100 interesting questions to ask your mom on Mother's Day and beyond

Moms are everything.

They're caretakers-in-chief, doctors-in-residence, taxi drivers, commanders of the kitchen, activities directors and, well, you get the drift.

Think you know all there is to know about your special lady? Chances are pretty good that you don't.

That's because, to you, she's simply Mom. For that reason, it can be easy to forget that beyond being yours, she has passions, dreams and experiences we know nothing about.

“Here’s the thing, the women in our lives, we think of them in terms of their role,” Maureen Taylor, photo and family historian, tells TODAY.com. "It’s our mom or our grandmother. We don’t think about necessarily them as the people that they were before they became a mom or a grandmother."

By asking your mom the following questions, you'll get to know her on a deeper level.

"Knowing more about the women in our family connects us to our past, but also projects us into the future," Taylor adds.

Your mom's answers may lead to more questions, including: "What are our descendants going to be like? What are my daughter’s kids going to be like? What are they going to pick up from this unbroken line of the women in our family?"

That said, as we learn more about our mothers, we also learn more about ourselves.

"It gives us a sense of who we are. It fits us into the greater family puzzle, how all the pieces fit together," Taylor says.

Read on for the best questions to ask your mom about everything from her elementary school days to the relationships that have shaped her most.

1. If you could have lunch with anyone (living or deceased), who would it be and why?
2. What's your favorite song and what does it remind you of?
3. What's the first thing you can remember from your childhood?
4. If you could time travel, would you go back in history or into the future and why?
5. Which subject did you like best in school? Least?
6. What scent or smell makes you feel nostalgic and why?
7. What's the first vacation you ever took and where did you go?
8. What was your biggest childhood fear?
9. If you could change your name, what would it be?
10. What's your favorite season of the year and why?
11. What's your favorite holiday and why?
12. What's the most difficult challenge you've had to overcome?
13. What do you remember most about your parents?
14. What's the name of the first street you lived on?
15. Did you have any childhood pets? What were their names?
16. What's one thing you want people to remember about you?
17. If you got a tattoo, what would it be and where would you get it?
18. What was the biggest challenge of becoming a mother?
19. What was your favorite toy as a child?
20. What was your first job?
21. If you could go anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?
22. What's your biggest regret?
23. What's the biggest unchecked box left on your bucket list?
24. What were your grandparents like?
25. What's your favorite type of food?
26. What's the most trouble you ever got into as a child? As a teen?
27. What's the biggest difference between today's society and when you were young?
28. What's one thing you'd change about yourself if you could?
29. What were you like in school? Shy? Outgoing? Popular? Quiet?
30. What's one article of clothing you wish you still had?
31. If you could pick one family recipe to pass on, which one would it be?
32. What did you want to be when you grew up?
33. If you could go back and relive one day in your life again, which one would it be and why?
34. What issue do you feel passionate about and why?
35. Is there anything you'd be willing to die for?
36. What's one movie you can watch over and over?
37. If you were stranded on a desert island with only one book, which one would you pick?
38. What's your favorite color?
39. What's your favorite flower?
40. What instrument do you wish you could play?
41. Who's your favorite comedian?
42. What accomplishment makes you feel most proud and why?
43. What's the best advice you ever got?
44. If you could back in time and talk to your younger self, what would you say?
45. What's the most beautiful thing you've ever seen?
46. What's your favorite candy?
47. Who's someone who helped shape the person you are today?
48. What TV sitcom best represents your life?
49. What's something that makes you sad?
50. Do you consider yourself a spiritual person?
51. What were your 15 minutes of fame?
52. What was the first car you ever drove?
53. Which do you prefer? The beach or the mountains?
54. What's the biggest lesson you've learned about life?
55. Is there a time you failed at something and how did you deal with it?
56. What's the first thing you thought/did when you discovered you were going to be a mother?
57. What's one thing you wish you hadn't spent a lot of money on?
58. Do you consider yourself a pessimist or an optimist?
59. What's your favorite way to spend a day to yourself?
60. What's your biggest pet peeve?
61. What's something interesting about your siblings?
62. What's something you wish you'd known as a child?
63. What's a kindness that someone did for you that you've never forgotten?
64. Are you an introvert or an extrovert?
65. What was your first day of school like?
66. What's your most treasured possession?
67. What's something you wish people knew about you?
68. What's your favorite joke?
69. Who was your first love?
70. When was your first kiss?
71. Who's your hero and why?
72. Are you still friends with anyone you went to school with?
73. Who's the one person who knows you better than anyone else?
74. Would you rather hike the Appalachian Trail or lounge by the pool?
75. What's the last concert you went to?
76. Who's the smartest person you know?
77. What's your favorite family memory?
78. Who's one person you'd let pick out clothes for you?
79. What's the worst haircut you've ever gotten?
80. What's the strangest thing you've ever eaten?
81. What's one sport you wish you could do?
82. What historical event interests you the most?
83. What's the best job you've ever had and why?
84. Would you ever move back to your hometown (or would you ever leave your hometown)?
85. What's the most romantic thing anyone ever did for you?
86. Have you ever saved someone's life?
87. If you won the lottery, what would you do with the money?
88. Do you believe in the paranormal?
89. What's the strangest unexplained experience you've ever had?
90. What's your favorite animal and why?
91. Are there any friends from your past you wish you still talked to?
92. Were you ever bullied and what did you do about it?
93. What's one thing you wish your parents had done differently?
94. What's your favorite board game? Card game?
95. What's something about yourself you didn't know until someone told you about it?
96. If you could have any superpower, what would it be?
97. What's your favorite thing to drink?
98. What's your biggest worry?
99. What's your least favorite type of music and why?
100. What's the next vacation you have planned. Where are you going?