Let Kristen Bell Make You Feel Better About Your Misbehaving Kids
Kristen Bell unlocks a parenting secret we all need to hear
As if she weren’t role model worthy enough, “The Good Place” star and all-around sweetheart Kristen Bell knows how you can find your parenting zen: by letting your kids take the blame.
In a recent interview with Babble in which she was asked to describe the most embarrassing thing her kids have ever done, Bell took a different tack. Instead of taking the bait and sharing what we’re sure are dozens of stories, the mom of two went high. Unless you’re her kids.
“If my child is acting a fool in the grocery store, the embarrassment is on her,” the Bad Moms star explains. “In truth, that shouldn’t make me feel a certain way.”
Hear, hear! It’s about time parents started putting the blame for their kids bad behavior where it belongs: on the kids!
Bell continues, “She’s going to act the way a child acts, and I’m not going to let that reflect on me or bring me down. That shouldn’t make me feel ashamed or embarrassed in any way. Only you can make you feel a certain way.”
Kudos to Bell for finding a way to keep her sanity in the face of her kids’ worst behavior. having that kind of awareness and control over your reactions is probably the ultimate key to parenting. If you can manage it.
The actress went on to talk about managing your moods in general.
“Once the negative feeling starts to own you, it’s on you to put it in the trash and let it go. You are the only person that has the power to change your feelings.”
This strikes me as both incredibly reasonable and terribly difficult. Kind of like telling someone who’s depressed to stop being depressed. (Not that kids make you depressed. Tired and frustrated and annoyed and yes, embarrassed, whether you like it or not, but not depressed. (And if they do, talk to someone.)) But when it comes to surviving life with kids, who are gonna act up and make scenes no matter how well-trained they are, that kind of self-control is handy.
Not everyone is able to calibrate their emotions so easily, or shrug off the judgmental eyes of a Target store full of Parents Who Are Better At It Than You. If you can, more power to you! You’re a better (wo)man than I. I’m all for putting the responsibility for your kids’ behavior on your kids, but that doesn’t mean I can stop myself from feeling like crap about it.
Not as crappy as those judgmental busybodies should feel, but still.
