Project Yoda - Ask Your Parents These 32 Questions While You Can!

What:

Here at Parentfile, we’ve developed something we call Project Yoda. While the full functionality isn’t done, we have already released the questions you can ask your parents. And trust us, asking your parents these 32 questions is simply magical for so many reasons.

Why:

Here’s why we did this…our parents aren’t going to be around forever. It stinks, but it’s true. So ask them these questions now. Trust us, you’ll have so much fun asking them, they’ll feel valued and loved because you are asking, and you’ll uncover a wealth of information for yourself, your children and more. And….once we are done developing, you’ll someday be able to ask a question into your computer, and it will find their answer and play it for you. So you’ll still be able to ask them questions 10, 20 or even 50 years from now.

How:

The best way to do this is either in person or over a Zoom call. That way you can preserve the video. If doing it in person, have someone hold your phone and simply record it. If doing it over Zoom or another video calling platform, make sure you can record it.

However, you can also simply ask them the questions over the phone and type in the answers yourself as they answer. Our CEO has done it just this way, picking 3 questions every Friday to ask hi Dad when they chat during their standing Friday 12:30 call.

Try doing the questions with each parent individually as it will make each of them feel special and not rushed to answer before the other parent 🙂

Here are a few of the questions…and wait until you see what you discover!

Make it Happen:

Call them right now and ask the first three questions. Or plan a time to talk to them this weekend and ask your Mom or Dad all the questions. Or are you seeing them in person soon? Set aside an hour to do this when you see them - maybe even send them the questions each ahead of time so they can think about them. But don’t wait, you’ll be so glad you asked (and so will they!).

If asking over the phone, save their answers in My Parents, Parent Information, Life Story. 

Where to Save:

Functionality Coming in the Future:

If saving their answers on video, for now save the video file on your computer given how big the file will be. By the end of the year we will have updated Parentfile to handle this large a video file, as well as embedding our video search technology so you can “ask a question of your parents” at any point in the future.

1. If you got to go back and have any job in the world, what would it have been?
2. What is your favorite place in the world, and why?
3. If you had to say your 3 golden rules to living a great life what would they be?
4. How would you describe your Grandma and Grandpa?
5. If you could ask your own parents three questions still - what would they be?
6. If you had an extra 100 years to live, how would you lead your life differently
7. If you had 3 pieces of advice for your younger self, at any point in your life, what would the 3 pieces of advice be?
8. What is your favorite piece of art that you’ve ever seen / or a particular museum that resonated deeply with you?
9. If you wanted me to read only one book in the world - what would it be and why?
10. What are your favorites - color, ice cream, song of all time, band/music group, movie of all time, food of all time, type of
11. cuisine of all time, sport, sports team, book, one single word that makes you smile when you say it?
12. If you had to pick a “spirit animal” or an animal or symbol that most describes you, what would it be?
13. What would be your single best piece of parenting advice if you did it all over again? What is your strategy for how to
14. cope with a hard time or something scary?
15. What do you feel your best strengths are as a person?
16. Any other memories or knowledge of past generations of our family?
17. What is the biggest setback you ever had and how did you overcome it?
18. Where is your side of our family from?
19. Did our family have a special knock, whistle or any other secret thing we ever did?
20. If your family seal had something on it - what would it be? Or even a motto or saying for our family?
21. What are you most proud of from our family history or where we came from or just who we are as a family?
22. What are the professions that people in our family history have done?
23. What are your special recipes you made while we were growing up?
24. Do you remember what my favorite foods or recipes were when you were raising me when I was a kid? Any for specific
25. holidays?
26. What are the top family recipes your parents made growing up?
27. What do you love about being a Grandmother/Grandfather?
28. What do you love about being a Mom/Dad?
29. What is your single best memory of your Dad?
30. What is your single best memory of your Mom?
31. What do you consider to be our best family traditions from when we grew up?
32. What stories do you know about our family history? Any fun facts?