hundove,
I just started back to school this year and it was the first length of time I had been away from my son,who was two and a half at the time. He stays with his dad during the day while I go. I am generally a paranoid non trusting person, which isn't great, but its who I am. I was really worried about getting the truth about what they did all day, so I started asking my son non- threatining questions to "groom" him to tell me the truth on things, and jog his memory.
first I would ask him things like,"what did you have for breakfast?" about an hour after breakfast...repeat after lunch and dinner.
then it was things like, "what games did you play today?", or "what toys did you play with"
then I progressed to "what shows did you watch on t.v today?", and "where did you go today?"
finally things like "what was your favorite part of the day?"
"What was your favorite thing that we did togethor today?"
"what was the favorite thing you did with daddy today?"
I do this every day, whether I am with him all day or not, and now if I do leave him, he will tell me every thing that went on all day, and he is only three now. So I know if his dad let him watch cartoons all day, or let him have icecream for breakfast.
This gives me peace of mind, because my son is not old enough to lie to me yet....but his dad certainly is
Also, my son enjoys being able to communicate like this with us. Now he always asks me what my favorite part of the day was, and always tell him, spending time with you, of course
