Every Time Dax Shepard and Wife Kristen Bell Got Real About Parenting

Credit: Ken McKay/ITV/Shutterstock

Every Time Dax Shepard and Wife Kristen Bell Got Real About Parenting

Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard may not be comfortable with sharing photos of their daughters, Lincoln and Delta, via social media, but the couple have been more than forthcoming about their experiences as parents. The Michigan natives started dating in 2007 and began growing their family six years later. After Lincoln arrived in March 2013, the couple went on to welcome Delta in December of the following year. "Delta Bell Shepard is here. She doesn't look like either @IMKristenBell or me, but we're gonna keep her anyway. #christmascameearly,” the “Armchair Expert” podcast cohost wrote via Twitter in 2014. The Frozen star added in a tweet of her own: "The estrogen has now hit critical mass! Good luck, @daxshepard1. And welcome to the world DELTA BELL SHEPARD :)" While raising their back-to-back babies, the pair have been vocal about potty training, sex talks and more. The actor even spoke in April 2021 about how he explained his relapse to the little ones. [jwplayer N0oGJIjA-zhNYySv2] “We explained, ‘Well, Daddy was on these pills for a surgery and then Daddy was a bad boy. He started getting his own pills,’” the Parenthood alum told Chelsea Clinton at the time. "Yeah, we tell them the whole thing. The proudest I am of my children ever is when they admit something and say sorry. That to me is the single most impressive thing a little person can do, because it’s the bravest thing to own your shortcomings.” Shepard added at the time: "They know that dad goes to an AA meeting every Tuesday and Thursday." The previous year, the Punk'd alum ended his 16-year sobriety after a motorcycle accident. "I did not want to [go public with it] at all,” the Bless This Mess alum told Ellen DeGeneres in January 2021. "I get so much esteem out of being someone who’s vocally sober, and I have people who write me on month one or week two, and I love that,” he said. “That’s my favorite thing about being in public. And so, I was just terrified I would lose that. I really cherish that.” Bell, who has been married to Shepard since October 2013, gave the Zathura star “unconditional” love amid his relapse, which "saved [his] life," he told Monica Padman in a December 2020 podcast episode. Scroll to revisit every time Shepard and the Veronica Mars alum delivered a dose of real talk about raising their kids.

Credit: Michael Kovac/WireImage

Pregnancy Woes

The Good Place star opened up about her initial lack of connection to her firstborn daughter, Lincoln, who arrived in March 2013. “I kept saying to Dax in all sincerity during my pregnancy, ‘I just don’t know how I’m going to like her as much as I like the dogs.’ I was being serious,” the new mom confessed in Flare magazine’s December 2013 issue. “Because I f—king love my dogs; they are my children.” Eventually she came around, though. “I love people the more I know them, and I didn’t know her. It could’ve been a water bottle in my belly, that’s about how connected I felt to her during my pregnancy. But within about 24 hours after she came out, my hormones reset, and they reprogrammed my feelings about her.”

Credit: Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images

Mom Goals

Bell filled Us Weekly in on what kind of mother she hoped to be. “I’m back with baby full-time, which is so nice,” the actress told Us in April 2014. “I want to be very hands on. I want to cook for my family and feel present for them. I’m always missing her when I’m not there.” The duo welcomed their second child, Delta, in December 2014.

Credit: Gregg DeGuire/WireImage

Kristen Who?

The Frozen star revealed to Us in March 2015 that her eldest daughter had zero interest in her career achievements. “She is not my biggest fan. She just doesn’t know what I do for a living!” she joked. “She couldn’t care less. [It] is extremely humbling to come home to someone who couldn’t care less about what you do!”

Credit: Kevin Mazur/WireImage

Strategy

Bell detailed how she and Shepard, who tied the knot in October 2013, wait out their kids’ tantrums before talking to them. She also explained to Us in May 2016 some basic house guidelines the pair enforce: “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.”

Credit: John Sciulli/Getty Images

Snip, Snip

The Parenthood alum was honest about his fear of growing their family during a May 2016 appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! The actor revealed that he panicked when Bell thought she was pregnant again. “I was like, ‘We’re going to turn into Jon & Kate Plus 8 or something. We already have no life! This is going to be not worth living.’ I freaked out. It was so bad,” he confessed. “For eight hours I was, like, imagining my life with all these kids. That was Tuesday. I flew home Wednesday for a meeting. Thursday morning I had a vasectomy.”

Credit: Alberto E. Rodriguez/WireImage

Choosing Her Battles

The Veronica Mars star divulged in December 2016 which little thing she decided to overlook about her kids. “I just let my car get granola all over it because I’m like, ‘Well, this is the time in my life where my car is just going to be covered in granola,’ and I can either fight that for the next five years or I can just surrender and be OK with it, and I’ve chosen to surrender,” she told Us. “Everything is easier in acceptance mode.”

Credit: Christopher Polk/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images

Coparenting Experts

“We tag team. We switch kids all the time,” the Bad Moms actress told Us in November 2017 of how she and Shepard juggle two children. “If I’m talking to the 2-and-a-half-year-old and I’m done, I’ll just be like, ‘We’ve got to switch. I don’t want to talk to this kid anymore.’ It’s not about perfection, but it is about being thoughtful and not reactive. So in order to not be reactive, we switch kids a lot.”

Credit: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

Mom and Dad Only

Just like Us! The director told Us in July 2018 that he and his wife have a ritual after putting their kids to bed. “Then there are two hours of mommy and daddy binge-watching TV time,” he said, adding: “We get that couple hours at night where we fantasize about other people on TV.”

Credit: Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic

Accepting It

The When in Rome costars also know how to find fun in more serious moments, including when the girls reference Shepard’s weekly trips to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. “Sometimes they say, ‘I want to go to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting,” Bell told Us and other reporters in September 2018. “Because he’s a comedian, [Dax] says, ‘Don’t worry, you will.’ So we keep it light!”

Credit: Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic

A Very Merry Unbirthday

The House of Lies alum and the “Armchair Expert” podcast host sometimes adopt a technique straight out of Alice in Wonderland. “If it’s, like, a Wednesday and we can’t celebrate and we’re both working late, then — guess what — your birthday is on a Saturday,” she revealed during a September 2018 appearance on Today. “They don’t know.”

Credit: Christopher Polk/Getty Images

Off Script

The couple struggled when attempting to give their daughters the sex talk. “We said, ‘Well, mom has a vagina, and dad has a penis and there’s sperm, and an ovum and then they connect and it makes a baby,” Bell told Us in September 2018. “Truly, by the second sentence, they had walked outside.”

Credit: Kevin Mazur/WireImage

Disagreeing Together

“You know, generally, kids see their parents get in a fight and then parents sort it out in a bedroom and then later they’re fine, so the kid never learns, how do you de-escalate? How do you apologize?” Shepard shared with Us in December 2018. “So we try, as often as possible, to do that in front of them. If we fought in front of them, we want to also make up in front of them.”

Credit: Rachel Luna/Getty Images

False Alarm

“My youngest daughter shoved a jewel up her nose up to her brain and we jumped in the car headed to the emergency room,” the Zimzum of Love author wrote on her June 2019 Instagram Story. “On the way she snorted it out and we re-routed and went to @nbcthegoodplace #FYC panel instead.”

Credit: Michael Kovac/Getty Images

Mom’s Motivation

“I made the choice as a mom, now — which was really hard — to go, ‘I’m gonna miss a couple bedtimes for a couple months, because I want this character to exist in the world,’” Bell told Access in July 2019 of filming the Veronica Mars revival. “I want her to be a zeitgeist. I want girls to reference her, I want girls to feel like her.”

Credit: Erik Pendzich/Shutterstock

On a Mission

The couple pulled all the stops to rescue their daughter Delta's Lego when she dropped it off of a hotel balcony in the middle of a wedding. "Dad jumped at the opportunity to save the day," Bell wrote on her August 2019 Instagram Story. "The problem was, the wedding guests saw some hillbillies MacGyvering some spare hotel room parts and smacking them in the bushes and didn’t know what the f--k was happening." But when Shepard pulled the Lego head up in a lunchbox hooked to an umbrella, "the whole wedding cheered."

Credit: Courtesy Kristen Bell/Instagram

Close Call

“First emergency room visit,” the Good Place star captioned an August 2019 selfie. “One hairline fracture and a finger smushed so hard in the door it popped like a jelly donut. Thank you to all who helped my baby. PS I'm not attaching a pic of the finger because there was literally burger popping out all over and it as pretty gross.”

Credit: Dax Shepard/Instagram

Looking Ahead

“My daughters will inherit cars they don't want,” the “Armchair Expert” podcast host wrote on Instagram in September 2019. “I put Delta's initials on the Roadmaster's headlights in an attempt to catalyze some intrigue. Expectations: low.”

Credit: Shutterstock

Facts

"They can be real s--ts," Bell said during an October 2019 episode of #Momsplaining With Kristen Bell.

Credit: Sarah Haas/Warner Bros.

Discipline Secrets

She went on to share advice from her husband, explaining, "Sometimes when they’re having a tantrum, treat them like the hot girl in high school. Just ignore them and they’ll come to you."

Credit: Matt Sayles/Invision/AP/Shutterstock

Rough Rankings

Shepard’s daughters think the Jonas Brothers are cooler than he is, so the “Armchair Expert” podcast host has gotten competitive. “My husband…makes good pancakes or [when he] lifts something heavy, he'll always look at them and go, 'Ooh the Jonas Brothers wish they could be me,’” Bell told E! News in November 2019. “We're always trying to tell our kids, 'Look, we're very cool. You don't think that right now, but let me just tell you something — we're really cool,' and they're like, 'No.'"

Credit: Nina Prommer/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

Pranking Partners

“They dumped easily a gallon of water onto my mattress,” Bell told Ellen DeGeneres of her daughters in November 2019. “It was saturated. Then, tucked into their sheets, they put pumpkins and a bunch of dirty underwear.”

Credit: Michael Rozman/Warner Bros.

LOL

“They’re not that smart,” Bell joked of Lincoln and Delta during a November 2019 “#Momsplaining” segment. “They can’t even say 'specific.'”

Credit: BauerGriffin/INSTARimages.com

Threats

The Frozen star told her daughters their teeth would fall out if they spilled any of the Disney sequel’s secrets. “[It’s] the best thing you can say to a kid,” Bell told Jessica Shaw in a November 2019 Sirius XM interview.

Credit: Michael Buckner/Variety/Shutterstock

Honesty Hour

The Good Place star told her eldest daughter, Lincoln, that Santa Claus is “an imaginary game we play because it’s really, really fun,” she explained in her December 2019/January 2020 Woman’s Day cover story. “When [Delta] says to me, 'Is this person a real human being?' I will have the same conversation with her as I did with Lincoln.”

Credit: ETIENNE LAURENT/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

Grateful Girls

Bell went on to tell the outlet: "Dax introduced the idea of opening gifts on Christmas morning from youngest to oldest, which I really like. I’m able to talk my daughters through who gave them each gift. I try to reiterate that these presents don’t just fall from the sky; they came from a thoughtful individual whom we need to thank."

Credit: Courtesy of Kristen Bell/Instagram

Busting a Move

“Be careful if you let daddy pick the bedtime music,” the Frozen star captioned a November 2019 video of Shepard dancing with Delta and Lincoln in their underwear. “His music choices don’t always ‘wind the kids down.’”

Credit: Courtesy of Kristen Bell/Instagram

Really Resourceful

“If your daughter ever pukes on the carpet and you can’t lift that bed up by yourself to get the rug out, jack it up,” the Frozen 2 star advised on her December 2019 Instagram Story. “Jack that bed up."

Credit: John Salangsang/Variety/Shutterstock

Tough Talk

“I have been waiting for this conversation since the day I got pregnant,” Bell captioned a December 2019 Instagram Story video of Shepard explaining the middle finger and swear words to their eldest daughter.

In the funny footage, the “Armchair Expert” podcast host could be heard telling Lincoln: “You know that’s a naughty finger and I never see you do that. It makes me so proud. That you know it, yet you don’t do it.”

Credit: Courtesy of Kirsten Bell/Instagram

So Sweet

Bell gushed about how excited her daughters were to “make daddy breakfast” after getting a cookbook for Christmas.

Credit: Eric Charbonneau/Shutterstock

Dismissed

Lincoln and Delta don't think Bell is cool, she told Us in January 2020. "I can tell because every time I try to pick out an outfit for them, they just look at me with disgust,” the actress explained. “They don’t ever want to know the secrets of Frozen, which horrifies me. It’s in your DNA to reject your parents, though, so it’s OK.”

Credit: Matt Baron/Shutterstock

On Wheels

“The only time they take them off is at night,” the Golden Globe nominee told Us of her daughters' skates in January 2020. “They roller skate to the dinner table to eat. They roller skate outside, down the steps. I s--t you not, they skate all day.”

Credit: Lloyd Bishop/NBC

Keeping It Real

Bell believes her and Shepard’s daughters are “practical” because their parents “never lie to them.” She explained on Late Night With Seth Meyers in January 2020: “Our daughter, when she was 5, said, 'Am I gonna die?' and … the air got sucked out of the room. We were like, 'This is it. What do we do? There are so many roads. Like, do we make up a story? Do we say we don't know? Do we say we know and then actually not know?’ We just said, 'Yes, you're gonna die.' And she went, 'Ugh.’ And then we said, 'And we really don't know what happens when you die. You may just become flowers.' And she went, ‘OK,’ and we were so relieved.”

Credit: Courtesy of Kristen Bell/Instagram

Whoops

"I’m very grateful for you guys because I don’t know what I’m doing," Bell gushed on her February 2020 Instagram Story after asking her followers how to get Vaseline out of her daughter's hair.

Credit: Michael Rozman/Warner Bros.

No Fear

"I’m afraid of, like, back and neck injuries whereas [Delta and Lincoln] are not," Bell told Ellen DeGeneres of rock climbing with her kids in February 2020. "Nope, [no harness]. They’re not nimble enough to get high enough where they might actually have an injury and it’s a little padded."

Credit: Eric Charbonneau/Shutterstock

Tough Times

It is “very important” to Bell that her daughters share a room, she told Self in March 2020, explaining, “I think their lives will be easier than most other people’s on the planet, and to develop a good character, it’s important to always be going through something. I like the fact that they will have to figure out how to share a bedroom, figure out how to share [a] closet, figure out how to share space. If that’s the worst thing about your life, that you have to share a bedroom with your sister, you’re going to be OK.”

Credit: Matt Baron/Shutterstock

Charitable Children

"When my kids overheard me making [a No Kid Hungry] donation, they asked if they could also donate the money from their piggy bank,” the Frozen star wrote via Instagram amid the coronavirus outbreak in March 2020. “I couldn’t have been prouder to add that extra, and important 7 dollars and 96 cents.”

Credit: Courtesy of Kristen Bell Instagram

Getting Their Groove On

The actress and her daughters were missing Shepard “so much” while he was quarantined amid the coronavirus outbreak in 2020 that they did the only “logical” thing they could — danced outside of his window to songs from Dear Evan Hansen. “#staysane,” Bell captioned a video of her, Lincoln and Delta’s dance moves.

Credit: Courtesy Kristen Bell/Instagram

Little Einstein

“Well folks, she’s done it,” the Good Place alum captioned a March 2020 Instagram photo of her daughter Delta. “Don’t get me wrong, she has more trials to do to assure its efficacy — but my 5-year-old just came into my bedroom with a vial full of colored water and told me, ‘I just made the vaccine for coronavirus!’”

Credit: EllenTube

Quarantine Crew

“I gave up, to be honest,” the actress told Ellen DeGenres of homeschooling her youngest daughter. “I threw in the towel. I attempted to give her some math problems in the beginning of this quarantine. She answered the first and second one, and then she got really sassy and wrote, ‘No’ … in the answer grid.”

Credit: Mike Smith/NBC

Parenting Police

“We should get a badge for every judgment we face,” Bell said during a Momsplaining With Kristen Bell episode in May 2020. “Left my kid with an iPad for five hours. Left my kid in the parking lot. I accidentally said, ‘F--k’ in front of my kids. I should have a few of those.”

Credit: Todd Williamson/NBCUniversal

Potty Training Problems

“My oldest daughter at 21 months, we merely suggested that she us the toilet in the other room and [she] never wore another diaper beyond that,” Bell said during a May 2020 Momsplaining With Kristen Bell episode. “We were lying in bed giggling about this, my husband and I, like, ‘Why does everyone make a big deal out of this potty training? It’s so easy. Just tell the kid to use the toilet.’ … Currently, my youngest is 5 and a half, still in diapers.”

She tweeted later that same week: "My daughter doesn't wear diapers during the day, just at night cuz her tiny bladder isn’t up for the 10 hr challenge yet.”

Credit: Hahn Lionel/ABACA/INSTARimages.com

New World

“There is this way we talk about stay-at-home moms like they don't do anything, and I think that is dead now,” Bell told LinkedIn News in May 2020. “That's gone, that's over, no one will ever think that again, and I love that because there's so much to do when you're caring for a household. It's more than a full-time job, and I'm secretly loving the fact that the world is recognizing that now.”

Credit: Erik Pendzich/Shutterstock

Key to Coparenting

Bell and Shepard have a “pretty respectful way” of balancing their parenting tasks, the actress said in a May 2020 episode of LinkedIn’s Working Together. “I’ll say, ‘Can you handle homeschooling?’ And he will say, ‘Yes,'" Bell explained. "These sit-down conversations in marriages happen to everyone. You really have to look around you and say, 'Do you feel like I contribute enough? Do you feel like this is equitable? Do you feel like you do 50 percent and I do 50 percent?’”

Credit: Invision/AP/Shutterstock

Women of the Future

Bell revealed that she and Shepard are raising anti-racists, by discussing racial injustices openly, and girls who will be strong women during a June 2020 interview with Channel Q’s The Morning Beat. “Our kids are a nightmare,” she joked. “They’re a nightmare because they will tell you your opinion. We constantly joke about the fact that we’re raising two girls that — they’re going to be a nightmare for 18 years. But God bless when we send them into the world, they are going to be formidable, opinionated, kind, morally-compassed women. And I’m so grateful for that.”

Credit: Courtesy Kristen Bell/Instagram

Sharp Objects

In addition to "near-stitches situations, ... we’ve also definitely had to move the scissors because one of our daughters has definitely cut her bangs more than a few times," Bell told Entertainment Tonight in June 2020 of quarantining with her kids.

Credit: Courtesy of Dax Shepard/Instagram

Switching Perspective

“I have to actively stare at my wife and go, ‘Oh, this is a person. She’s a little girl that grew up and she has needs and desires,’ but we’re in this business relationship where we’re raising two kids,” Shepard said during a June 2020 podcast episode. “It’s really easy to just recognize, ‘She handles X, Y and Z, I handle A, B and C, this is all working.’ [I’ve got] to regularly go, ‘Oh, she has needs just like I do. She’s a real person other than the mother of my children and my wife.'"

Credit: Matt Baron/Shutterstock

Sharing Their Secrets

"We wake [Delta] up at about 11 p.m. when she’s, like, a zombie and put her on the toilet," Bell said in June 2020 of potty training her youngest daughter.

Shepard agreed, “Yeah, we put a wet spaghetti noodle on the toilet once a night.”

Credit: Courtesy Kristen Bell/Instagram

Double Standard

The parenting police is "pretty misogynistic and aimed largely at women,” the “Armchair Expert” podcast host exclusively told Us in July 2020. "Kristen will get attacked long before I will even though we're both equally in the mix."

Credit: Courtesy of Kristen Bell/Instagram

Saying Sorry

Shepard has “no shame” arguing with Bell in front of their daughters, exclusively telling Us in July 2020: “We try to model as often as possible, like, ‘Oh, I was wrong an hour ago. When I said that, I didn’t have all the information.’ Or, ‘I was angry and I was being vengeful and that’s not fair to anyone.’”

Credit: CBS

Birds and Bees

The couple’s eldest daughter caught them “by surprise” in July 2020 when she asked if they were “going to do a sex.” Bell explained to Stephen Colbert at the time: "We've talked to her about what sex is, but we've never talked about us doing it. Dax just really quickly said, 'We'd love to, but it's illegal publicly. Bye!' and closed the door."

Credit: Matt Baron/Shutterstock

Mini Makeup Lovers

“They decided it would be fun to go into my drawer and play with my palettes,” Bell told Ashley Graham in an August 2020 Elle interview. "Nowadays, they’ll walk out of my bathroom … and I’ll say, 'Did you go into Mommy’s drawer this morning?' And they’ll just look at me and go, ‘No. No.' And I’m like, ‘OK.' I don’t know where else that conversation can go."

The actress went on to say that she is teaching Delta and Lincoln to use cosmetics “as a fun form of self-expression."

Credit: Courtesy Kristen Bell/Instagram

Mini Chefs

"Still trying to train them to make their own breakfast,” Bell captioned an August 2020 Instagram upload. "Haven't nailed it YET, but I see the positives in this picture. They were definitely trying to get different colored foods in their meal, and obviously wanted to make s'mores, but know they are not allowed to touch the stove, so at least they are following one rule! (Also the blue plate is a DOG BOWL LID)."

Credit: Courtesy of Kristen Bell/Instagram

Something to Celebrate

"Today is my husband's 16th sobriety birthday,” Bell captioned a September 2020 Instagram slideshow. "My daughter woke him up with this sign, and a sketch of the one and only Ronald Weasley (absolutely random, and also perfect)."

Credit: Erik Pendzich/Shutterstock

Oops

"They have 15-minute breaks where they're allowed to jump around and grab a snack and wiggle it out,” the actress said of her daughters' homeschooling sessions during a September 2020 “Say Yes! With Carla Hall” podcast episode. “I walk in to check on them at 9:30 and both of them are drinking an O'Doul's on their Zooms. They're both just sipping their Doulies. And I'm like, 'What must these other parents and teachers think of me?’”

Bell went on to say that the beverages make Lincoln and Delta feel "close to" their dad, who celebrated his 16th "sobriety birthday" that same month.

Credit: Courtesy of Kristen Bell/Instagram; Inset: Shutterstock

Practical Jokers

“A joke for her dad: I absolutely love my daughter’s sense of humor,” Bell captioned a September 2020 Instagram video showing a male doll propped up next to a tiny toy toilet. “[Please] note the attention to detail: yellow food coloring and chocolate chips.”

Credit: David Buchan/Variety/Shutterstock

Family First

Bell’s family loves taking off their “student and educator hats” at the end of the day amid virtual learning, she told Dr. Wendy Mogel in October 2020. "I'm going to prioritize [my daughters’] mental health, just like I prioritize my mental health,” the actress added, noting that if Lincoln and Delta become “overwhelmed,” she has no problem turning off their computers and taking breaks.

Credit: Courtesy of Kristen Bell/Instagram

Playing Pranks

Bell joked in October 2020 that she had “terrible roommates” after her daughters put her bedding in the bathroom. “They got me again,” the actress wrote on her Instagram Story. “I mean, WTF."

Credit: Courtesy of Kristen Bell/Instagram

Privacy, Please

“I don't know them yet. I don't know if they will want that,” Bell told Romper in November 2020 of keeping her kids’ faces off of social media. “So I really don't have the right to choose for them. … I chose a career in the public eye. I chose to be quoted, I chose to have my picture taken.”

Credit: Courtesy of Kristen Bell/Instagram

Boy Bands

Bell joked in January 2021 that she had “officially failed as a parent” when one of her daughters asked her to play “Here Comes the Sun” — by the Jonas Brothers instead of The Beatles.

Credit: Gregory Pace/Shutterstock; Disney/Kobal/Shutterstock

Under Wraps

Shepard told Lincoln and Delta not to let their friends know that their mom voiced Princess Anna in Frozen because it would make them “jealous.” He explained to Justin Timberlake in a January 2021 “Armchair Expert” episode: “I have a great fear that kids are gonna hangout with them solely because of that, or resent them because of that. To me, the two options both seem terrible. Either they're gonna have fake friends or they're gonna have people hate them for no reason."

Credit: Courtesy of Kristen Bell/Instagram

Getting His Groove On

In February 2021, Bell posted silly footage of Shepard dancing in front of one of their daughters while she watched a show on her iPad. "Sadly, even his best moves are no match for the gripping allure of screen time,” the actress joked.

Credit: Andrew H. Walker/Shutterstock

Telling the Truth

Shepard shared his September 2020 relapse with his daughters, he revealed during an episode of the “In Fact With Chelsea Clinton” podcast seven months later. "When I relapsed, we explained, ‘Well Daddy was on these pills for a surgery and then Daddy was a bad boy. He started getting his own pills,'” he explained in April 2021. “Yeah, we tell them the whole thing. The proudest I am of my children ever is when they admit something and say sorry. That to me is the single most impressive thing a little person can do, because it’s the bravest thing to own your shortcomings.”

Credit: Courtesy of Kristen Bell/Instagram

On the Outs

Bell shared a May 2021 Instagram photo of “effusive” letters Lincoln and Delta wrote each other, explaining, "My girls fight with each other ALOT. They can’t seem to feel like they are on the same team. Always competing. Always defensive. Maybe it's because they are close in age, and the hierarchy of care isn't clear. Maybe it's because they are both little alphas. Who knows? But they can get nasty to each other. So I sat them down and explained to them that we have a choice in life. We can spend our time on hate and fear ... or we can spend our time on love and kindness."

Credit: Courtesy of Kristen Bell/Instagram

Bravo

After Lincoln’s “second-ever” play in May 2021, Bell gushed via Instagram: "Most beautiful crab performance I've ever witnessed. We are so proud of all the work you put into it!"

Credit: Courtesy of Kristen Bell/Instagram

Stay Back

Bell showed the “threatening notes” her daughter Delta leaves around the house in June 2021. "Don't disturb, Delta is starving to death, only Mom can come in,” read one message. Another warned, “Delta's cookie. Don't eat it or else."

Credit: Michael Rozman/Warner Bros.

Movie Mayhem

“My 6-year-old has pretty consistently done this thing that drives me nuts,” Bell said of Delta during a June 2021 Ellen DeGeneres Show appearance. "We'll sit down to watch a movie, we'll be five minutes in, she'll get bored, and she'll get up to do a craft. . . . She'll sit at the table and do it for like an hour and a half, she's having so much fun, then she comes back to the couch and 10 minutes before the movie's over, she goes, 'OK, what'd I miss?' I'm like, 'That is absolutely unacceptable!'"

Credit: Courtesy of Kristen Bell/Instagram

Matching Monikers

Bell called Delta’s name a “big, big bummer” amid the coronavirus pandemic in July 2021, referencing the Delta variant. "She's 6, so she's impressed every time she sees a Delta Airlines ad or anything," she explained during a "We Are Supported By" podcast episode. "She’s like, ‘Oh, my gosh, my name!' So every time she hears anyone talk about the variant, she's like, ‘My name!' So she's still excited about it."

Credit: Courtesy of Kristen Bell/Instagram

Bad at Bathing

When Shepard told The View cohosts in August 2021 that they have gone "five or six days" without bathing their kids, Bell added, "Once you catch a whiff, that’s biology’s way of letting you know you need to clean it up. There’s a red flag, because honestly, it’s just bacteria. And once you get the bacteria, you gotta be like, ‘Get in the tub or the shower.'"

Credit: Courtesy of NBC News/TODAY

Knock, Knock

The couple briefly disappeared during an August 2021 Today interview with Al Roker after one of their daughters knocked on the door. "This, I'm sure, is about the doll's birthday," Bell said when she returned. "We found out yesterday that it's her doll's birthday, and now we have to order a cake. She's taking it very seriously."

Credit: Courtesy of Kristen Bell/Instagram

Mum's the Word

"It is very natural for a child’s development to just think everything your parents do is dorky,” Bell said during a September 2021 Daily Pop appearance. "So, [my kids] like Frozen but they do not want to hear about the fact that I’m in it.”

Credit: Courtesy of Kristen Bell/Instagram

Mixed Messages

Bell joked about the “strong women” she’s raising after telling Kelly Clarkson in September 2021 that they leave her threatening notes around the house. "Sometimes it'll be an 'I love you,' but most times, it's about what stuff is [theirs] and what not to touch," Bell says.

Credit: Courtesy of Ellen DeGeneres Show/YouTube

Shock Value

In a September 2021 Momsplaining With Kristen Bell episode, she gave grandparents a detailed explanation of different birthing positions, saying that hospitals “offer so many.” She said of her own: "[They] strap[ped] my legs up to the ceiling and they put in, like, a tampon full of get-'er-out-of-there."

Credit: Courtesy of Kristen Bell/Instagram

Compare and Contrast

"Parenting is a lot like sports — you're either winning or losing every minute of the day,” Bell said in E! News' October 2021 clip of Momsplaining With Kristen Bell. "Mostly losing, but that's what makes the winning so sweet, and fleeting. Being a parent is just weird, you know? And it helps to know you're not alone. I suggest talking to someone — even if no one is there."

Credit: Courtesy of Momsplaining With Kristen Bell

TMI

Bell was “never more in love in [her] life” than when Shepard helped her clear a clogged duct. "I said to my husband, 'I really need you to suck this out. We could talk about it, we could be weird about it, or you could just go ahead and nurse,’” the “Momsplaining With Kristen Bell” star said in an October 2021 clip. "He pulled it out. He had a cup next to him. He was pulling out and spitting into this cup."

Credit: Kristin Callahan/ACE Pictures/Shutterstock

Sex Positive

While teaching their daughters about sex, Bell told their girls that “the woman takes the man’s penis and puts it in her vagina” instead of “the man puts his penis in your vagina," Shepard told his "Armchair Expert" podcast listeners in October 2021. "Right away it's like, 'You're in charge of this and you will decide to put this in your vagina,'" he explained. "I was like, 'Oh, that's a nice little adjustment we're going to make.’”

Credit: Courtesy of Kristen Bell/Instagram

The Best Models

Resolving conflicts in front of their kids was “Dax’s idea,” Bell told Drew Barrymore in November 2021, explaining, “We don’t play games. There is too much data that tells us the kids know what’s happening no matter how you are playing it. They can sense the tension. … It’s not always possible to alleviate it in the moment because we are too pissed at each other, but he said, 'Let’s always make sure we do it in front of them the day after.' So we just model the behavior of conflict resolution in front of them."

Credit: Matt Baron/BEI/Shutterstock

In it Together

"The girls sleep on the floor of our bedroom," Bell said during a February 2022 "Armchair Expert" podcast episode, joking that this has led to a "really raunchy smell."

Credit: Ken McKay/ITV/Shutterstock

Keeping Mom Grounded

The Frozen actress revealed that her two daughters keep her grounded with their snarky quips.

"The amount of insults that they can hurl at me in a very short period of time, it really brings me back down to earth,” Bell shared in an interview with E! News in November 2022.

Credit: CAROLINE BREHMAN/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

They’re ‘Honest About Everything'

Bell revealed during a November 2022 appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! that she and Shepard are “very honest with their daughters “about everything” — including how they tried hallucinogenic mushrooms for her 40th birthday.

“It backfired a couple weeks ago because my mom came in town, who is more conservative than I am,” she recalled to Jimmy Kimmel. “We told our kids about it [and] then I overheard my daughter taking to my mom, to grandma, going, 'I'm actually really glad they share all this stuff with me. So anyway, so mom really wanted to try mushrooms, so...' And I just walked by and I was like, 'Uh-oh, uh-oh, uh-oh.' For some reason I'm more worried about telling my mom that than telling my daughter.”