Entertainment
Kristen Bell's Most Honest Parenting Quotes Are So Refreshing To Hear
While most people probably appreciate Kristen Bell for her role as Kiki, an overworked mother of four, in Bad Moms, or for her role as Princess Anna in Frozen, Bell has more to offer parents than just lulling kids into entranced silence. In real-life, Bell is an attentive mother of two, maintaining her goofy side while facing the challenges of parenting, and she's pretty open to talking about it. As such, there's no shortage of honest parenting quotes from Kristen Bell.
Before their low-key courthouse wedding in 2013, Bell and her husband Dax Shepard were together for six years. Since then, the couple has welcomed two daughters: Lincoln, who was born in 2013, and Delta, who they welcomed in 2014. Although Bell doesn't shy away from talking about her experiences as a mother, she definitely has set limits about what information is open to the public.
In 2014, for example, Shepard wrote an article, "Why Our Children Should Be Off Limits to the Paparazzi," published in HuffPost. The article outlined why the couple were so vocal about preventing paparazzi from taking pictures of celebrity kids. Bell also tweeted about how the voyeurism must affect celebrity children, now and later in life.
It was one of the couple's honest moments about celebrity parenting and it didn't stop there, as evidenced by some of Kristen Bell's most honest parenting quotes.
When She Spoke About Her Discipline Style
No matter what, every parent has to discipline their child. What becomes debatable is the method of discipline that each parent uses; it's such a highly contested topic that many don't bothering discussing discipline at all.
But, in an Us Weekly interview, Bell opened up about misbehavior in her household and how the couple handles it. She admitted that, yes, Lincoln and Delta do receive time-outs, but went on to elaborate:
We have very strict rules in our family about how we treat people with respect, especially our family members. … We are going to be with each other in the long haul, so it’s important to always be respectful and treat your sister the way you want to be treated.
And, most importantly, Bell told the publication, “One thing I’ve learned as a mom is it’s really important to monitor when they are able to receive your information. We wait until they calm down and then we talk to them.”
When She Opened Up About Co-Parenting
Bell isn't afraid to say what we all know: toddlers are loud.
And when dealing with toddlers, it's important to acknowledge when it's time to tap out. In an interview with PopSugar, Bell opened up about her co-parenting style with her husband:
My husband and I tap out and take mini meditative breaks because we have two toddlers — they’re so f**king loud — and we keep an eye on each other. We’ll go "Oh, OK, you can take a break; I’ll take over." When you’re in the ring, you gotta tap out with your partner. That’s how we do it.
When She Stressed The Importance Of Real Emotions
Often, people find themselves responding to questions in ways that don't represent how they truly feel. If someone asks, "How are you doing?", people are likely to say, "Fine", even if it's not 100 percent true.
It's a small way of masking our real feelings and it's a trait passed down to children early on. When it seems like any little thing can set your child off, it's easy to accidentally fall into the trap of false reassurances, saying "It's OK" just so the conversation can move on.
According to HuffPost, Bell caught herself doing just the same thing to her kids, and had to reevaluate.
I stopped saying, "It’s OK," to anything in their lives. My older daughter gets embarrassed a lot, and I don’t say, "It’s OK. It’s OK." I simply sit next to her and I say, "Do you feel embarrassed?" And she’ll say, "Yes." And I say, "I feel embarrassed, too, sometimes. Sometimes I trip and I feel embarrassed or I break a bowl and I feel embarrassed. I used to feel embarrassed a lot more as a kid, but as you become an adult, some of that stuff goes away."
Bell went on to explain that she wants her kids to realize they're allowed to have those feelings, in order to learn where and how to appropriately express them.
When She Opened Up About The Loneliness Of Motherhood
With postpartum depression and other mental health issues in mothers often going without attention, it's always good to see mothers who can be honest about their experiences!
"Being a mom can be so isolating, and hanging out with other moms is very, very healthy," Bell once told PopSugar.
Self-isolation is a hard struggle to get out of, but hanging out with other people in the same position as you will definitely help. After all, who better to understand what it means to be a mom than another one?
When She Spoke Up For Vaccination
The anti-vaccination debate has been hot in media for awhile now. Bell opened up to Good Housekeeping, stating that she thought would be a part of the anti-vaccination crowd, but having kids changed her mind.
In addition to the data in support of vaccinations, Bell said a changing point for her was the fact that some kids couldn't be vaccinated themselves. She told the publication:
Kids with autoimmune diseases, kids who are receiving cancer treatments — they can't be vaccinated because their immune systems [can't handle it]. If your kid has leukemia, he can't get vaccinations; if he then goes to school with my kid and I chose not to give my kid vaccinations, I'm putting your kid at risk. To me, that's unacceptable. There are the weak among us whom we have to protect. As moms, our responsibility is not just to our kids — it's to all the other kids, too.
To Bell, her responsibility as a mother extends to protecting all kids, not just her own, and that's a beautiful approach.
When She Talked Motherhood Changing Her Perception Of Her Own Mother
In the same interview with Good Housekeeping, Bell opened up about her having daughters of her own helped change her perception of her mother:
I never understood my mom until I had kids. When she would look at me like I was the first drop of water she’d seen at the end of a desert trip and go, "You will never understand how much I love you," I would go, "God, get away! Enough!" Even in my 20s, I just thought, "You’re so dramatic and overly sentimental." Now I look at my kids that way and think, "Wow, this is a cycle." Lincoln won’t understand it until she decides to have kids … that’s just the way it’s supposed to be.
It just goes to say, for all those times Grandma said "Oh, you'll understand when you have kids!", maybe she had a point all along.
When She Opened Up About A "Controversial" Sleep Method
Getting kids to sleep through the night, or sleep at all, is always difficult. At a recent event, Bell opened up to Babble about a controversial sleep method she's taken up with her youngest daughter, Delta.
According to Bell, Delta decided to stop sleeping about nine months ago, which meant the toddler would be awake, banging toys, and even moving furniture in protest. So what did Bell do?
"We switched the doorknob," Bell said. "We turned the lock on the outside."
It might be controversial, but according to Bell, her daughter usually calms down within 10 minutes and they always unlock the door as soon as she's asleep.
Check out Romper's new video series, Bearing The Motherload, where disagreeing parents from different sides of an issue sit down with a mediator and talk about how to support (and not judge) each other’s parenting perspectives. New episodes air Mondays on Facebook.
