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RESOURCE · YEARLY INTERVIEW

60 questions to ask your child, by age

The same questions, asked year after year and recorded, become the best portrait of a childhood — better than any album. Here's the list by age, and how to run the interview so it doesn't feel like an interrogation.

Andrei-Bogdan Smidu · July 24, 2026 · 9 min read

There's one family ritual with the best effort-to-value ratio I know: once a year, you ask your child the same ten questions and record the answers. Ten minutes. One episode a year.

The magic isn't in any single year's answers — on their own they're just cute. The magic is in the series. "I want to be a firefighter" at 4, "a palaeontologist" at 7, "I don't know, something with computers" at 12, "medicine, I think" at 17 — strung together, that sequence tells the story of a person assembling themselves. No photograph can do that.

Below: how to actually run the interview, and 60 questions grouped by age, from which you pick ten and then keep them unchanged.

How to run the interview (the practical part)

  • Pick a fixed anchor. Their birthday or the first day of school. Both fall on the same date each year and need no reminder.
  • Record audio, not just notes. The voice changes far faster than the face and vanishes completely if you don't capture it. You can transcribe any time; a five-year-old's voice, never.
  • Choose 10 questions and freeze them. The temptation to "improve" them each year destroys the one thing that makes the ritual valuable: comparability.
  • Don't correct the answers. Not the grammar, not the logic, not the "no, that's not true, you do like broccoli". The wrong answer is the right one.
  • Stop when they're bored. Four questions answered happily beat ten extracted. If it becomes a duty, next year they'll refuse.
  • Make it mutual. From about 5 or 6, let them interview you back. You'll be surprised what they ask — and your answers become an archive too.
One detail that changes everything: always make the last question the same one — "What do you want to tell you, at 18?" Years later, the adult receives a chain of messages from every previous version of themselves. It's the most moving thing a capsule can hold.

Ages 2–4: the absurd answers

At this age, half the answers will be "I don't know" and the other half pure fantasy. Those are exactly the ones that become priceless in twenty years. Don't expect coherence — collect the absurdity.

  • What do you want to be when you grow up?
  • What's your favourite food?
  • What food do you really not like?
  • Who is your best friend?
  • What animal would you like to be?
  • What do the two of us do together most?
  • What makes you laugh?
  • What are you scared of?
  • How big are you? (let them show with their hands)
  • What's your favourite colour?
  • What's the most beautiful thing in the world?
  • How old is Mum? And Dad? (the answers are legendary)

Ages 5–7: the first opinions

Their own logic appears, still without a social filter. The best window for brutal honesty.

  • What do you want to be when you grow up — and why?
  • What are you best at?
  • What's hard for you?
  • What does Mum do best? And Dad?
  • What would you change about our home?
  • What's the best day you can remember?
  • If you had a superpower, what would it be?
  • What does being grown up mean?
  • Who's the funniest person you know?
  • What would you do with a hundred pounds?
  • What annoys you?
  • What do you want to tell you, at 18?

Ages 8–11: the world widens

They start comparing, forming views about things outside the family, and realising adults don't actually know everything.

  • What do you want to be — and how do you think you get there?
  • What's the most unfair thing in the world?
  • What would you change about school if you could?
  • Who is someone you admire, and why?
  • What makes you proud of yourself?
  • What do you think is hard about being a parent?
  • What's the best advice you've ever been given?
  • What would you love to do that you haven't done yet?
  • If you ran the house for a day, what rules would you make?
  • What is friendship, to you?
  • What do you think will be different in the world when you're grown up?
  • What do you want to tell you, at 18?

Ages 12–15: the negotiation begins

This is where many interviews die, because the teenager rejects the format. The trick: fewer questions, more serious ones. Treat it like a real interview rather than a game for little kids — and accept one-word answers without commenting.

  • How would you describe this year in three words?
  • What's on your mind most right now?
  • What do you think adults don't understand about you?
  • What music are you listening to? (the answer ages deliciously)
  • What matters to you that other people think is silly?
  • What are you proud of this year?
  • What would you want us to do differently as a family?
  • Who understands you best?
  • What scares you when you think about the future?
  • What do you hope to do in the next five years?
  • What do you wish I knew about you that's hard to say out loud?
  • What do you want to tell you, at 18?

Ages 16–18: the final episodes

The last years before the answers become an adult's. Worth keeping all the more, since the capsule opens soon.

  • How do you think this family shaped you?
  • What do you want to do after school?
  • What have you learned about yourself this year?
  • What would you want to keep from your childhood, for your own children?
  • What would you do differently if you could go back to being 10?
  • What does success mean to you?
  • Who are you, in five words?
  • What would you forgive us for as parents, and what wouldn't you?
  • What do you never want to forget about this period?
  • What would you want someone to tell you right now?
  • What do you want to tell you, at 30?
  • What do you want to tell you, at 18? (for the last time)
The yearly interview, kept in one place

In Nestori the answers and recordings sit chronologically in your child's capsule, year after year — and their messages to "themselves at 18" stay sealed until they come of age.

Start the first interview

Free, no card. Encrypted, stored in the EU, export anytime.

Three mistakes that ruin the ritual

  • Changing the questions every year. It feels like an improvement, but it destroys the only thing that matters: the ability to compare. Pick ten and freeze them.
  • Correcting them. "No, we didn't go to the seaside this year, we went to the mountains." The interview isn't a memory test — it's a photograph of their mind right now, errors included.
  • Doing it for an audience. The moment a child senses the answers will end up on social media, they start answering "correctly". The interview has to stay private to stay honest.

If you're starting late

Your child is already 11 and you have no interviews? Start now, and add one catch-up session: ask the questions for their current age, then a few retrospective ones — "What do you remember from being 5? What's your earliest memory? What did you think grown-ups were like back then?"

Their memories of early childhood are an archive only they can access, and one that fades with every passing year. Seven episodes are better than zero — and the first one gets recorded tonight.

Frequently asked questions

At what age can I start the yearly interview with my child?
From around 2–3 years old, once they can answer simple questions. The first answers will be short, absurd or copied from you — and those are exactly the ones that become priceless years later. What matters is starting early and keeping the same questions, because the value comes from comparison, not from any single year.
How often should I do the interview?
Once a year is both enough and sustainable. The most practical moments are their birthday or the first day of school, because they're easy to remember and fall on the same date each year. More often than that turns into a chore and gets abandoned.
What if my child won't answer or gets bored?
Don't push and don't correct them. Stop after three or four questions, turn it into a game ("now I ask you, then you ask me"), or come back to it another day. A four-question interview done happily is worth more than ten answers extracted under pressure — and if it becomes an obligation, they'll refuse it next year.
Is it better to record audio or write the answers down?
Ideally both: the recording preserves the voice, which changes far faster than the face and disappears completely if it isn't captured; the text stays easy to reread and search. If you can only do one, record the audio — you can transcribe it any time later, but a five-year-old's voice can never be recovered.