Amy Poehler Opens Up About the Difficulty of Giving Advice to Her Teen Sons in Rare Parenting Update
The actress shares two sons, Archie, 15, and Abel, 13, with ex Will Arnett
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Amy Poehler on April 11, 2024Amy Poehler has shared a rare update about her two sons, Archie, 15, and Abel, 13.
On the June 10th episode of Dax Shepard’s podcast, Armchair Expert, the actress, 50, explained that it isn't always easy giving advice to the children she shares with ex Will Arnett. “Sometimes I see them disconnect when I'm talking,” she said.
When it comes to her sons experiencing a problem, she asked, “Why can't we stop at the empathy part and not have to give the fix part?”
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From Left: Will Arnett and Amy Poehler in 2008The actress then revealed that the only way her kids openly express their issues with their mom is by doing exactly that. “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 shared.
"It is hard to go to sleep, period. The end,” Poehler told Shepard, who previously described his 11-year-old daughter’s struggle with insomnia.
“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 wanna do it for you,” the Parks and Recreation star added, noting, “I just find for me, when I start to [give advice], it's where I lose them.”
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Back in 2022, Poehler similarly opened up to PEOPLE, describing the hoops she jumped through to related to her her sons as pre-teens. "I'm kind of living in pre-teen town right now, so you have to do a lot of reverse psychology," she said.
"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," Poehler told PEOPLE.
She added, "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."
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