Fablr

Questions to ask

Questions to Ask Your Mom About the Home She Grew Up In

Room by room, from the kitchen table to the hiding spot. A house is the easiest way into a childhood.

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A mother stands on a sidewalk with her adult daughter and points across the street at the house she grew up in.

The house is the way in

Ask your mom to describe the house she grew up in and notice where she goes first. It might be the kitchen, the porch, or a bedroom she shared with a sister. People remember childhood homes in remarkable detail: the sound of a screen door, the stair that creaked, who sat where at dinner.

Walking through the house room by room gives her an easy path into memories that can feel too big to approach head on. The house is the way in. The family is what you are really asking about.

Before you sit down

  • Ask her to sketch the floor plan on a napkin, and point at rooms as she talks.
  • Look up the street on a map together, if it is still there.
  • Ask about smells and sounds. They bring back more than sights do.
  • If you can, drive past the house with her.

The house

  1. What did the outside of the house look like? What color was it?
  2. When you walked in the front door, what did you see first?
  3. Which room did the family spend the most time in?
  4. Where did you sleep, and who did you share with?
  5. Did you have a hiding spot or a favorite corner?

The kitchen and the table

  1. Who did the cooking, and what did the kitchen smell like?
  2. Where did everyone sit at dinner?
  3. What was a normal weeknight meal? A special one?
  4. What did people talk about at the table, and what was off limits?

Outside and the neighborhood

  1. What was the yard like? The street?
  2. Who were the neighbors, and which ones did you like?
  3. Where did you go when you wanted to be alone?
  4. How far were you allowed to wander on your own?

Leaving

  1. When did you move out, and why?
  2. Have you been back? What had changed?
  3. If you could walk through it once more, which room would you go to first?

Keep the sketch she draws. It belongs next to the stories.

If she would like to keep going without you running the questions, Fablr can hold the conversation by voice and pick it up where she left off next time. You might also like these questions about holidays and traditions.

At the kitchen table, a granddaughter scans the printed code on a chapter of an open Fablr hardcover with her phone camera.

If you would rather someone else asked

A biographer who asks the next question.

Fablr holds these conversations by voice, at whatever pace suits them. It follows up the way a good listener does and remembers what they said last time. The stories become a hardcover, with a code on each chapter that plays it in their own voice.

Conversation
15 hours over one year. No schedule.
The book
Full-color 8.5×11 hardcover, included. Free US shipping.
Price
$149, billed once. No auto-renewal.
Give Their Story $149 See how it works

Questions, answered.

Follow her lead. Ask about a place she did love, like a grandparent’s house or a friend’s kitchen. She can choose which home to talk about.

Ask which place felt most like home and start there. Then ask how the moves felt.

Yes. With Fablr she talks by voice from her own phone, tablet or computer, and you can read and hear the stories wherever you are.

Give them a year set aside for stories.

$149 billed once. No auto-renewal. 30-day money-back guarantee.

Give Their Story $149