50 Family Dinner Conversation Starters (Questions to ask your kids)

Published: April 15, 2022Updated: September 19, 2022Author: Contributor
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When you are not sure what to talk about with your kids at dinner time, here are 50 of our best Family Dinner Conversation Starters.
50 Family Dinner Conversation Starters (Questions to ask your kids)

Need some ideas to start a conversation with your family? We put together 50 of our best conversation starters!

Growing up, our mom was a rock star at making sure we had dinner together every night.

It got crazy with 6 kids around the dinner table when we were growing up, but some of our best memories were made there and it’s the best thing we could have done together.

We truly believe that having dinner together as a family helped shape us into the people we are today.

We had a few family dinner rules:

  • no phones at the table (we also turned off our landline back in the day so that we weren’t interrupted)
  • you had to try at least one bite of everything
  • if you didn’t like what was being served for dinner, breakfast was in the morning

We would use that time at dinner to talk about our days and things that were going on in our lives.

Dinner time was the perfect time to connect with meaningful conversation.

With work, school and all of the other activities families have going on, dinner time is often the only time they have quality time together to communicate. 

After a long day, you may find your family doesn’t have much to say at the dinner table.

We thought we would help you out with a list of 50 Dinner Conversation Starters! These are a great way to get your dinner conversation started.  These family conversation starters are a fun way to get to know your favorite people during your family meal.  

We hope you will take the time to sit down together as a family at dinner time and get to know each other better. It’s the most important thing you can do together!

Scroll down to the bottom of the page for a FREE printable of these questions!

How to use these family dinner conversation questions:

Print this list of questions, cut paper into strips, and place all the questions into a mason jar or a bowl.

Take turns going around the table and drawing out a question. Take turns going around the table and drawing out a question. Remember, some of the best questions are simple questions!

You could have each person choose a new question to answer or you could have one person choose a question and have everyone answer it. These are open-ended questions, so make sure you’re not getting one-word answers from your kids! Take advantage of this time to get to know each family member on a deeper level while enjoying good food around the dinner table.

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50 Family Dinner Conversation Starters:

1.  What was the best part of your day?

2.  If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would it be?

3.  If you could be a famous person for a week, who would you be and why?

4.  If you could have any superpower, which would you choose?

5.  If you had one wish (and you can’t wish for more wishes), what would you wish for and why?

6.  If you could eat just one food everyday for a month and nothing else, what would it be?

7.  What is your biggest fear?

8.  What is one way you helped another person today?

9.  If you could trade places with your parents for a day, what would you do differently?

10.  If you could have one dream come true, what would it be?

11.  If you could pick your own name, what would it be?

12.  If you could be an animal, what would you be and why?

13.  What is your favorite thing to do on a road trip and why?

14.  If you could see your future, where would you be in ten years?

15.  If you could eat dinner with any famous person (dead or alive), who would you choose and why?

16.   If you could have any pet, what would you choose and why?

17.  What is your favorite childhood memory?

18.  What three words would you use to describe yourself?

19. What are the qualities that make you a good friend?

20.  What is the nicest thing a friend has ever done for you?

21.  What is your favorite movie and why?

22.  What is your favorite family tradition?

23.  What is your favorite sport to play?

24.  If you could play any instrument, what would it be and why?

25.  What is your favorite holiday and why?

26.  What is one thing you are grateful for today?

27.  What is your favorite book and why?

28.  What has been the happiest day of your life so far and why?

29.  What do you want to be when you grow up and why?

30.  Where would you like to go on our next family vacation?

31.  What is one thing you could have done better today?

32.  Who is one person in your life you are thankful for and why?

33.  What is the craziest thing or weirdest thing you’ve ever eaten?

34.  What is your earliest memory?

35.  What is your most embarrassing moment?

36.  What is your least favorite chore?

37.  If you could only eat three foods the rest of your life, what would they be?

38.  If you could have dinner with anyone (past or present), who would it be and why?

39.  If you could stay up all night, what would you do?

40.  What is the most beautiful place you have ever seen?

41.  What is one thing you couldn’t live without?

42.  If you were on a deserted island, what would you take and why?

43.  If you had to live in another country, which one would you choose?

44.  What is your greatest talent or ability?

45.  What fictional character are you most like and why?

46.  If you could travel back in time, where would you go?

47.  What is something you want to learn how to do and why?

48.  What would you do if you were a king or a queen?

49.  If you were invisible for a day, what would you want to observe?

50.  If you had the attention of the world for just 10 seconds, what would you say?

Click here for a FREE Printable of these conversation starters:

Click here to get your FREE Printable of Dinner Conversation Starters!

Looking for more dinner conversation starters? Be sure to check out this post from Beauty and Bedlam!

  1. Karen - Quilts...etc. says:
    March 26, 2013
    great idea!
  2. Eric Pepple says:
    March 26, 2013
    what a fun idea! I bet this would be a lot of fun with little kids, I bet they would answer with some interesting responses.

    Happy Blogging!
    Happy Valley Chow
  3. Rachel Emma Schutz says:
    March 26, 2013
    Thank you for doing this! Sometimes at night both my boyfriend and I are so tired the conversation can get dull. This will definately help us out.

    www.rachelmeetsrachel.blogspot.com
  4. Jennifer says:
    March 26, 2013
    fun! thanks for posting!
  5. Nathan Johnson says:
    October 19, 2013
    Great list. I always have trouble knowing what topics to begin conversations with. It was so bad I decided to do something about it and put all my topic questions online. That way the next time I was stuck I could quickly pull out my phone and have some interesting questions at my fingertips. If you are interested the site site is here: http://deepconversationtopics.com/ thanks... keep up the good work
  6. Shari - Family and Consumer Science Teacher says:
    February 17, 2014
    THANK YOU!! I am teaching Family Development for the first time and I knew that I wanted to incorporate a family dinner into my curriculum. With the help of a friend, students will prepare a simple pizza and a beverage. They will set the table and sit down in groups of 7 - 8. I wanted very much to have "tents" with conversation starters and when I searched online your site was the first one that came up. The list of conversation starters is PERFECT. Thank you for helping me with this project.
  7. Dr Wynand Goosen says:
    April 3, 2014
    I think it is awesome that people are getting back into promoting this type of values. Big part of our problem in the world is that we no longer take time out to listen to each other.
  8. Teagan phelps says:
    November 20, 2015
    I like these, but I think if you made a tenage one it would be more fitting for our family.
  9. Samathah says:
    March 10, 2018
    Awesome thanks so much this defiantly gives us a subject to talk about during dinner
  10. Sylvia says:
    June 17, 2018
    Thank you! It’s Fathers Day and we’ve reserved a local delicious restaurant. What will make this fun is that our kids and grandchildren all can answer these questions.
  11. Yvette Harvey says:
    April 20, 2019
    I have been writing my sister in prison and this is a nice way to keep conversation going and topics to write about in detail. Made a copy she could pass out to the other girls either to write to their families or to play as a game all together. Thanks for the topics I really appreciate it

Comments are closed.

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