Amy Poehler knows being a mom to teenagers is a learning process.
During a Monday, June 10, appearance on Dax Shepard’s podcast, "Armchair Expert," the Saturday Night Live alum, 50, revealed how she's navigated parenting her sons, Archie, 15, and Abel, 13, with her ex-husband, Will Arnett, as they reach adolescence.
"Sometimes I see them disconnect when I'm talking,” Poehler explained of the communication between her and her boys.
The Boston native added that when her kids come to her with an issue, she asks, "Why can't we stop at the empathy part and not have to give the fix part?"
Now, Poehler has gotten better at figuring out the approaches that work best for getting her kiddos to chat candidly with her. "So I've got teens now and I am learning that the way to keep them talking is to not do the second part, to do the part of, that happened to me too," she told her Baby Mama costar, 49.
"As well-intentioned and as sensitive and thought out and connected as the second part is, I think it gets kids feeling, like, expectation — they want to do it for you," she continued. "I just find for me, when I start to [give advice], it's where I lose them."
The funny lady previously expressed how nervous she was about her children reaching their angsty years. "I'm kind of living in pre-teen town right now, so you have to do a lot of reverse psychology," Poehler revealed in a 2022 interview.
"You can't come in front of anything and say something is funny or good. That's not going to happen. You're going to be immediately rejected," she noted. "So you have to reverse psychology words. You have to put things on and be like, 'Huh, what's this stupid thing?' 'Okay, I guess Airplane is funny, whatever.' I have to have a real light touch because they will not love what we love. My guys have such a different taste."
When asked if her sons are fans of any of her past or present work, the Parks and Recreation actress revealed they aren't dying to see her latest projects. "They do watch it. They tolerate it, but they're not chomping at the bit to watch any of my stuff, to be quite honest," Poehler explained.
"I mean, the other day we were talking about SNL, and I was like, 'Who do you think are the best SNL [cast members]?' And my kids were like, 'Well, probably [Colin] Jost and [Michael] Che.' And I said, 'Not your mother?!' They said, 'No,'" Poehler confessed of her boys.
People conducted the 2022 interview with Poehler.