60 Questions to Ask Dad

How to use these: Dads rarely volunteer their stories, so a good question opens the door. Pick two or three at a time, ask over coffee or while working on something together, and listen more than you talk. Consider recording his answers.

Childhood & Growing Up

1. What is your earliest memory?
2. What was the neighborhood you grew up in like?
3. Who was your best friend as a boy, and what kind of trouble did you get into?
4. What games or sports did you love playing as a kid?
5. What chores did your parents give you?
6. What did you want to be when you grew up?
7. Who was a teacher or coach who made a difference for you?
8. What was your first car, and how did you get it?
9. What is something you got in trouble for that still makes you laugh?
10. What did summers look like when you were young?

Faith

11. Who first taught you about God?
12. What do you remember about church growing up?
13. When did your faith become your own?
14. What Bible verse do you lean on most?
15. Tell me about a time you saw God answer a prayer.
16. Was there a season you wrestled with your faith? What brought you through?
17. What does it mean to you to be a man of faith?
18. How did you try to lead our family spiritually?
19. What do you pray for most often for our family?
20. What would you want your grandchildren to know about God?

Work & Providing

21. What was your very first job, and what did it pay?
22. How did you choose the work you ended up doing?
23. What job taught you the most?
24. Who was the best boss or mentor you ever had?
25. What was the hardest season of work or money for our family?
26. What did you sacrifice so we could have what we needed?
27. What work accomplishment are you proudest of?
28. What did your father teach you about hard work?
29. Was there a dream or career you set aside?
30. What advice would you give me about work and money?

Love, Marriage & Family

31. How did you meet the woman you married? What was your first impression?
32. What was your first date like?
33. How did you know she was the one?
34. What do you remember most about your wedding day?
35. What was your first home like?
36. What has love taught you over the years?
37. What is the secret to a family that sticks together?
38. What was your relationship with your own father like?
39. What did you admire most about your mother?
40. Which family member do you think I’m most like?

Fatherhood

41. How did you feel when you found out you were going to be a dad?
42. What do you remember about the day I was born?
43. What scared you most about becoming a father?
44. What did you learn about being a dad that no one told you?
45. What was a moment you were proudest of being my dad?
46. What is something you worried about that turned out fine?
47. What is one thing you did differently from how you were raised?
48. What is a funny thing I said or did as a kid that you never forgot?
49. Is there anything you wish you had done differently as a father?
50. What do you hope I remember most about the way you raised me?

Life Lessons

51. What is the best advice anyone ever gave you?
52. What do you know now that you wish you’d known at twenty?
53. What is the bravest thing you have ever done?
54. What mistake taught you the most?
55. How do you handle grief or loss?
56. What does it mean to be a good man?
57. What are you most proud of in your life?
58. Is there anything you still dream of doing?
59. How do you want to be remembered?
60. What would you tell me to hold onto when life gets hard?