FROM THE MY LIFE STORY WORKBOOK
Questions to Ask Your Dad About His Life, His Work and Growing Up
Many dads talk easier about a first car or a first boss than about feelings. These questions start there and let the stories come.
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Ask your dad how he feels about his life and you may get a shrug. Ask him what his first job paid, or how he got it, and you might get forty minutes.
These 22 questions to ask your dad come from the My Life Story workbook, mostly from its chapters on growing up and on work. Work questions are a good door in: the tools, the boss, the funny day, the hard day. The stories about family usually follow on their own.
Chapter 1 · Where I Come From
Where he comes from
What do you know about your father's childhood?
What did the people who raised you do for work, and how did they feel about it?
Was there a family farm, shop, trade or craft that ran through the generations?
Where did your family live before you were born, and how did they end up there?
Chapter 4 · Growing Up
Growing up
What was your first car or other set of wheels like?
What was the hardest part of being a teenager in your day?
When did you first leave home for a trip, school or a job?
Tell about a big decision you faced in your twenties, and how you made it.
You could start with: how old you were, who you asked, what you chose.
Chapter 5 · Work and the Jobs I Had
His work
What was your very first job, and what did it pay?
How did you get that job?
Who was your first boss, and what were they like?
Describe the job you held the longest, from the moment you got there to the moment you left.
You could start with: how you got there, who you saw first, what your hands were doing.
What tools, machines or uniforms do you remember from work?
Tell about a funny thing that happened at work.
What was the hardest day at work, and how did you get through it?
How did you balance work and time at home?
What are you proudest of from your working life?
What do you miss about working, and what do you not miss at all?
What one piece of advice would you give a young person starting out?
Chapter 7 · Becoming a Parent
Becoming a dad
What was the day like when you first became a parent?
You could start with: where you were, who called whom, the first thing you said.
Tell about a moment when you felt proud of one of your children.
If you became a grandparent, what was that first day like?
How to get him talking
- Ask side by side. In the car, at the workbench, over a game on TV. Some dads open up more when nobody is staring at them.
- Use objects as prompts. An old photo, a tool, a work badge. Ask him to tell you about it.
- Follow up with one more question. "What happened next?" turns a one-line answer into a story.
- Record it, if he's fine with that. Say the date and the question before you press record, then write that date down.
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If you also need to know where his papers are and who his doctors are, that's a separate talk: questions to ask aging parents.
From My Life Story, a printable memory workbook with nearly 300 questions · papersinorder.com/life-story/
