Thank you Mardi Gras Napkins for sponsoring this post. Visit your local retailer to get the conversation going in your home!

One of my favorite things about Bart is that he’s so good at talking with other people. When people ask about making new friends, I always say that he’s my secret weapon.

My family jokes that everyone is Bart’s best friend, and he really does have an amazing gift for being interested in other people and talking very easily to basically everyone.

And that skill has carried over into parenthood for him.

He’s always coming up with fun stories to tell the girls or asking them interesting “would-you-rather” questions. I’ll often come in to the kitchen to find them all sitting around the island or table intensely debating whether it’d be better to have a pet giraffe or a pet cheetah.

Asking my girls a question like that would absolutely never occur to me, and certainly not on a daily basis.

I’m also an introvert, so if we’re quietly driving in the car, the last thing on my mind is coming up with interesting conversation starters for kids – I’m much more likely to be seventeen layers deep in my own brain thinking about what I’m making for dinner or our next family trip or an upcoming blog post.

But I certainly don’t want to be the parent who isn’t fun or doesn’t have interesting conversations, and especially over the summer, I’ve been making a concerted effort to just TALK more to my girls.

One thing that’s made it easier?

Mardi Gras Napkins’ conversation starters.

As soon as I saw these for the first time, I knew these conversation starters for kids would be a HUGE hit in our house.

Each of the napkins comes with conversation starters for kids printed on each side, ranging from “what would you do if you won a million dollars” to “what are you grateful for today?”

We’ve been using them for the last month during snack time and each of these funny conversation starters have sparked amusing or surprisingly deep chats over a handful of popcorn or some fresh strawberries.

They’re also fun for dinner conversation too, since we use paper napkins every single night anyway. And I love when a question like “How do you like to make friends” turns into story time about old friends from places we used to live or stories from our childhoods.

Basically, they’re like a great little bridge for me from the unimaginative parent I often am to having the kinds of really fun conversations I want to be having with my kids.

And with back-to-school just around the corner the Mardi Gras napkins are the best conversation starters for tucking into lunch boxes to strike up easy conversations with new classmates.

I might not be the naturally fun parent (or person!) that Bart is, but these Mardi Gras conversation starters for kids at least give me a little leg up!

And I’ll take any help I can get.

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of CLEVER and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

Photos by Christie Knight Photography