Tonight with your 5 to 8 year old

The prompt

“What's one memory with your cousins, aunts, uncles, or grandparents that you still think about?”

What to listen for

A joyful, detailed memory (a game, a joke, a smell of a kitchen) tells you extended family is a real source of belonging for them, a thread worth pulling on by visiting, calling, or retelling the story often.

If the memory involves them getting attention or being included by an older cousin or relative, it may point to how much they crave being seen as capable or "big" by people outside the immediate house.

If they can't think of one, that's useful too, it might just mean less time together lately, not that nothing happened; you could suggest a call to a relative this week to build a fresh memory.

What this tells you

This shows how wide their sense of "family" stretches, and who outside your walls already makes them feel like they belong.