Porch Stories

Questions to ask · Childhood · for your Parents

What did you want to be when you grew up, and why?

Why this question matters

Where someone started explains so much of who they became. The answer is often a house, a street or a smell, and those are exactly the details a family loses when nobody writes them down.

Ask it on a quiet afternoon, give time for the answer, and write down the small details. That is where the story lives.

  1. What was your favourite toy, doll, book or game?
  2. Were you a quiet girl, a busy girl or a bossy one? Tell me a story.
  3. When and where were you born? What's the story of the day you arrived?
  4. What were your parents like when you were small?
  5. What is your earliest memory?

From the journal

Keep their answers in one book.

This is one of the 100 guided questions in Tell Me Your Story, Dad, Tell Me Your Story, Mom. Every page has room to write the answer by hand.

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Free printable

25 Questions to Ask Your Grandparents Before It’s Too Late

The questions families most wish they had asked, on one page to print or keep on your phone. Free when you join the porch list.