Two Truths & A Lie: Tall Tales That Rescued Our Family Dinner

Family dinner is when we come together to share the ups and downs of all of our days.

When we had toddlers at the table, getting them to talk during our family dinner was never a problem. Getting a word in edgewise or a vegetable in their mouth? Those were the problems.

Over the last couple of years, I’ve noticed we’re losing those exuberantly long stories about what they did all day. Now it’s all: “It was good.”, “School was fine.”, “I dunno…can I have the butter now?”

Hold up, little people, I did not sign up to have teenagers just yet.

To counter this, my husband tried a dinner round of “Two Truths & A Lie… About Your Day”. Wait, a game where you are SUPPOSED to lie to your parents? They were hooked.

My 4th grader is pretty good. Thanks to years of bedtime Texas Hold ’Em with her daddy, she has a remarkably good poker face. Lies aside, we were suddenly hearing details of her day that gave us exactly the traction we needed to make the conversations go a little deeper. Now we are hearing about science benchmarks, the latest made up games at recess, and (*gasp*) a boy who declared his love for her.

The 5-year-old, on the other hand, is hilariously bad at this game. Despite us explaining the concept each and every time, his turn always goes something like this:

I got to play with my friend Harper at recess, she’s so funny! 2) I got in trouble for talking during class…and 3) (eyes sparkling with mischief) the entire world BLEW UP from ALIENS!!!

While he is genuinely disappointed that we are somehow able to guess his lie every time, he is the first one to ask if we can play the game again tomorrow.

If you looking for a fun way to break out of the one-word answers at your family dinner table, give it a try. Comment below to tell me their funniest lies, and most surprising things you learned about their day.

Nicole Vickey is co-founder of Dinner Elf, a company that helps busy families sit down to home-cooked dinners.