Despite spending more than eight hours a day with their children, most parents in the UK are only chatting to their kids for a grand total of 44 minutes in every 24 hours, according to a Fruittella study.
A statistic which may sound shocking, but when you break it down you can start to see how we all might be guilty of this in our own family.
As the study found on average that parents and children spoke for nine minutes before school, fourteen minutes after school, eleven minutes at dinner, and ten minutes at bedtime.
Sound familiar?
So if you are worried that you’re not getting enough quality time with your family, even when you’re in the same house or car, you might need to try a new approach.
Many of us ask our kids the same questions - ‘how was school today?’ - every day, so its no wonder we often just get grunts in reply.
So why not try these 14 new ways to stimulate a conversation instead:
1. Tell me something that made you laugh today.
2. What was the best thing that happened at school today?
3. What was the worst thing that happened at school today?
4. What did you have for lunch today?
5. Tell me who you were a good friend to at school.
6. Tell me one thing you learned today.
7. Tell me who you helped at school today.
8. Tell me what made you happiest today.
9. Tell me what your teacher would say about your behaviour today.
10. What would you like to learn about tomorrow?
11. If you could have a superpower right now, what would it be?
12. Who is your favourite TV/book/film character at the moment?
13. If I gave you three wishes, what would you wish for?
14. What do you think you’re going to dream about tonight?