion? I appreciate any help you can give me as I’m drawing a blank on what questions to ask my daughter. I am truly inspired by your post and am looking forward to reading your blog further 🙂

I totally wish I were that amazing of a parent too!  I’m so grateful for my Dad and all he’s taught me (and still tries to teach!) through his example.  My favorite video of him is in this post back HERE.

But back to the question…which is a really good one because questions are key.  But listening is even more key.  I know I sound like a broken record when I say how much I love the book How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk.  It has the best tips for great communication.  I don’t remember the questions my dad asked…I’m sure different ones each month.  I just remember the feeling of knowing that he was looking out for me.  And he wanted to know the details.

I wanted to do that same thing for my kids, so I’m going to write down what I do.  Note that I don’t do this overly regularly.  It’s a grand idea to do it once a month, and sometimes I’ll go for a stretch of being really on-the-ball about it, and other times I’ll go through a LONG time without touching my “interview” book…like there is one year gap in there…that’s just how life rolls.  And that’s ok by me.  Because I know it’s there and I just try my best.

What book?  You may ask.  Well, years ago my brother got me a “spiritual creation book.”  It’s just a large, black book filled with blank paper.  I use it for just that: “spiritual creation.”

Spiritual creation is anything I want to create or nurture with help from Heaven.  Things Dave and I discuss about what we want to do as a family.  Notes on each child.  Notes TO each child.  I have kept some of their “Mother’s Day letters in there (one of those ideas from the “7 motherhood ideas”).  That’s how our “family motto” {here} came to be (I have all my brainstorming doodling of the words we wanted to incorporate into that thing in that book):

It’s so interesting to me that my “goals” have remained so much the same for so many years:  Be organized.  Be THERE.  Be patient.  Boy, I guess it’s a good thing life is long cause it sure takes a long time to work on those things!

In a way, I kind of want this book to become a family tool kind of like my growing-up family’s “ancestor book”

(I wrote a whole bunch about that gem back HERE.)

But one of my favorite things that book has come to be is a record of the interviews I have with my kids.

At first I tried to do them all on one day once a month, but there was no way that little idea was happening.  So then I decided that since there are four or five Sundays each month, I would have the first be for Max (first child), second Sunday would be Elle’s interview (second child), and so on.  Sure, there aren’t fifth Sundays very often but with Lucy’s needs she seems to get “interviews” much more regularly just because of the way life is with her so she’s good.

That works really great when I am conscientious about it.

I always start out with these questions:

1)  What are you most excited about in life right now?
2)  What are you most worried about?

Those two often lead into discussions about different things on their minds or they just give me a little peek into how they’re doing if I take the time to really listen.

Then we talk about how they’re doing Physically, Socially, Mentally and Spiritually and make little goals they can work on for the month.

I love it because on our next interview we can review what the concerns/worries were from the time we had an interview before and it helps us put everything in perspective.

But now I just started having them bring their “Dream” binders we made (back HERE),

…and they write down their monthly stuff in there.

I love having that framework to go with.

It’s all a work in progress, but it feels good to have a plan.

Back to the “which questions” question one more time, I think a good question to incorporate in would be “who have you noticed that may need your help?” …I want so much for them to be noticing those around them and reach outside of themselves and if we talk about it each month maybe they’ll start being more aware of those needs.

Another question my sister Saydi and I were just talking about is “Is there anything that has happened that has made you feel uncomfortable lately?”  Her wise point is that if kids know there is going to be a safe place to bring anything up (an interview) they will feel so happy to have that opportunity if there’s anything specific they are worrying about.  Sometimes it’s hard for kids to bring up stuff on their own.  Having a safe forum for sharing things can be so helpful.

Anyway, that’s what we do for what it’s worth!