Being in lockdown meant our conversations may have been stuck in a bit of a rut
We got sick of talking about face coverings, social distancing and the rule of 6. As carers, we spent a lot of time talking about our cared-for's condition, symptoms, medication and treatments
We may have ran out of things to talk about on our family Zoom calls.
Having hosted over 150 online cuppas the Mobilise community have did not run out of things to talk about. I've taken a look back over some of the most successful questions and topics we've talked about and turned them into some conversation starters or ideas to reboot conversations with our friends and family.
Questions for uplift
What three things are your grateful for today / this week?
What are you looking forward to this week / this weekend?
Who or what inspires you?
What do you most appreciate about yourself?
What do you most appreciate about me?
What are you proud of?
What small thing have you achieved this week?
How will you treat yourself this weekend?
How will you treat someone else this weekend?
Questions to get us thinking
If you could only eat food from one country which country would you pick?
What's your favourite pudding?
Describe your perfect day
What basic luxury could you not live without?
Questions to start a conversation about how someone is feeling (Because "how are you?" rarely works)
If you were a shoe what type of shoe would best describe you right now?
Pick a colour that describes how you feel at the moment
What one word describes how you feel right now?
List five emotions that you have felt in the last week
Thinking about the new normal
What one thing have you not enjoyed about the last six months?
What have you enjoyed?
What have you learnt?
What do you want to let go of?
What do want to keep?
Dig deep questions from coaching
What is most important to you?
Who are you? And who else are you? (Keep going with the same question)
What would you like to be different this time next week?
How do you want to feel at the end of today?
Making practical progress
What one item in your home could you get rid of?
What one change could we do to save money?
What have you been meaning to do but have been putting off?
Games and themes for our family Zoom calls
"You might also like to use a Zoom call to ask an older relative to tell you stories about their life. With their permission you could even record it. What was school like? What was your first job? Who was your first crush?"
Beetle drive - check out our instructions and game sheet here.
A quick quiz - everyone can think of a couple of questions each.
Cook along - one person plans a meal and shares the list of ingredients then we all cook along and eat together
Charades
Scavenger hunt
2 truths and a lie
Pictionary
Show and tell - sharing something we have made over lockdown, or perhaps an item or photo that has a story behind it.
Our virtual cuppas are still running post-lockdown, from Monday to Friday. Join us for laughs, a fun chat and real deep conversations! If that is too big a step, visit our Facebook community to connect with other unpaid carers.