Kristen Bell doesn’t tell her kids it’s OK: ‘I allow them to have their feelings’

Kristen Bell is a real hustler. She’s always promoting some partnership with a product/brand and she seems to give interviews constantly. She’s good at being quotable too, I’ll definitely give her that. On one hand she has worked hard to shield her daughters, Lincoln, four, and Delta, two, from public view and from the paparazzi but on the other she gives very good quotes about specific ways she and her husband, Dax Shepard, are raising them. I don’t think those two things are necessarily incompatible but some people find it hypocritical. Anyway Bell was promoting her Neutrogena deal on The Today show (she also has a deal with Tide) when she explained that she loves hearing advice from other parents. She then gave advice about dealing with her children’s emotions and not telling them everything is ok when they don’t feel ok. At least she’s not hypocritical about advice.

On taking advice
I’m really good at taking advice because I believe that I should take any and all advice out there, and it is up to me to decide what’s useful. So, for example, I look into Montessori teaching and Waldorf teaching, and the MUSE School that James Cameron started, and all of these different methods of learning — and I read “The Danish Way of Parenting” — and then I look at my kids and I see what can apply and be useful.

I am a parent that actually loves to hear advice from other mothers. I don’t care if your filter is judgmental or altruistic — I still want to hear it because it may be valuable to me.

On not telling her kids “it’s ok” when they feel bad
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.

So, I allow them to have their feelings — because I think saying, “It’s OK,” all the time doesn’t do anyone any favors. It just makes them subconsciously think that they’re not supposed to be having those feelings.

[From Today.com]

That’s a hard one, not telling your kid that things are fine and it’s going to work out ok. You just want them to feel better but it is important to acknowledge why they’re upset to and to show them you understand. She said she will send them to their room if they’re having a tantrum and ruining dinner, for instance. She sounds very Type A and extra, which is ok and she owns it, that’s just an impression I’ve had of her for some time. It probably takes one to know one. As for advice from other parents, I will ask for it sometimes but I don’t want people telling me what to do with my kid. Usually it’s the know-it-all types who think they know what’s best for your family and your situation. If it’s a close friend or family member that’s a different story.

These are photos of Bell at an event for Baby2Baby sponsored by TinyPrints. Credit: Getty. One photo credit: WENN