HomeArticlesFamily conversation starters: Helping parents have meaningful talks with kids

Family conversation starters: Helping parents have meaningful talks with kids

Drive-A-Logue cards prompt productive conversations.

Too often, busy schedules keep us from gathering around the family dinner table, and our beloved technology keeps our eyes focused on smartphone screens rather than communicating face-to-face with one another. Thankfully, two Arizona entrepreneurs realized families could use some help when it comes to talking and connecting.

Drive-A-Logue

Adam Brooks created Drive-A-Logue cards after noticing a rise in Arizona’s teen suicide rate. A Phoenix educator and motivational speaker, Brooks knew he needed to do something, and he believes talking about difficult issues before they happen is key.

Brooks created a deck of cards called Drive-A-Logue: Driving Family Conversations. They support parents’ efforts to communicate about real-life issues that a child might face or be experiencing. Kids answer hypothetical questions, like what they would do if an older kid were teasing them, and parents also have to answer questions about their childhood memories and choices. Brooks says the cards give parents a way to speak proactively about tough issues kids may face with their peers.

“We need to teach kids how to have brave conversations, and the only way we can do that is if we start having brave conversations with them,” Brooks explains. “My cards were designed to [initiate] meaningful, tough conversations that we may not even want to have with our kids, but that we really desperately need to have if we’re going to keep kids safe today.”

Car rides inspired the product’s name. “I’d heard that kids will talk longer and stronger if they don’t have to make direct eye contact,” he says. “So if they’re able to look out the window while talking, there is less pressure. It’s why these kids are so brave on devices and social media — because they can say whatever they want without making eye contact. Why don’t we use that strategy for the positive?”

Drive-A-Logue cards are designed to be kept in the car, so parents and kids can pull them out on the way to or from practice or school. The 50-piece sets are available for three different age groups: elementary school children in grades 2-5, middle school kids in grades 6-8 or high school teens in grades 9-12. Sets cost $20 at drivealogue.com.

Food With Thought

Shannon Banker noticed that her two daughters, who were chatterboxes when they were young, began to get quieter and more reserved as they entered the tween years. So the Chandler mom of two designed Food With Thought as a way to help her own family talk around the dinner table.

“As kids get older the lines of communication become harder and harder to keep open, for both the parent and the child,” says Banker. “Things get awkward, uncomfortable, too serious, sometimes scary, personal and private. As our oldest started withdrawing from dinner conversations, I realized that all of us were pretty tired of the usual dinner talk, like the dreaded ‘How was school?’ So one night after a quiet and reserved dinner, I set out to find something that would mix things up.”

Banker typed up some questions, cut the paper into about 30 little strips, folded them up and placed them in an old box. “I brought the box out the next night during dinner, and my kids absolutely loved it, and so did my husband,” Banker says.

When she saw how much her simple invention helped her family communicate, she set out to help other families. Food With Thought conversation sets pose questions such as “In what ways are you generous?” and “Would you rather be able to read minds or know the future?”

Food With Thought sets are also $20 and can be purchased at Banker’s online Etsy shop: DukesNDoodles.

STAY CONNECTED

14,158FansLike
2,110FollowersFollow
904FollowersFollow
9,637FollowersFollow
1,850SubscribersSubscribe

Sign up for our FREE eNewsletter!

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Calendar