- New York mom Yamel Belen was tired of hearing answers like “Good” or “OK.”
- So she decided to do something about it – and was shocked by the results
- READ MORE: I’m a parenting expert and these are my top five tips on what to say instead of telling kids “no.”
A mother of five from New York was tired of asking her children, “How was your day?” and getting the same standard answers every time: “It was good,” “Good,” or “OK.”
Yamel Belen, whose children range in age from 7 to 25, felt left out by these noncommittal answers and decided to do something about it.
The registered nurse told the New York Post, “I really hated getting the ‘It was good’ response to my questions about school.”
“I wanted to know everything about her school life and felt like I was doing something wrong.” [as a mother].’
Yamel changed things up and started asking her children questions that resulted in answers that weren’t one or two word answers.
Yamel Belen began asking her children open-ended questions rather than “How was your day?”—which produced positive results for her 17-year-old son and her 9- and 7-year-old daughters
Yamel explained in detail what questions to ask children when they come home from school to achieve the desired communication results
Her candid question video has received nearly 100,000 likes on TikTok. Yamel remains active on social media and has posted several family photos on Instagram
The method worked wonders for her children – especially her 17-year-old son and her 9- and 7-year-old daughters.
She shared her parenting advice on TikTok in a video that has now received almost 100,000 likes.
And these are her five most important questions that every parent should ask, instead of: “How was school?”
First, she advised asking, “What made you smile today?”
Another way to start a conversation might be, “Who did you sit next to at lunch?”
Continuing with the third question, she said, “Have you seen any acts of kindness today and if so, what were they?”
She turned the whole thing around and suggested asking, “Have you seen any unkind acts from people, and if so, what did they look like?”
Finally, she suggested that question five could be, “What part of the day made you super happy?”
She also made some prompt suggestions: “Was it a break?” Was it lunch? Was it when you walked into your teachers’ classroom and they told you about their weekend?
Yamel explained that these questions were open-ended – meaning there were no yes or no answers – leaving room for a more detailed, nuanced answer.
Jeremy Bohannon and his wife, Lisett Bohannon, were curious about how these questions would aid communication with their 8-year-old daughter, Billie, and 10-year-old son, Kingston
A mom from Austin, Texas, decided to put these alternative questions to the test with her 8-year-old daughter, Billie.
Lisett Bohannon discussed what happened after she replaced the question “How was school?” with “What did you do during break?”
“She runs an entire business in the playground,” she said in a TikTok video.
“She runs this bracelet business and has employees – she demands of her other classmates,” Lisett continued.
Jeremy, Lisett’s husband, seemed equally shocked in the video and even stated that their daughter is “doing better than us.”
The couple also tried the method with their 10-year-old son Kingston and said they learned a lot more about his life.
Lisett said: “My husband and I really care about what our children do, especially when we are not around them.”