Kids Hate Grownups' Conversations

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Mrs. Swanson: I tried everything to get the stain out...
Lois: What about lemon juice?
Mrs. Swanson: Oh, what about club soda?
Stewie: ... what about SHUTTING THE HELL UP?

—From Family Guy

So a kid is with some adult, often a parent or other kind of guardian, and said adult is having a conversation with another adult. The kid wants to get out of there, and might ask said adults to cut the conversation short, or alternatively, might go off on his or her own for a little while depending on their age and circumstances.

Perhaps the kid feels the need to be somewhere in particular at a time and does not want to be delayed by the conversation. Perhaps the kid just does not find the conversation interesting and is becoming impatient. Whatever the reason, the kid wants to either get out of there or cut the chat short, because kids hate grownups' conversations.

Truth in Television, of course.

Examples of Kids Hate Grownups' Conversations include:

Live-Action TV

  • In an episode of The Cosby Show, Rudie complains that all her parents talk about at dinner is politics and gets angry when Claire won't let her eat at a friend's house.

Newspaper Comics

  • Invoked and inverted in a FoxTrot strip. Paige and her mother are at the mall, and the mother runs into a friend, and they're talking while Paige is rolling her eyes, still she gets impatient and is rude—then Paige runs into a friend of hers and starts talking while Mom rolls her eyes.
  • In a Calvin and Hobbes strip, Calvin is reading a movie's Content Warnings, and wonders what "adult situations" means. Hobbes says, "Probably things like going to work, paying bills and taxes, taking responsibilities..."

Western Animation

  • Stewie Griffin, of course, disliked several "grownups' conversations" for which he had to be present. The page image and dialogue sample are from the same conversation, in an early episode called "A Hero Sits Next Door", and is not the only example from that episode.
  • In the Arthur episode "D.W. Gets Lost", DW's mother takes her shopping and runs into a client from her home accounting business. The client talks to her seemingly forever (like, at least five minutes!) so DW decides to go off on her own. (And gets lost.)