SNL Skit Nails What It's Like For People Who Suck At Talking To Kids

This Saturday Night Live skit features a Duolingo app made just for learning to talk to kids, and it’s hilarious

Talking to kids isn’t always easy — even when they’re yours. When they are little, you need to censor much of what you’d talk about if you were, say, talking to an adult. Or, you need to know what toys or hobbies they’re into to get a conversation started. Then, when they’re older, it’s a miracle to get more than a one-word response out of them when you ask them questions (hello, teen years). Luckily, the folks at Saturday Night Live have us covered (per usual), introducing a hilarious skit about a Duolingo app that helps people talk to kids.

If talking to kids feels similar to learning a foreign language, the SNL crew has just the app. It translates conversations with kids and gives pointers on what you can (and can’t) say to them. “Do you have no idea how to talk to children? Does it make you feel like a bad person that you can’t? It’s never too late to learn,” says the skit, which features host Kristen Stewart as an awkward person who has clearly never conversed with a child before. In the skit, it’s described as the first app that lets you learn to talk to kids because “your friends are starting to have them.”

During the episode that aired Nov. 2, Stewart has several cringe-worthy conversations with kids of various ages. “You go to school. That sucks. Do you wear your clothes to school?” Stewart says to one poor kid who looks on in horror. But thanks to the Duolingo app, you can be a “brat whisperer” in no time. Simply put in the child’s age or situation and, bam, you’ll say things like “I like your backpack” and “chicken fingers” in no time.

You can also practice “traditional greetings” for young kids, like “I got your nose,” and build up stamina for those long, boring, pointless stories kids will tell you when they’re between the ages of 3 and 18. In as little as six weeks, the Duolingo app will have anyone ready for “kinder conversations” every chance you get. It will also prepare you for certain situations, like meeting your friend’s new baby, dance recitals, a kid falling in front of you on the sidewalk, airports, the hot tub at a vacation resort, and much, much more.

It may just be a funny skit, but I’m telling you, someone should show the folks at Duolingo this one because it has legs. There are maybe, three, of my kid’s friends that I can carry a conversation with, and with two teens in the house, I would pay good money to learn how to get them to do more than grunt in my direction.