How old are/were your parents, your grandparents?
Where does your mother/grandmother live, where did she live in her life? Where will your mother/grandmother live in the future?
How did your mother/grandmother spend her day? / Does your mother work or did she work? If so, what was her occupation? Did she do any training?
How did your mother/grandmother spend her free time? Was there any for her? Did she have time/space to pursue hobbies or leisure activities or travel?
What was your mother’s everyday life like and how did it develop?
Did she take care of you, your siblings or family members? How much time did this take? Did she have help with this?
How is and was your mother/grandmother’s health? Is illness / are injuries or accidents an issue in your family?
How and when do you/have you communicated with your parents/grandparents? How does your mother communicate with her grandmother? What do they usually talk about?
If you had to think of three photos of/with your mother, what would they be? Can you describe them? And why them?
Is there an anecdote that is told in your family that you can think of?
What places do you associate with your mother/grandmother?
Are there any items of clothing that you associate with your mother/grandmother?
What gestures do you associate with your mother/grandmother? What gestures towards you do you associate with your mother/grandmother?
To position yourself:
What possibilities/limits would you observe in yourself that your parents/mother had/did not have. Childhood and adulthood. Your parents compared to their grandparents? (Access to education/rights and opportunities/mobility/materials)
Language register: Did you use different words with your mother/grandmother than you did with your father?
Do you feel that you use different words/speak differently with your mother/grandmother than with your friends, your fellow students or work colleagues?
Do you feel that you spoke differently at school than outside of school? Were there expectations/conventions (role model, career, etc.) that your mother/grandmother had of you and that you should fulfill? Have these changed? How? And which ones did your mother/grandmother herself have to face?
Do you know of any aspirations, wishes, dreams that your mother had as a child/teenager? Your grandmother?
What did she like to eat/cook the most?
Are there any situations in the kitchen that you particularly remember? Kitchen anecdotes?
Are there any situations in the context of school that you particularly remember? For example, the first day of school or the last day before the holidays? Graduation? Did she pick you up from school? Did you study together for school work or tests?
Are your parents together or separated? Did your mother have other partners? Can you see any patterns in this?
Were there expectations / conventions / wishes that your mother / grandmother had noticed / experienced / had to fulfill in relation to having children?
What role do you and your birth play in these expectations / conventions and wishes? Were there expectations / conventions / wishes that your mother / grandmother had of you in relation to your choice of partner and that you should fulfill? (Is (your) sexuality a topic that you talk about with your mother / grandmother?)
Have you talked to your mother / grandmother about your period?
Did your mother/grandmother have expectations/conventions/wishes about grandchildren that you should fulfill?
How would you classify your family on a spectrum of social class?
What differences and similarities to your immediate environment (city, village, country) could and can you identify?
Is inheritance something that is relevant to you/your family? Will you inherit? Have you inherited? Has your mother/grandmother inherited? (What role does your mother/grandmother play in your life?) What do you wish for your mother/grandmother?
What gestures do you associate with your father/grandfather? What gestures towards you do you associate with your father/grandfather?