Ask one question at dinner that isn’t about school. Families get closer one weird question at a time.

Families run out of material because they keep using the same three questions. How was school, did you eat, what time are you back, and the answers are so predictable that nobody is really talking. A strange question works because it has no stock answer.

Bring one to the table this week. What is the worst job you ever had, what were you like at my age, what is something you changed your mind about. Ask it, then stay quiet long enough for the real answer to arrive rather than the first one.