"How was your day?" Oops!

 It was just a '𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘥𝘢𝘺' query.

Something routine. Something I ask without thinking. A neutral conversation starter.

And of course, something unintentionally designed to let me get a peek into what's going on in the lives of my two teenage sons.

At least, that's what I thought.

But here's how the conversation went:

Me: So, how was your day?

Son: Seriously?

Me (𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘭𝘺 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘧𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘥): Yeah..... How was your day?

Son (𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘦𝘹𝘢𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘺𝘦𝘵 𝘱𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰𝘯𝘦. 𝘉𝘛𝘞, 𝘸𝘩𝘺 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘬𝘪𝘥𝘴 𝘴𝘰 𝘧𝘦𝘥 𝘶𝘱 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴?): Mom, I just got back from school. Within 15 minutes, I've to reach the tuition center. After returning from tuition, I need to complete that Maths assignment. You see this huge pimple on my forehead? It decided to explode right in the middle of Chemistry class. It was such a mess. Everyone was staring at me. And you wanna know how my day is going? It's terrible, Mom!

Me (𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘤𝘬𝘭𝘺 𝘢𝘥𝘰𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰𝘯𝘦): Hmm, I understand.

Son (𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘯𝘰𝘸): No. You don't understand, Mom. Life can be so stressful.

As he rushed to freshen up, I wondered if I should mention he has yet to savor the stresses of adulthood.

Nah! Let him stress about the pimples and Maths assignment for now. Adulting can wait!

But another question still lingered.

𝑯𝒐𝒘 𝒅𝒐 𝑰 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝒂 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒐𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒓𝒐𝒘?

Maybe I’ll try something safer… like, “Want a snack?” 🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️

Nitha Girija Vallabhan is a freelance content writer with over 18 years of experience in creating content for websites, landing pages, blog posts, LinkedIn newsletters, case studies, and academic projects for clients across the world.