About the "How are you?" question

What do you think about the "How are you?" question?

I, personally, do not like this question and I have never liked it.

I do not know what to answer.

Also, a lot of the time, I think it is expected just to give a positive answer, but I often feel awful to say "Fine!" simply to be polite if I am not fine. 

Parents Reply
  • My kids have rarely, if ever, seen me in that mode but they do say that when I'm angry it comes out in the way I express myself: "Gonnaenodaethat!!", "Ahfirfuksake!" and other multi-syllabic utterances that just crack them up. They'd never been to Glasgow until very recently so they extract the Michael from the few words or phrases they hear from me that, according to them, I've invented.    

Children