What happens when you ask your children to interview you…and you stream it live to the world?

Today I did something that scared me more than I expected it to: I asked my daughters to interview me on Facebook Live Video, as part of the Huffington Post’s #TalkToMe project.
I originally only asked Hannah (my youngest, 16), as I thought Charlie (my eldest, 18) would just roll her eyes at me. Once I told her what we were doing, however, she wanted in on the act, so that was a very pleasant surprise. So lesson no. 1 (I should know this by now): Don’t make assumptions! I suppose that’s when I began to worry, as Charlie started doing lots of whispering with Hannah about what questions to ask me and had a cheeky and slightly evil glint in her eye!
I think this project is fascinating and what was really interesting for me was, first of all finding out what my daughters wanted to know, but also that as part of our conversation, even though we have many all the time, I still learnt something I hadn’t previously known about them.
I had given Charlie and Hannah a long list of suggested questions, provided by Huffington Post, and asked them to choose five or six (or make up their own) that they wanted to ask me. I genuinely had no idea what they were going to ask. We talk a lot all the time and have a relationship I am proud of and grateful for in equal measures; we talk very openly, we laugh a lot, we sometimes argue and shout, but we’re very honest with each other, so there isn’t much (within the boundaries of what I would consider appropriate to share with my children) that they don’t know about me, so I was also curious as to what they would ask me about.
My daughters interviewing me as part of the The Huffington Post #TalkToMe project. LiveVideo...streaming now :)Edit - this was streamed live at the time, at approximately 4pm on 5th April 2016 though is obviously still available to watch as a replay x
Posted by Frederika Roberts on Tuesday, April 5, 2016
The questions Charlie and Hannah asked me were:
- What do you know now that you wish you had known when you were my age?
- If you had to choose one role model for us, who would it be and why?
- What’s your favourite memory of us?
- Did you have a nickname at school, and how did you get it?
- Do you regret anything?
- If you hadn’t met dad and stayed in the UK, would you have gone back to Luxembourg, Italy or somewhere different? (I should explain here that I am Italian and German, moved to Luxembourg at the age of 2 and grew up there until I left and came to the UK to go to University, aged 18)
How would you answer those questions? What do you think your children would ask you?
If you’d like to find out, why not take part in the project? As well as reading about the #TalkToMe project here, you can e-mail TalkToMe@huffingtonpost.com for more information. I’d love to see some of these #TalkToMe videos done with younger children, too, to hear what questions they come up with!