50 Questions to Ask Your Kids at Bedtime (That Get Real Answers)

Ask a kid "How was your day?" at pickup and you'll get "Good." Ask the same kid at bedtime, with the lights low and nowhere to be, and you might hear about the boy who cried at lunch, the worm they rescued, and why they're never eating peas again.

Bedtime is when kids talk. The right questions help them get started. Below are 50 questions to ask your kids at bedtime, sorted by what they're good for, plus a few tips for getting real answers and keeping the best ones.

How to ask so they actually answer

• Be specific. "What made you laugh today?" works better than "How was your day?" because there's a real answer to find.
• Go first. Share your own answer before you ask theirs. Kids copy what they see.
• Let the quiet sit. Some kids need ten seconds to think. Resist filling the silence.
• Don't fix anything tonight. If they share something hard, thank them for telling you. Problem-solving can wait until morning.
• One or two questions is plenty. This is a chat, not a quiz.
• For toddlers, offer two choices. Instead of "What did you play today?" try "Did you play with blocks or in the sandbox today?"

Questions about their day

1. What was the best part of your day?
2. What was the hardest part of your day?
3. Who did you sit next to at lunch?
4. What made you laugh today?
5. Did anything surprise you today?
6. What was the most boring part of today?
7. Did you help anyone today? Did anyone help you?
8. What game did you play the most?
9. If today had a color, what color would it be?
10. What's one thing you want to do again tomorrow?

Questions about feelings

11. Was there a time today when you felt proud?
12. Did anything make you feel worried?
13. What do you do when you feel grumpy?
14. When do you feel the most brave?
15. What helps you feel better when you're sad?
16. Is there anything you wish I knew?
17. What's something you're looking forward to?
18. Where's your favorite place to feel cozy?

Imagination and "what if" questions

These are the ones that get kids sitting up in bed. Expect long answers.

19. If you could have any animal as a pet, what would it be, and what would you name it?
20. If you could fly, where would you go first?
21. If our house had a secret room, what would be inside?
22. What would you do if you were the grown-up for a day?
23. If your toys came alive tonight, what would they get up to?
24. If you shrank to the size of an ant, where would you explore?
25. What superpower would you pick, and what would you use it for?
26. If you had a dragon, what would it eat for breakfast?
27. If you could visit the moon, who would you bring?
28. What would you invent to make bedtime better?

Questions about friends and family

29. Who's someone who always makes you smile?
30. What's your favorite thing to do with your grandparents?
31. What's the funniest thing a grown-up did this week?
32. If you could plan our family's perfect Saturday, what would we do?
33. What's a family tradition you love?
34. Who would you like to see more often?
35. What do you think I was like when I was little?
36. What's something nice you could do for a friend tomorrow?

Questions about who they are

37. What are you really good at?
38. What's something you want to learn?
39. What do you want to be when you grow up? Why?
40. What's your favorite food right now?
41. What's the best thing about being your age?
42. What's something that's hard for you but getting easier?
43. What's your favorite story, and why?
44. If you wrote a book about yourself, what would it be called?

Silly questions for nights nobody's tired

45. Would you rather have spaghetti hair or marshmallow feet?
46. What do you think a cloud tastes like?
47. If you were a sandwich, what kind would you be?
48. What would our dog (or cat, or goldfish) say if it could talk for one minute?
49. What's the silliest word you know?
50. If you could make one rule for the whole world, what would it be?

Write down what they say

Here's the part most of us skip. A four-year-old's answer to "What would you invent to make bedtime better?" is funny tonight and gone by next year. Their favorite food changes. Their answer to "What do you want to be when you grow up?" changes every month.

A few easy ways to keep the good ones:

• A note on your phone titled with their name. Add the date and the answer, word for word.
• A jar and a stack of paper slips. Write the answer down, drop it in the jar, and read them all together on their birthday.
• The back pages of a notebook that lives on the nightstand.

Word for word matters. "I would ride a dragon to school and the dragon would be named Pancake" is a memory. "Talked about dragons" isn't.

Turn an answer into a story

Some answers are too good to stay in a notes app. The dragon named Pancake. The day they were brave at the dentist. The secret room full of trampolines.

That's what we make at Tadpole Tales. You tell us the story, something that really happened or something they dreamed up, and we turn it into an illustrated hardcover picture book with your kid as the main character. You preview every page before it prints. See the six art styles or read how it works.