What do your young DC say happened at school?

[frost8bite]

Do they tell you anything?
My DS5 says 'I don't know' or 'I don't remember' to any variations of how was your day at school / what did you do / what did you eat etc
I don't know why ask anymore! Hey maybe one day!!

Dd1 used to tell me everything that happened in reception. So much so other parents used to phone me to ask what was going wrong. When she hit about 7 or 8 she said "boring" for every day and you told from the tone of voice whether it was boring-good or boring-bad.

Dd2 used to tell me all the scandals. "X hit Y and then Y said this and etc etc etc", but nothing about the actual day.

Ds I got what he ate for lunch and what the football score at lunchtime was.

DS (6) is exactly the same. “I can’t remember” or “l don’t know”, every time we ask. We’ve found we can tease details out by saying things like “Did your teacher fly you to the moon today?” “Did you learn about tigers today? Tigers are fish, aren’t they?” or whatever - so he corrects us. Sorry, they’re not the best examples but I’m really tired today.

DS1 in reception - what the lunch was, who/what he played with, who his partner was for the day, if anyone was naughty, if he saw grandad (he works there).

‘Nuhthink’
‘I don’t knooooooooooooow’
‘Jacket potato’

Exactly the same at that age.

I found the best way to get what he did do out of him was to masks outlandish suggestions and guesses of what he may have done.

So "nothing? Oh that's such a shame. I thought you may have had a zoo in the playground and got to ride on elephants or dinosaurs came stampeding through the playground"

I'd usually get "no! Nothing like that - we did phonics and maths and Billy and me ran around the playground and he fell over and cut his knee".

So tbf to him nothing major did really happen and it was very repetitive (maths, phonics and topic every day with the odd PE session and assembly!)

dd10 comes in every single day with an endless speech of what happened, follows me everywhere too she's told it all, she's a fucking chatterbox at home but quiet as a mouse at school so she really let's go.

Dd12, break ups/relationship drama and gossip on who's decided to be bi that day

dts are 6, they only say if something really good/bads happened or else they can't remember. They certainly remember the day the poor teacher fell off his chair though

My son who is 8 always says "bit of this, bit of that".

DD is still at nursery but I get a minute-by-minute reply of what was new in the home corner, what Miles had on his sandwich, whether Leon was behaving, whether Amber was wearing a dress that day etc. She doesn't respond well to "What did you do today?" but if I give her a bit of time after her post-nursery snack she usually pipes up with, "Mum... did you know that Miles had a cheese sandwich today?" etc.

After a full day, non stop in an infant class l would hear the children say to the question.What did ye do today?
Nothing!!
So much for all my efforts. This was the most common reply.

Nothing.
First rule of school: what happens in school, stays in school.

I have my informants though... I get the goss from my Brownies

DS 9. Nothing, why do you ask (you weirdo)

Told me everything which was quite distressing because their first school was shit and I was questioned by everyone as to why I believed them over their teachers. We moved them but no one believed them except me. They stopped sharing at secondary till they hit Year 10 and then went back to sharing everything.

If I follow it up with
"What was the best thing that happened today?"
I get
"Lunch "

DS says, “Boring stuff.” every bloody day. If anything mildly bad has happened, he’ll claim it was a terrible day and then eventually it’ll come out that plenty of good things happened.

I've just remembered that although my older ones wouldn't not say much about what happened in school at pick up time or soon after, at bedtime suddenly they'd start telling me random things or ask questions relating to something they heard or learnt.

I always wondered if it was just a delaying technique or if genuinely took that long to filter through their day and try to verbalise it.
or maybe it's a bit of both

Mind you, I remember being seriously irritated as a teen by my mum asking me about my day at school as I had nothing to talk about, so I guess it’s karma 😂.

As per a PP, a couple of my school gate Mum friends have taken to asking DD what happened at school when they come out, because she usually knows! One of them is in her class, one in the other, but DD normally has the facts. So they if they come out covered in paint or glue, DD can let us all know that they made a teapot or whatever.

She's also very good at injuries, so she can tell them exactly why their DC has a bruise or a plaster! School do ring to let you know beforehand, but DD has the insider knowledge.

The other day she was asked whether or not they had the next day off, as both were claiming they did because of Eid. DD soon put them straight

And yet some days I get a "not much"...

Ds told me more if when asked specific questions - what kind of numbers did you do today, did you do any read, art, PE, how was Jack today, did you play football at playtime etc (obviously not all asked the same day!).

Even now at 17 we will have a chat about his day.

I liked some of these:

herviewfromhome.com/50-questions-to-ask-your-kids-instead-of-asking-how-was-your-day/

I used to get the can't remember responses so now I ask specific questions around feelings and get very detailed responses. I ask who made you laugh today? Who annoyed you today? and get lots of detail. Perhaps a little too much!!!

Don’t know.

Not sure.

Can’t remember.

Nothing!

As per previous, I can usually establish what was had for lunch. More than that - no chance. Won’t tell me what he got stickers for or anything!

Same with us - DS7 and DD4 says can’t remember, don’t know but then will come out with some random info later

What seems to work in our house though is if I tell them about my day first, what I ate, what happened in work etc etc, and then they’ll often take part in the conversation that way

I remember listenting to BBC Radio 4 'feedback' and it reported on some famous tv interviewer (Maybe Paxman?) who said X -politician was the most difficult person he had ever interviewed. The comment was ' Clearly Paxman has never asked a 6 year old how his day at school was'.

I used to ask:

What was the funniest thing today?

What was the saddest thing?

Do anyone make you laugh?

Did anyone do a stinky fart? (DS loved that question!)

Was your lunch nice?

Nothing/can’t remember.......still the same in y11