The Good Place star Kristen Bell believes in being open with her daughters. The 42-year-old – who appeared on REAL SIMPLE’s first-ever celebrity cover discussed about why she thinks one of her keys to parenting is to be totally honest.
“I hate the word ‘taboo.’ I think it should be stricken from the dictionary,” she tells the outlet. “There should be no topic that’s off the table for people to talk about.”
Bell and her parenting style
She added that she and her husband Dax Shepard have what people might think “shocking” conversations with daughters, Delta, 8 and Lincoln, 9½ but for her, it is her parenting style.
“I know it’s shocking, but I talk to my kids about drugs, and the fact that their daddy is an addict and he’s in recovery, and we talk about sex,” she says. “There are all these ‘hard topics’ that don’t have to be if you give the person on the other end your vulnerability and a little bit of credit.”
Shepard relapsed after 16 years of being sober
Shepard has been open about his struggle with drug and alcohol addiction. He announced that he had relapsed in 2020 after 16 years of being sober. The actor also talked about that with his daughters.
“They know that Dad goes to an AA meeting every Tuesday and Thursday,” Shepard told Chelsea Clinton on her “In Fact” podcast back in 2021.
“We tell them the whole thing.”
Shepard, 48, is the host of The Armchair Expert podcast and has appeared in films such as Hit and Run, Chips and voiced Reuben in Paw Patrol.
It’s all about making amends
Bell explained: “If there’s one thing I want to teach my kids, it’s how to make amends – and that it’s for themselves, so they can like who’s in the mirror a little bit more.
“Making amends and apologising is an important thing in our family, because humans leave carnage wherever they go,” she continued. “I really respect when someone does something wrong or hurtful and they apologize. I’m like, ‘Yeah, right on.’ That’s important.”
Last year, the actor noted that she wants her family to work as a team, and tells her daughters that “you’re going to get nothing accomplished” by being mean to each other.
“I want to really instil in them, ‘You are a team,’” she revealed on Today. “We made two of you so that there would be someone for you guys when we pass, so you guys are to be the strongest relationship you have on the planet, even if you disagree.
His children are like ‘bros’ to Shepard
Shepard told People about his children, “They’re creating novel ideas and thoughts. And so there’s two more interesting people in the house that are computing the world differently than us and they can communicate it now. And it’s really fun just to have more perspectives around. They’re becoming more like bros for me.”
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