Family Adventures From A To Z Using ChatGPT: Building Stronger Family Bonds

Family adventures using ChatGPT might be the unexpected key to building stronger relationships with your stepchildren. What if an app on your phone could help you plan exciting activities, discover shared interests, and create lasting memories?

In this special Support for Stepdads interview, I welcome Suzanne Feit, stepmom, educator, and author of Family Adventures from A to Z Using ChatGPT. Suzanne shares practical ways families can use artificial intelligence to connect, explore, and have fun together.

Could ChatGPT help bring your blended family closer? Watch our interview below and discover how everyday moments can become memorable family adventures!

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Want to learn more? Keep reading for the complete interview transcript, information about Suzanne’s book, and helpful resources to start your own family adventures!

Introduction to Family Adventures from A to Z Using ChatGPT

The following is an edited interview transcript with question timestamps.

[00:00:00]  Gerardo: Today, I’m really excited about this conversation because we’re diving into something that sits right at the intersection of connection, creativity, and technology. As stepdads, and really as parents in general, we’re always looking for better ways to connect with our children. And sometimes that connection doesn’t come through big moments, it comes through shared experiences. And that’s why today’s guest caught my attention. We’re joined today by Suzanne Feit, author of Family Adventures from A to Z Using ChatGPT, a book that explores how families can use simple creative activities powered by artificial intelligence to build stronger relationships, spark curiosity, and create lasting memories. So Suzanne, welcome and thank you for joining us.

Suzanne: Well, thank you, Gerardo. I’m happy to be here.

Suzanne’s Blended-Family Background

[00:00:58]  Gerardo: Yeah. And so I know you’re a stepmom and I was hoping that maybe you could share your background as a stepmom for our visitors.

Suzanne: Yes. I have three children and three grandchildren. And then my husband has three children and six grandchildren. So we are a blended family. We we make special effort to connect with every single family and they happen to be all over the country. So yeah, but that’s just part of the fun of it is really engaging and connecting with them and I think that’s really important.

Navigating Family Invitations and Boundaries

[00:01:20]  Gerardo: Okay. you’d shared a related a story and I thought some especially the stepmoms could identify an instance where you weren’t really invited to a family event and I just was wondering if maybe you could share your feelings and how you handled it.

Suzanne: Yeah. Well, it was several years ago. My husband and I had been together for over 12 years. But I think the other grandma was a little reticent. She was nana and she wanted those kids to not have any other nanas and for her to be the one and only. And I totally understood and respected that. And so he would go back to the family holiday dinners and be with them and I was fine with that.

I just hung out with my family and u he was upset that I wasn’t allowed to come but I was okay that he maintained that relationship and connection and we made a special effort to visit those kids. We the wherever they live Pennsylvania wherever they are in the country we go and visit and we connect with them. As a matter of fact, the last time we connected, little six-year-old little cherub kept calling me nana got gray hair, but it was so cute, but it was like he’s just pure love, and he just, you’re nana. You’re having fun with me. You’re connecting with me. And that’s okay. That’s all right.

She wasn’t there. We did have a holiday last year where we were all together and that was fine. I think that worked out well. It was when they were ready and felt like, it looked like I wasn’t going anywhere. So, I became part of the family and we had a good time. We put together a jigsaw puzzle and do did all kinds of fun stuff. But, I was very careful not to be too intrusive and I totally got that. But, I do have nice relationships with all the grandkids.

Getting Along With the Biological Grandmother

[00:03:51]  Gerardo: And how about your counterpart, the bio nana?

Suzanne: She was there and doing her thing and it was fine. It was good. Okay. We’re all so different and yet we aren’t. It’s all the same. We have the same connections and so why not embrace each other from where we’re coming from? And it’s really about the kids. It’s not about our personalities. So, no, it was it was pretty cool. It was fun to all be together.

Gerardo: So, that’s wise.

Suzanne: Yeah, it is about the kids. So, yeah. Okay. Whether they happen to be 30 or 12. They’re all kids.

What Inspired Suzanne’s Book?

[00:04:34]  Gerardo: Yeah. So, what inspired you to write the book Family Adventures from A to Z using ChatGPT?

Suzanne: I think that it’s it’s important for people to connect. It’s important for people to communicate and it’s important for people to appreciate their differences. And so my background is special education. I have a masters in special ed. I spent many years doing curriculum development, training teachers, working with parents. I had a nonprofit resource center that worked with people with physical and cognitive disabilities. And it was a great career. And I retired. And then I found ChatGPT and I thought, “Oh my goodness.” And I wrote a book called Family Adventures from A to Z using ChatGPT. ChatGPT and I wrote it together.

I don’t deny it because I’m a teacher. So the only way for me to help you understand how to use this tool is to use the tool to teach the tool. So within the book, it’s full of prompts because that’s the basis of ChatGPT, asking good prompts and figuring out what you want from A to Z. It really doesn’t matter. And I wanted the pictures in the book to be ethnically diverse and I wanted different ages and I wanted people with disabilities because I also have a son with Down syndrome.

And so making an environment that’s welcoming, that’s engaging in this world of blended families and all kinds of races and all kinds of backgrounds, why not embrace? And so when someone opens this book, they see themselves in it, which is pretty cool. I don’t want to leave anybody out. and the nice thing is ChatGpt is basically free. I gave you a handout on how to install it. you’d want installed on your phone on your computer. Goes back and forth.

I can be talking on my phone on my in on my walk on the phone and then come home and pull it up and strategize on things I want to do or connections. But I really see tremendous power in having people have fun. Whether it’s going on a picnic, going on an adventure, going on and everything’s an adventure. Whether I’m going for a 10,000-step walk or whether I’m going to watch a movie and I want some background on, who is that character and tell me about the previous times that little dinosaur was in the movie so I have some background information or that Spongebob or whatever it is.

So this is a tremendous resource and ChatGPT is a tremendous resource and I felt like people can really have fun and connect and communicate once they realize the potential here.

Learning to Use ChatGPT

[00:07:30]  Gerardo: So, what steps did you take to kind of master ChatGPT? And were there any moments where you felt intimidated?

Suzanne: No, I there really wasn’t because I thought how do I approach this? Can I find activities from A to Z? And so that made me a road map. it’s like, oh my goodness. I would say pick a letter from A to Z. I would say what kinds of things are we looking at? What it depends on what we have planned or how we’re getting together or how we’re connecting. But, Easter’s coming up. We could plan a meal.

We could say, “Everybody bring something that starts with the letter E.” And we could have a great time, planning that menu and working together. or if it’s just you with one of those stepchildren, look at some of the movies, look at some of the things that they’re they’re looking at and get some background information and find out why they like Stranger Things or what it is about whatever the movie is they’re watching and on the way you can set up a little quiz.

You can say, “Let me ask questions about the previous version or let me so you can have some fun with it and you can also learn what’s really going on in the in that little world that they’re in.”

A Family Adventure in Las Vegas

[00:09:09]  Gerardo: So, can you walk us through like a quick example of how of a family adventure using ChatGPT?

Suzanne: Well, we took a family vacation to Las Vegas and we wanted I’m a teacher. I wanted something that would be history museum. I wanted to be able to hike and get out and I wanted some fun things to do in Vegas. And so ChatGPT came up with a variety of different things. One of them was Red Rock Canyon. And there’s nothing more fun than going hiking or biking in Red Rock Canyon. It’s a gorgeous place. And there’s so many hikes. There’s petroglyphs and pictographs. There’s big horn sheep there. There’s wild donkeys that are crossing the road. And you could, why are there wild donkeys, wild burrows?

Well, because of the miners from years ago. But ChatGPT is a great resource to help you understand that. And so depending on the level of the kids that you’re working with, if I’m studying geology, I’ll take a picture of the rocks and say, “Tell me about those rocks. How old are they? How were they formed?” so you can have some really nice discussions and nice information. You don’t have to know everything, but it’s nice to have this resource.

It’s nice to have this butt along that can that can help you if the kids are interested in that. they could be studying something like, “Oh, yeah, we are studying.” I remember we talked about Ignatius and, sandstone and igneous rock and, so we’ve had some fun discussions about that. And then within Vegas is the Mob Museum. Well, the mob started in Vegas. And there’s all kinds of history there. It’s a wonderful museum with all kinds of FBI this and what they did and how they spied and how they found and we actually met this man who had written a book and he took down the whole mob.

His father was trying to get him into the mob and all kinds of nasty things that happened. But it was a fascinating to hear him talk about it and to hear real author talk about their experience was way cool even if he wasn’t there’s so many interactive activities in the museum and then we wanted to renew our vows and so we had all the grant the blended kids all of not the ex but the kids came to the wedding in Vegas. Oh, nice. well, Vegas, my goodness, they found a hotel that they really wanted to stay in and they stayed up all night doing whatever they did.

But we had Elvis perform the ceremony and he shimmyed and shook and sang and jumped on the furniture and just, it was just the most amazing thing. And it was so special to do that with this whole blended family. Wow. The kids got a big kick out of it. My kids did. his kids did and plus we all get to share this experience that was just totally different, these little grandparents that do whatever they do. But there’s all kinds of ways to think about including kids at different ages.

None of the none of the second generation, the younger kids, but it was all the adults came and so that was pretty fun. Yeah, it was really special. Yeah. So, you want to think if you can pull that off, too, because that can be a pretty fun thing.

Building Connections With Stepchildren

[00:12:23]  Gerardo: So, how can stepdads use this to build connection with their stepchildren?

Suzanne: Well, I think we’re talking about adventures. Whether we’re out geocaching or hiking or going to museum, you want to have that phone there and you want to be taking pictures because you want to document it and you want to create that little followup, book. Here’s a photo album I put together of our adventures. if they’re a certain age, then you put the text in so they can read it. Oh, this is where, Suzanne and Micah did blah. so you can you can you can have some fun at the same time planting seeds because it’s all about planting the seeds. So, you really want to plant those memories.

And as the years go by it’s like oh look how little you were when we first went there and look how big you are now. So planting those seeds and building those memories I think is really important. And if you can’t figure it out ask ChatGPT what do you think I should do or he’s 15 and he’s totally involved in whatever whether it’s soccer or baseball or whatever. But you can you can have some fun building memories and making those connections.

Advice for Stepdads Feeling Left Out

[00:14:02]  Gerardo: So, kind of related to that with stepdads, what would you tell a stepdad who feels like he’s on the outside looking in?

Suzanne: I would say pay attention, watch, listen. what these kids like and you can kind of do some background research just as if you were doing it for your job or something. find out what movie they like, find out what sports they like, find out how to make that connection. And if it means, getting tickets and going to the game or if it means, going to a memorabilia store, whatever it is. So, you’re not you’re not on the outside, you’re just making inroads. And I think that’s what it’s about. It’s not trying to push your way in, but it’s it’s building new memories.

And I think that’s that’s the real important part. And so you want those memories to resonate. And with these kids nowadays, there’s so many concerts and so many venues and so many games and so many things that you could really have a good time. And they would really appreciate it because it makes them feel special even if it’s a bike ride somewhere.

Patience and Following a Child’s Interests

[00:15:02]  Gerardo: No, I was just thinking that the words that you use, that’s one thing I share with my, my audience is that the need to be patient and not to push things or whatever, you got to go at the pace of the child itself and also to meet them where they’re at, in terms of their interests, likes, etc. So, so when my grandkids or my husband’s grandkids came recently, the six-year-old loves to draw. Right on the table were crayons and paper and he was so excited, and another grandkid came and she was into art and drawing.

We took her to the Getty Museum and we walked around and we looked at the paint strokes and the artists and the Monets and the Dear, it’s kind of like taking the next step with them and helping them, realize because kids don’t get to do that a lot. here’s a special person who’s planning these fun adventures. Yeah. Yeah. And they could be as simple as a walk in the woods or, or geocaching or, getting in a car and going someplace special, whether it’s a zoo or a wild animal park or whatever they’re they might enjoy. So, what kind of a long-term impact do these shared experience have?

Suzanne: Well, you’re building memories, and the long-term impact is the same as it is in any family, it’s those memories and but a lot of times they forget. That’s why I said take the pictures, build the albums, put that together. We had took a picture of a grandkid out in the woods and turned it into a jigsaw puzzle. Oh, wow. Okay. Yeah. But imagine and we actually one time when we went to visit the grandkids, I took pictures of each one of them. They were like, I don’t know, nine and 11 or something. Took pictures, turn that into jigsaw puzzles. Oh, okay.

So, and well, we happen to be in the picture, too. But Right. Right. Right. But it’s fun to think about, making those activities because when you put those puzzles, oh, look, there’s there’s Suzanne and there’s, there’s so Yeah. So really thinking about fun things to do that they might not otherwise think about doing.

Turning Family Photos Into Puzzles

[00:17:53]  Gerardo: I just curious is the jigsaw puzzle idea something like under P and ChatGPT or

Suzanne: no it’s just came out of our head that okay once you get the idea you don’t have to know how to do this you just take a picture and then you go online and say turn this into a 10 12 50 thousand piece puzzle right but yeah but the whole idea is really not everything is in ChatGPT that the idea is give me some ideas to do. ChatGPT is great for coming up with some fun ideas and then you can say give me some extension ideas. Okay.

Finding New Ideas Through the Idea Exchange

[00:18:36]  Gerardo: But you mentioned though I you have an avenue for getting collecting new ideas. Correct.

Suzanne: Oh, you mean well, ChatGPT is full of ideas and I have I have an idea exchange that I share with and so that is really fun. the handout that I gave you that Gerard give to everyone is step-by-step instructions to install ChatGPT. That’s in my Idea Exchange, but there’s also a little tutorial about how to talk into ChatGPT, how to make that happen. Because as an educator, none of this is intuitive, but oh, there’s a button on there that I can talk into it. Oh, there’s a way to save it. Oh, there’s a way. Wow, there’s that old treadmill in the garage that’s gathering dust.

Let’s figure out how to sell it. And we can make some fun ads on Facebook or whatever the local neighborhood thing is. And I sold a lens from a camera that was I had no idea what it was. My son-in-law gave it to me and said, “Sell it.” And I was like, but I took a picture of it and ChatGPT knew exactly what it was. He knew the f-stops. He knew all of this stuff. And he met this guy and he paid a hundred bucks for it. And ChatGPT told me how much to charge for it. He told me how much it would be if it was new on Amazon.

So, you’ve just got to open up to, what kinds of things can I have fun with and what kinds of things, have they outgrown or, where can we go? Another fun thing, and this is this is on the idea exchange, is you look at all those LEGO bricks that are all over the floor, right? And the instructions are gone. And so, what do you do? Well, you take a picture and you say, “Tell me how to make a house.” and ChatGPT will tell you every single step.

So, you’re reading directions, you’re following directions, you have the literacy, it’s telling you, “Oh, take the square ones and do this, that, and the other.” So, it’s reading, it’s engaging, it’s fun, and it’s a nice connection. Oh, okay. Yeah, I like that idea because, with kids, I man, pieces of LEGO bricks get lost over time, etc. But ChatGPT can tell you, well, this is how you can build a townhouse instead of a full-blown house because you don’t have enough pieces. Well, we actually created some kind of cheramonga or something. Some animal that the grandkids loved and they This is a house that has gazillion LEGO bricks. Okay.

It was a critter. It was an animal that they created. But it was fun to see because they had to read the instructions and they had to follow it and they were all engaged and it was pretty okay. Yeah. Or even take a picture of your dog and have him put the pieces together to create phto,.

The Best First Activity From the Book

[00:21:28]  Gerardo: So, if a if a family does one thing from your book, what should it be?

Suzanne: I would say put the book on the coffee table and let’s open it up to a page and let’s find something fun. it just is it raining out or is there a park? Is it a nice day? I mean the sky’s is the limit but I think once people start using it they won’t need the book. I mean my job as an educator is to make myself obsolete.

My job in teaching this tool is to show you that once you get going, you need you need help in the beginning like anything else. but then it’s kind of like where do we go from here? we’ve got a grandson who just learned to ride a two-wheeler. Oh man, we can find some nice places to take him, safe places to ride and all this stuff. And what the grand there was my brother’s kids and they didn’t know how to teach a kid how to ride a two-wheeler. It’s not just they took the wheels off and it was pump. Yeah. Don’t do that.

ChatGPT could have told them it’s pump glide step glide. Within an hour this kid first they took the training wheels off then they took the pedals off and then within an hour he was riding the pedals back on. But yeah, so when you think about breaking things down, I want to make pizza dough, but I don’t have the right ingredients. Help me modify it. I want to make mint chocolate chip ice cream. I mean, there’s no limit to what we asked ChatGPT to do.

Where to Find the Book and Resources

[00:23:12]  Gerardo: Okay. All right. So, your book, I’m sure by now the readers are anxious to want to know where they can get a copy of your book. So, could you please share that?

Suzanne: Yeah. Well, Jer, I gave you the handouts. So, it’s chatandsusan.com. And I encourage you to go to the website because that’s where the Idea Exchange is. those recipes that grandma had, all those stained 3×5 cards? You take a picture of one of those and ChatGPT will turn it into even if it’s written in script, turn it into text, write out the recipe, give you the grocery list, put it in an ice frame, and then you can save that. So, you’re coming in as a blended dad, but I want to show you the blended mom.

I want to show you the recipes my mom did, and then maybe we can make them,? So, you really want to build some new memories, and that’s a fun way to do it. you’ve got these recipes, come over to my house. We’re going to show you some different recipes. We’re going to show you because cooking is always a wonderful way to connect people.

Book Price and Learning Support

[00:24:26]  Gerardo: Okay. Suzanne, what can readers about what price, what’s the price point, what they can expect to pay for the book?

Suzanne: The book on Amazon is $25. Okay? And I have a note there. If you buy it on Amazon and you contact me at ChatGPT andsuzangmail.com, I’ll give you a free online lesson.

[00:24:40]  Gerardo: Oh, because I know as an educator and because Gerardo that you don’t learn just by looking at the book, you don’t I mean some people can pick it up, boom, some people can figure it out and other people go I need a little more help. I’m a little reticent, whatever it is. So, I’d love to do, a one-on-one training or work with a group of people and say, “This is what we could do. We could have, some strategies.”

Suzanne: if you have a child with special needs, I did a meeting with someone recently. We talked about IEP goals and objectives, so, there’s a lot of different ways because I have such a varied background that I can help and support with different stories and different things. My son was in the hospital and came out and he wasn’t walking well. I had to figure out how to modify the stairs. I had to figure out how to modify the shower. Well, it wasn’t a problem because I just asked ChatGPT, why do you go up and down these stairs? Well, you don’t have a line. So, he doesn’t see the differentiation.

And that’s good whether he’s, coming out of the hospital or whether, someone is 60, 70 years old and they can’t see where the steps in because there’s no demarcation. Oh, okay. Lots of ideas. you look around, you go, why isn’t this working? And sometimes it’s like, I don’t know, who can I call? Well, start here. Start with ChatGPT. Right? Why do you start with ChatGPT? because ChatGPT has been, it’s all of the information from the encyclopedias and the dictionaries and the web and all of the resources have been put into this AI.

Okay, ChatGPT means it’s going to talk to you. the G is it’s going to generate all of this information. Okay, and it looks at language pattern and all of these different things. And so it understands the language pattern and it’s been pre-trained like the P is for pre-trained. It’s it’s like studying for a test or something. All that information has been put into it. So it’s generative because it understands all the language pattern. It’s pre-trained with all of this information and then it transforms it. That’s and it transforms it into a way and if you don’t understand it, ask it to explain it more simply.

If you get a contract you don’t understand, put it in ChatGPT and say, “Pretend I’m five years old. Pretend I’m 10 years old. I don’t get it.”

What Comes Next for Suzanne?

[00:27:19]  Gerardo: So, and it looks like you have a number of different initiatives with the book and the idea exchange and then the handouts that you provided me. I’m just curious what next. Do you have planned like a volume two or something like that maybe?

Suzanne: Or we will see. I think there’s a lot of need for it. I talked to a lot of different parents and I think teachers could benefit. there are lots of other possibilities and things I could do with it. I see it as such it’s kind of like once you have a pair of shoes, how to walk and how to take off. But with this AI stuff, I know there’s a lot of different ways we can go and things that we could do. And we haven’t touched the surface of travel, and all planning trips.

And my brother, when my brother first saw ChatGPT, he goes, “I don’t know why you’re doing this. I don’t like this AI stuff. It makes no sense to me.” I said, “Well, just read the book.” He read the book and he goes, “You just gave me journalism 101.” Okay. You taught me, oops, it’s not showing up here. You taught all these different ways to ask questions. He said, “I spent a year in graduate school doing journalism and now I see it.” And now he’s using it for all kinds of things,. So, it’s just it’s just where to start and where to go and have fun with it,. Yeah.

But I have spoken to people who’ve said, “I lost my job because I didn’t know AI,” or I’m going to lose my job because I don’t know AI, or I don’t want my kids to use it because it’s cheating. Well, your kids are growing up in this world of artificial intelligence. I like to call it augmentative intelligence.

AI and Student Writing

[00:29:18]  Gerardo: Yeah. I have a neighbor that’s a school teacher and I asked her about that. Is she concerned about her students maybe using ChatGPT to write a paper submission? and she said, “Nah, not really.” Because, she already has a feel for how a person writes and so when you get something above and beyond, it’s like, “Nah, we need to talk about this.” So, yeah, it’s good. It’s all good.

Suzanne: Absolutely.

Giveaway, Resources, and Closing Remarks

[00:29:38]  Gerardo: Well, Suzanne, I wanted to thank you for your time and sharing about your book. I did want to let the visitors know that Suzanne has graciously agreed to provide three of her books that I’m going to be setting up a giveaway on the site for that and I’ll also have the handouts that she mentioned available for download and it’ll be conjunction with this video. So, again, I want to thank you, Suzanne, and yeah, and, if there’s any questions or whatever, you can reach out directly to her. I’ll include the, her website address as well as the URL to her website.

So, you have a place to go to, also to buy the book as well.

Suzanne: And if people want to set up little classes or, problem solve some things, I’m available.

Gerardo: Great. Thank you.

Suzanne: Thank you very much.

[00:30:26]  Gerardo: All right. Well, thank you for your time again.

Suzanne: Thank you.

🎉 Exciting Giveaway Coming Wednesday!

We’re kicking off a special giveaway this Wednesday! Three lucky readers will each win a copy of Family Adventures from A to Z Using ChatGPT, a creative guide packed with fun ways to bring families closer together through memorable adventures.

Mark your calendar and visit Support for Stepdads on Wednesday for your chance to win! Don’t miss out!

About the author

In 1995, Gerardo became a stepdad to two children, a boy and a girl, ages 14 and 10. In 2011, he started the website Support for Stepfathers to reverse the nearly 70% divorce rate for blended families in the United States. His website is to help and inspire stepfathers, aspiring stepfathers, and the women who love them worldwide. You can follow Support for Stepdads on X and Facebook.