Carson Daly wants to know “how to speak 13-year-old,” now that he and daughter, Etta, are down to just one form of communication.
The Today co-host joined the show’s fourth hour, Jenna & Sheinelle, to fill in for Sheinelle Jones, where he told Jenna Bush-Hager, “I have a 13-year-old, Etta, who is doing great, who I never speak with.”
He quipped, “Do you speak 13-year-old? Cause I don’t.” Daly, who’s hosted Today for 13 years and the singing competition show The Voice since 2011, shares four kids with his wife, Siri Pinter: Etta, 13; London, 11; Goldie, 6; and Jackson, 17.
A photo of Daly and Pinter with Etta at her Catholic confirmation appeared on screen, after which Daly joked, “There she is, Confirmed… so, she’s in God’s hands now.”
He did find at least one way to get through to her, however. “You ever hear that phrase, ‘You’ve got to meet kids where they are?’ You hear it in business a lot, right? They want to advertise, get in front of them,” he said.
“I’ve taken a page out of that, and six months ago, I did join Snapchat. I have literally communicated with my daughter, in particular, more via Snapchat than I have in real life,” Daly revealed.
Their conversations aren’t so deep, but he says it make him feel connected to his child.
“I can say, ‘Are you okay?’ And then I’ll put some stupid emoji,” he explained. “And she’ll write back, like, ‘LOL,’ and all these little things are flying all over the screen.”
“As silly as it is, I am connected a little bit,” he added.
Bush Hager sympathized, telling an anecdote about trying to get her own 13-year-old, Mila, to stop calling her parents an undesirable nickname.
Bush Hager shares Mila, Poppy, 10, and Hal, 6, with husband Henry Hager. “She calls us ‘Biggie,’ me and Henry,” she said, “Sometimes ‘Mom and Dad,’ sometimes ‘Jenna and Henry,’ sometimes ‘Biggie.’”
Hager tried to reason with Mila, who Bush Hager said had also had a confirmation ceremony. “Henry said, I don’t know if Jesus would like you calling your Mom and Dad ‘Biggie.’ Respect your parents,” Bush Hager recalled, “But…”
“Doesn’t land,” Daly guessed. “No,” Bush Hager confirmed, but “I try to speak 13-year-old.”
