Whether it’s the mad dash to school in the morning, the frequent road trips to Grandma and Grandpa’s house, or the countless treks to sports games and recitals, it feels like more and more of our time together is being spent within the confines of a car. 

And here’s the thing about being in the car: I think everyone kind of thinks of it as ‘free time’ when you’re not supposed to really be doing anything. 

… Which was fine when I was growing up, because “not doing anything” meant talking to one another. 

But now, “not doing anything” means putting in your headphones, going on your screen of choice, and zoning out. 

I decided enough was enough and started looking for some conversation starter cards we could use as a family. 

I had never used conversation-starter cards before, but their basic premise (having better conversations and more quality time is made a lot easier when you have a bunch of engaging questions to answer together) made perfect sense to me. 

After a thorough search, I landed on the Talking Point Cards Family Pack. Here’s why: 

• The Family Pack was the only conversation-starter tool I found that had its questions written and reviewed by a team of experts
   
• The Family Pack is very portable for having 200 separate cards and seemed like the perfect thing to keep in the center console of my car
• The reviews for the Family Pack are flat-out amazing: 4.7 on Amazon and 4.8 on the TPC website, with a total of over 7,000 verified reviews! 

We had a trip to my in-laws coming up (a 3-hour drive), which I knew would be the perfect opportunity to test out the cards. 

I made sure to whip out the Family Pack just as soon as my husband pulled the minivan out of the driveway – I didn’t want to give the kids any time to settle into their phones and tablets! 

“Hey everyone!” I shouted probably a little too enthusiastically as I grabbed a red ‘Fun and Random’ category card from the box, “Which TV show would you pick to live inside for a week?” 

“Mom… what?” My 12-year-old daughter responded in her favorite, exasperated tone. 

I explained that I got this pack of conversation starter cards for the drive, and that we were going to be using these to talk to one another instead of tuning each other out. 

My husband swooped in to save us from a tirade of pre-teen complaints: “I love the idea, honey! I think I would want to live in the Game of Thrones world!” 

Seeing his Dad on board was enough to get my 9-year-old son in on the conversation: “Avatar the Last Airbender!!!”  

My daughter gave one last eye-roll (I was watching her face in the rearview mirror the whole time) before giving an answer of her own and questioning which of the four elements her little brother would like to bend…  

And just like that… We were off!

We spent the next three hours passing the little box of cards around the car and having all kinds of super-engaging conversations about the prompts on the cards! 

I could barely keep myself together for the car ride because I was just so over the moon that the cards were really working! 

These road trips usually consisted of the kids being plugged into their devices and the Hubby and I listening to a podcast together. 

Now, we were all sharing in spirited back-and-forths about questions like: “Do you think there is a difference between being smart and being wise?”   

How amazing is that?!? 

The Magic of the Family Pack Still Hasn’t Run Out! 

We still love using the Family Pack to start stimulating conversations in the car! 

Ever since that first day on the road to my in-laws, I think something really shifted when it came to the way my family thinks about being in the car together. 

We used to not really think twice about going on our phones or doing our own thing, but now that we’re so used to using the cards to jump right into great discussions, it just feels like a waste of such precious time together to not engage in meaningful conversation with each other! 

Basically, the Family Pack has totally re-framed the way we think about our time together in the car, and totally revolutionized the way we actually spend time together in the car. 

And now, we communicate much better as a family unit, I’ve found out all sorts of delightful things about my kids, and everyone’s screen time has gone down! 

By filling up ‘unused time’ with quality conversation, the Family Pack essentially gives you more time with the people you love the most. 

If you want to see for yourself just how much time you can reclaim in the name of meaningful, in-person fun, check them out today!

The post Why I Always Use These Talking Point Cards to Keep Conversation Going in the Car appeared first on Mindful Mama.

Table of Contents 

Talking Point Cards Overview

What It’s Like Using the Family Pack

Family Pack Pros and Cons 

What Else You Should Know About Talking Point Cards

Is the Talking Point Cards Family Pack Worth It? 

How the Talking Point Cards Family Pack Compares to Other Conversation Starter Cards for Families

Talking Point Cards Overview

About the Brand

Talking Point Cards creates connection tools that help families, couples, and individuals enjoy higher quality time together, deepen their relationships, and improve their lives with in-person communication. The Family Pack is an industry-leading set of conversation starter cards that has been enjoyed by hundreds of thousands of families around the world.  

The Family Pack has 200 conversation-starting questions divided into 4 categories (‘Get to Know You,’ ‘Family Time,’ ‘What Makes You, You,’ and ‘Fun and Random.’) Every one of these questions was created in conjunction with a global team of therapists, counsellors, and communication experts. 

Key Info: 

Price: $29.95  

Shipping: FREE to the United States, Australia, United Kingdom, and Canada and $9.95 for single-product orders outside those free shipping zones.

Where to get it: it’s always best to go to the brand’s own website, but they are also on Amazon.

What It’s Like Using the Family Pack 

How to Use the Family Pack 

The Family Pack has a compact box that fits 200 conversation-starting cards along with a few informational cards. 

To use the Family Pack, all you need to do is gather around your family, pull out a card, read out the question, and talk. From there, you can decide things like who wants to answer the question first, how much time you want to spend on each question, and more. 

Every question is confirmed to be totally kid-friendly while also being interesting enough that adults will want to respond too. All together, the 200 questions hit on a huge variety of topics and allow family members to really share their opinions, emotions, and viewpoints. 

The four different categories provide different levels of depth and allow you to start out with sillier conversations or key in on a specific topic (the cards are color-coded along the edges according to category, so you can know what kind of conversation you’re starting before you even know the question!) 

Ultimately, you can use the Family Pack however works best for you. The questions are there for your family to answer in whatever order or depth level works best for you. You can talk for hours at a time with the Family Pack, or you can decide to just keep it in the car and pull out a card whenever it’s convenient. 

Other Talking Point Card Products

Some other popular TPC products include the Kids Pack, the Couples Pack, and the Christian Pack. There are no repeat questions across the different packs, so you can confidently get multiple packs based on whatever seems most relevant to you. 

Family Pack Pros and Cons 

Pros: 

• Expert-created questions that engage all members of the family at the same time
• A wide variety of topics and questions that fit a bunch of different conversation moods 
• Hundreds of hours of in-person family fun packed into a super portable box that you can bring along with you everywhere 
• An easy and interesting way to get everyone off their screens and into meaningful conversations 
• A proven way to boost communication and connection in your family 

Cons: 

• The $29.95 price point is higher than some other conversation starter cards on the market. 

What Else You Should Know About Talking Point Cards 

Talking Point Cards is the only conversation starter card brand that works with a wide range of therapists, counsellors, coaches, and communication experts to develop the content and wording of every single one of their questions

Is the Talking Point Cards Family Pack Worth It? 

The Talking Point Cards Family Pack is an effective and fun way to have more in-person interaction in the digital age. With the Family Pack, you don’t have to worry that any of the questions are inappropriate or underwhelming. In fact, each of the 200 questions has the potential to make your family laugh, bond, and connect in an entirely new way. With so much capacity for priceless moments packed onto these cards, it’d be almost impossible to say that the Family Pack isn’t worth it. 

How the Talking Point Cards Family Pack Compares to Other Conversation Starter Cards for Families

Talking Point Cards VS TableTopics: TableTopics has a box of 135 conversation starter cards for families available for $25.00. Not only does the Talking Point Cards Family Pack have a better value at 200 conversation cards for $29.95, it also has a much stronger selection of questions. TableTopics doesn’t work with experts to develop their questions, and when compared to TPC it becomes clear what an important difference that makes. 

Talking Point Cards VS WHAT DO YOU MEME?: WHAT DO YOU MEME? Has a box of 300 question cards and 50 activity cards for $19.99. Though WHAT DO YOU MEME? offers more question cards at a lower price, there is a large difference in the quality of questions between the two brands. WDYM does not have any expert support with their questions, and the vast majority of conversation starter cards from WDYM are shallow, basic, and not very effective at actually promoting real family conversations. 

Talking Point Cards VS Life Sutra: Life Sutra has a pack of 400 conversation starter cards available for $24.95. Life Sutra does boast a PhD psychologist as its founder, but it does not work with as extensive a team as TPC does to write and review its questions. The gap in quality between the Family Pack’s questions and Life Sutra’s questions are is made clear by the two products’ gap in popularity on Amazon: the TPC Family Pack has a 4.7 out of 5 stars with 2,953 ratings, while the Life Sutra Family Connect has a 4.6 out of 5 stars and just 132 ratings.

Conclusion

I have spent a LOT of time with the Talking Point Cards products, and I can say with absolute confidence: they are fantastic! 100% worth the money, and really, any improvement in your relationship with your family is absolutely priceless! Plus, there is no risk: Talking Point Cards has a total money-back guarantee! If you’re in any way not satisfied with the Family Pack experience, you can return it and get your money back. Now go ahead and see for yourself how amazing these cards are!

Get your pack today on the brand’s website or on Amazon prime.

The post Talking Point Cards Family Pack Reviews appeared first on Mindful Mama.

As my husband and kids will happily tell you, I get pretty stressed out before heading to events or other people’s houses. Even if those people are in my own family! 

Scratch that, especially if those people are in my own family… 

I know that shouldn’t be the case, but it just is. I had a lot of conflict with my parents when I was younger, and while we’re doing okay now, we don’t exactly have the most spotless ‘conversational history.’ 

When I was a kid, our dinner table conversations consisted of tons of judgmental remarks, unnecessary arguments, and everybody pulling the discussion in their own direction just so they could get a word in edgewise. 

Now that I’m a Mom, I’m very aware of the conversation practices I’m introducing to my kids. My husband and I have taken special care to emphasize the importance of things like active listening and waiting your turn to speak. 

But – as we all know too well – kids soak up bad habits like sponges, so it can feel like all that child-rearing progress goes out the window when my parents (or in-laws, for that matter…) demonstrate to my kids that it’s okay to talk over other people or make rude comments. 

Thankfully, I’ve finally found a pretty great solution to this family trouble (and no, it’s not years of therapy!)

A few months ago, I heard about the Family Pack by Talking Point Cards. 

The Family Pack has 200 conversation starter cards that are meant to facilitate fun and meaningful conversations among family members. So, in my quest to give my kids as good a conversation experience as possible, I bought it. 

My kids loved it—and so did my husband and me. The cute blue box quickly became a mainstay on our dinner table, and we used the cards to ask the kids engaging questions and show them how great it feels to take part in interesting conversations where everyone gets to speak their minds. 

In the midst of those fun and comfortable conversations, it felt like something was healing within me – like I was giving my little humans the exact kind of positive conversational experience that I missed so dearly as a child, and that I was somehow being rewarded for doing so. 

Plus, these healthy and healing conversations gave me an idea for improving my own experience at family get-togethers… 

You see, it really felt like part of the power of the Family Pack was in making good conversation ‘feel like a game’ (in fact, my oldest told me that’s exactly why he loved using the cards so much!) 

There’s no strict rules that tell you how to play, but the format we quickly settled into was that the two most ‘involved’ roles (reading the question and answering it first) rotated around the table, but that everyone got to answer the question if they wanted to. Sometimes this meant we’d have a relatively short exchange of opinions as we went around the table, and sometimes we’d talk for over 20 minutes and get lost in a spirited discussion just over one question. 

So, I thought, if I could use this conversation starter card format to help a 7-year-old and a 10-year-old have compelling, ‘grown-up style’ conversations, why couldn’t I do the same with actual grown-ups? 

I brought the Family Pack along with us to my parents’ house for a Sunday dinner they were hosting. I had instructed my 7-year-old to introduce her favorite game to Grandpa and my two brothers while I helped my mom in the kitchen. 

My husband and 10-year-old son were there to guide it along, but I honestly knew my daughter would explain (and enforce!) the ‘taking your turn’ and ‘no talking over each other’ rules more than well enough on her own… 

They had such a good time talking with the cards that my father requested we play it all together during dinner! 

My mom was hesitant at first (perhaps sensing that having us all ‘play’ a conversation game might make it a little harder for her to ‘win’ the conversation!), but she obliged… and we all had a really amazing time! 

The conversation was flowing beautifully and evenly, and everyone at the table (no matter their age or loudness level) was able to speak freely. 

There were a few times when certain people around the table had to be reminded to wait their turn or build on the responses of others

And I already thought there was something deeply restorative about having conversations with the cards just with my own kids and husband, but trust me when I say I quite literally felt something in me heal when my 7-year-old daughter would gently but firmly remind my 71-year-old mother that she had to give other people more space to talk!

These Are So Much More than Conversation Starter Cards… 

The Family Pack has given me SO much more than just an easy and fun way to have great conversations with the people I love. 

Now, I bring these cards every time we go to a family get-together. Having the Family Pack just allows me to relax and have more fun, because I know it’s a super easy (and now, super popular!) way to get even the most ‘enthusiastic’ conversationalists in my family to give each other a chance to talk in a calmer and healthier way. 

And the cards haven’t just created a one-off activity that has helped me enjoy my extended family’s company a little more, I’ve noticed that it’s actually given us all great ‘practice’ at sharing in the discussion more. 

Since our first couple of times having conversations with the cards (and with the help of my daughter’s persistent reminders!) I’ve notice my Mom become more restrained, my Dad being less judgmental, and my brothers doing a better job of listening to what I have to say. 

… Which might be about 28 years too late, but it’s better late than never!

The Review is In: You Need to Get the Family Pack!!! 

The Family Pack was my first experience with conversation starter cards, and I don’t think I’ll ever need to try anything other than Talking Point Cards. 

Not only have these cards given my little family countless hours of meaningful fun, but they’ve also quite literally helped me mend a broken part of myself. 

By making good conversation feel like a game, the Family Pack empowered actual communication between me and my family members – something that I had come to accept was basically impossible. 

So for all these reasons, I am highly recommending that you go and try the Talking Point Cards Family Pack for yourself!!! 

The post Why I Bring These Cards to Every Family Get-Together (Talking Point Cards Family Pack Review) appeared first on Mindful Mama.