--- title: "Questions to Ask Grandparents: 30 Kids Can Ask (and Why the Answers Surprise Everyone)" description: "The best questions to ask grandparents are the ones a child asks - and this guide gives you 30 of them, plus a simple setup that makes the conversation feel like play, not homework." author: "The Glow Editors" category: "Ask Them Now" date: 2026-09-26T01:00:21.358Z canonical: "https://tryglow.ai/blog/questions-to-ask-grandparents-30-kids-can-ask-and-why-the-answers-surprise-every" --- # Questions to Ask Grandparents: 30 Kids Can Ask (and Why the Answers Surprise Everyone) ![Elderly woman with white hair and glasses giving a warm hug to a young child.](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1593100126453-19b562a800c1?crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&fit=max&fm=jpg&ixid=M3w4OTQwNjJ8MHwxfHNlYXJjaHwxfHxRdWVzdGlvbnMlMjB0byUyMEFzayUyMEdyYW5kcGFyZW50cyUyMHF1ZXN0aW9ucyUyMGdyYW5kcGFyZW50cyUyMG9uZXN8ZW58MXwwfHx8MTc5MDM4NDIwMHww&ixlib=rb-4.1.0&q=75&w=1200&auto=format) > The best questions to ask grandparents are the ones a child asks - and this guide gives you 30 of them, plus a simple setup that makes the conversation feel like play, not homework. Picture this: your kid is sitting across from your mum at the kitchen table, holding your phone like a microphone, asking her what her favourite game was when she was seven. And your mum - who gives short answers to most adult questions - talks for twenty minutes. That is the thing nobody warns you about. Grandparents answer children differently. Simpler, funnier, more patient. A small person asking "what did you eat for breakfast when you were my age?" gets a story. An adult asking the same question gets a shrug. If you want the real answers, let the child ask the questions to ask grandparents that you have been meaning to ask yourself. ## How to make the conversation easy ![](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1562255510-81104e9a3ea1?crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&fit=max&fm=jpg&ixid=M3w4OTQwNjJ8MHwxfHNlYXJjaHwyfHxtYWtlJTIwdGhlJTIwY29udmVyc2F0aW9uJTIwZWFzeXxlbnwxfHx8fDE3OTAzNzk5OTR8MA&ixlib=rb-4.1.0&q=75&w=960&auto=format) Photo by [Cody Engel](https://unsplash.com/@codyengel) on [Unsplash](https://unsplash.com) Saturday morning is a good time. Kitchen table, something to drink, and if you have them, a few old photographs nearby. Photos do something that questions alone cannot - they pull a memory up by its edges. Hand your grandparent a picture of their childhood street and the details come out on their own. Let your child choose five questions from the list below. Not twenty. Five. Give them the phone to hold - the recording feels more like play and less like a project when it is in their hands. Sit nearby but do not take over. Ten to fifteen minutes is plenty; a short conversation that actually happens is worth more than a long one that never gets started. Snacks help. They lower everyone's guard. If your grandparent lives far away, a video call works. Ask permission to record before you start, then use your device's screen-recording option or a call-recording app your region allows. The quality will be fine. The point is the voice, not the studio. Kids worry they will ask something wrong or make their grandparent sad. Tell them: some questions might bring up hard things, and that is okay. Their grandparent gets to decide what to share. "You don't have to answer that one" is a complete sentence, and most grandparents will use it gently when they need to. If you find these conversations open up bigger feelings about life and legacy, [talking to aging parents about their lives without it feeling morbid](/blog/how-to-talk-to-aging-parents-about-their-life-without-talking-about-dying) is something many families navigate together. One practical note: test the recording before you start. Sit close. Remind everyone that one person talks at a time. A 30-minute recording where you can hear every word is better than an hour of noise. ## When you were my age - childhood questions These are the questions that unlock the world before your child was born. Keep them short and in a child's voice - grandparents answer in kind. - What was your bedroom like when you were my age? - What did you eat for breakfast most days? - What game did you play outside after school? - What were you scared of when you were little? - What did you want to be when you grew up? - What is the most embarrassing thing that happened to you as a kid? Follow-up your child can use: "Then what happened?" Works on almost any answer and keeps the story going without interrupting it. ## School and friends - questions about who they knew Sometimes the most powerful motivation for starting these conversations comes from hearing someone reflect on the ones they never had. This reflection from someone who lost the chance to ask captures exactly why these moments with grandparents matter so much - and why waiting feels so costly. These are the stories that matter most, and often the ones that surface the funniest details. Who they sat next to in class. Who they walked home with. Who they were afraid of, and who looked out for them. - Who was your best friend at school? - What subject were you best at? What were you worst at? - Did you ever get in trouble at school? What happened? - Was there a teacher you loved? What made them special? - What did you do at lunchtime? - What did you want your friends to think about you? Follow-up your child can use: "Can you show me how?" - especially good for games or things made with hands. If your grandparent says they used to play conkers or make paper planes, the child can ask them to demonstrate. These moments are worth recording too. ## Your family and home - questions about where they come from This theme opens up family history in a way that feels natural rather than formal. The questions move from the physical - what the house smelled like, what the neighbourhood looked like - to the personal. - What did your house smell like when you came home from school? - What did your mum or dad do for work? - Did you have brothers or sisters? What were they like? - What is a family tradition from when you were young that you still remember? - What is the best meal your mum or dad ever made? - What is a family story that everyone always asks you to tell? Follow-up: "What was your favourite room?" Often opens up a description so detailed that children can picture it exactly - and they remember it. ## How things were different - phones, TV, games, shops Children find this theme genuinely funny. The gap between what their grandparent grew up with and what they take for granted is wide enough to be absurd, and absurd is good. Grandparents enjoy this too - it gives them permission to be the expert. - Did you have a television? How many channels were there? - What did you do when you were bored? - How did you talk to your friends when you were not at school? - What did a shop look like? How did you pay for things? - What is something that existed when you were young that does not exist anymore? - What is something that exists now that would have seemed impossible to you as a child? This is often the section where grandparents laugh most. Let them. ## Big questions - brave, wise, and what they wish for you These land best at the end, when everyone is relaxed. Frame it gently for your child: "These are the really important ones." Grandparents take them seriously when a child asks them seriously. - What is something that took courage for you to do? - What is the best piece of advice anyone ever gave you? - What is something you are really proud of? - What do you hope I will remember about you? - What is something you hope for me? - If you could tell me one thing to carry with me my whole life, what would it be? These questions often produce the answers that families play back years later. They do not need a follow-up. Give the answer room. Some families choose to preserve these words more formally - the idea of [passing down values and life lessons through an ethical will](/blog/what-is-an-ethical-will-how-to-pass-down-what-matters-not-what-you-own) is a natural next step once you have a recording like this. ## What to do with the recording Name the file clearly before you do anything else - date, grandparent's name, something like "2025-06 Grandma Ruth kitchen conversation". Save it to cloud storage or email it to yourself. Then do it again somewhere else. Recordings stored only on one device have a way of disappearing. Let your child draw a picture of the story they liked best. This is not a craft project - it is how children process what they heard. Play the recording at the next family meal and watch who leans in. The recording and the drawing can live together in a private family Glow space alongside the grandparent's photos, so the whole family has access and nothing gets buried in a single person's camera roll. If your grandparent has already died, you are not too late. Ask their siblings, their closest friends, their neighbours - people who knew them for decades. Ask: "What was she like as a young woman?" or "How did the two of you meet?" People often share things about someone who has died that they would not have said while that person was alive. The questions above work just as well in that direction. A recording of stories shared at a significant birthday - [gathering the whole family to contribute to a 90th birthday gift](/blog/90th-birthday-ideas-a-gift-the-whole-family-makes-together) is one way families make this happen together. Start with whoever is easiest to call, and go from there. ## FAQ ### What are good questions for kids to ask grandparents? Short, specific questions in a child's voice work best - things like 'What did you eat for breakfast when you were my age?' or 'What game did you play outside?' These are concrete enough for grandparents to answer with a real story rather than a general answer. The 30 questions in this guide are grouped into five themes: childhood, school and friends, family and home, how things were different, and big questions about wisdom and hopes. ### How do I record a grandparent interview with a child? Let the child hold the phone - it makes recording feel like play rather than a formal project. Test the audio before you start, sit close together, and keep the conversation to 10-15 minutes. Name the file clearly (date, grandparent's name) and back it up to at least two places: cloud storage and an email to yourself. If your grandparent lives far away, a video call recorded with permission works well. ### What if a question makes my grandparent sad? Some questions do bring up hard memories, and that is okay. Your grandparent gets to decide what to share. Reassure your child beforehand that 'you don't have to answer that one' is a complete sentence, and most grandparents will use it gently if they need to. Following a heavy moment with a lighter question - like one about a funny school memory - can shift the mood naturally. ### How do you interview a grandparent on a video call? Ask permission to record before the call starts. Use your device's screen-recording option, or a call-recording method that is legal in your region. Have the child choose five questions in advance and keep the call to around 15 minutes - shorter than in-person tends to work better on a screen. Old photographs shared on screen can still act as prompts; ask the grandparent to show one from their side. ### What do you do with a grandparent interview recording after you make it? Save the file with a clear name (date and grandparent's name), then back it up in at least two places. Let your child draw a picture of their favourite story - it helps them remember it. Play the recording at a family meal. You can also store the recording and any drawings or photos together in a shared family space so relatives can access it without relying on one person's phone. --- Source: https://tryglow.ai/blog/questions-to-ask-grandparents-30-kids-can-ask-and-why-the-answers-surprise-every