Kids

Starting a Conversation With Kids Is Hard. {THE AND} Kids Edition Makes It Easier

“How was school?” “Fine.” We’ve all had that conversation. Either as the kid giving the one word answer, or as the grown up trying to get a second word out of someone.

{THE AND} Kids Edition

Kids have plenty to say, we just don’t always ask questions they want to answer. That’s why we created {THE AND} Kids Edition. It gives kids a question they actually want to answer.

What Makes These Questions for Kids Different

It has 199 cards, and the questions are silly and fun, but there’s always something real under them. Things like “If you could add one person to our family, who would it be and why?” There’s no right answer, so there’s no pressure, and kids just run with it.

There’s one rule that makes it work: you answer too. You pull a card, read it out loud, and then give your own real answer. Kids can tell when a game is being run on them (they always know, lol), so going first changes everything. It stops feeling like an interview really fast.

Our First Episode With the Kids Edition

This year we launched our first {THE AND} episode with the Kids Edition, and our community loved it. Lenna and her 9 year old son Pierre sat down with the cards and talked about love, listening, and getting to know each other beyond being mom and son. A Gen X mom and a Gen Alpha kid, one card at a time.

The questions led to the best little moments. When she asked what frustrates him, he said “not much,” then gave her a list with exactly one thing on it: her Saturday accent (a very bad British accent, she admits it). When she asked when she embarrasses him the most, it was her music too loud in the car on the way to school, because he’s scared the music teacher will say it’s a good song. When they got to the hardest part of being a kid, he said having to do what your parents say, and then added “to be fair, I’m already a good person.”

Then came the superpowers. Lenna asked what three powers he’d pick, and he said “happiness, happiness and happiness,” because happy people make other people happy, like a domino effect. She said she wasn’t mad about it starting with her. You can watch the episode below.

Why the Community Loved Lenna and Pierre

It became a community favorite, and the comments were the best part. People wrote about how much Lenna and Pierre clearly adore each other, and a lot of them said they saw themselves and their own kids in it. One new dad said he couldn’t wait to play with his son.

I think the moment that got everyone was the “What does my love feel like?” card. Pierre’s first answer was a first degree burn, which could have gone a lot of ways. Lenna didn’t get defensive, she just asked if her love was painful. She got curious, and that gave him room to explain that it’s comforting. Then she told him what she loves about him, and he told her she does way better than okay. It’s not every day you hear what a kid really thinks of you, or get to say out loud what you love about them. One card made space for both.

And none of it was planned. Nothing in our {THE AND} episodes is scripted. We don’t tell anyone what to say on set. We set up the space, hand them the cards, and let the conversation go wherever it wants. Pierre got a card, answered it his own way, and people everywhere felt something.

We Play It as a Team Too (Yes, Really!)

Here’s the funny part. It’s a game made for kids ages 8 to 13, but we love playing it as a team here at The Skin Deep.

We always play {THE AND} in our weekly team debrief. In one of those meetings, we picked the Kids Edition as the deck of the day. It was 7am on a Saturday for me in Australia (time zone problems), and it turned into one of the most wholesome conversations we’ve ever had. The questions are so light and fun that nobody feels put on the spot, so everyone relaxes right away. Then in the middle of a silly question, somebody says something real, and you learn something new about a person you work with every day.

So if you’re wondering whether a kids’ deck could work for you, it probably can. Try it with your coworkers, your friends, your family. The questions don’t care how old you are.

More About {THE AND} Kids Edition

199 questions and prompts made for kids and the adults who love them
Written for ages 8 and up
Screen free, and works at the dinner table, on car rides, or at bedtime
Works in classrooms as a morning opener, a writing prompt, or a five minute reset
Fun for adults too, with teams, friends, and family
Available as a Digital Deck, Physical Deck, or Physical + Digital Bundle
From $22, with discounts for educators and bulk orders