Keeping it real!
Dax Shepard and Kristen Bell may have two adorable daughters now, but they didn’t always want to be a family of four! In fact, their decision to expand their family was actually a very calculated choice!
On Tuesday, Dax visited The Endless Honeymoon podcast, hosted by comedian couple Natasha Leggero and Moshe Kasher, to chat about his life and answer some fan questions! During the conversation, a couple asked for advice about whether or not to expand their family with a second baby — and the Parenthood alum had a really inneresting answer!
Related: Kristen & Dax Open Up About Going To Marriage Therapy To Save Relationship
While the Armchair Expert host gave his advice, he pointed out how he and his wife “did not want a second child,” joking:
“As I’m sure you guys are feeling right now.”
Kinda harsh thing to say since he has a second child, 7-year-old daughter Delta, right? Well, he didn’t mean any harm, but in his experience, he and Kristen were so satisfied with their firstborn, Lincoln, 9 — and couldn’t imagine adding another addition, as he explained:
“You must feel so content and so full, you’re not wanting for anything.”
OK, actually, that’s very sweet! The CHIPS director went on to explain the family’s thought process — which included two major factors:
“So I think for Kristen and I, we had two thoughts. One is we travel a lot. It’s not fair to bring this little human everywhere we go and deal with only adults. We owe it to her to give her a playmate that travels with us. We love her enough to do something we don’t really want to do, which is, have a second ’cause we were so absolutely happy with just the one.”
But the second reason is based on the kids’ inherited privilege in life, he added:
“Our kids are already so privileged beyond belief.”
Since neither the CHiPs star nor the Frozen lead grew up in the spotlight or with loads of money, they feared what fame and fortune would do to their little one. And a second child seemed like something of a solution. The 47-year-old mused:
“It rattles both of us being from very modest backgrounds. So minimally to make this spoiled bitch, my firstborn, live in the same room with another person and have to share everything, like I needed a force of compromise and sharing and discomfort, ’cause I wasn’t gonna give it to her in the other ways. So I, we, just thought it would be really helpful to make her a better person to have to deal with someone else.”
LOLz!! They had a second kid mostly to not have an only child?! What an unexpected reason! We understand where he’s coming from, though. Learning to deal peers at a young age definitely instills some useful life skills in a kiddo. And a sibling is a great way to get that started.
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Dax then urged the callers (who have an eight-month-old) to try for a second baby “as quick as possible,” so the kids could form a unique bond. He reflected on his own little ones, Lincoln and Delta:
“For a minute that was difficult, ’cause when you’re 5 and the baby’s 3, that’s no fun. But I will say the corner we’ve turned is now the party. Not only do they party together, they’re united against us, which I love.”
And he means it! Dax said whenever he is “giving it to one of the girls, the other one comes over like, ‘You’re not being nice to Lincoln, you didn’t listen to what she said.'” Hah! He continued:
“And I’m like, ‘That’s right. That’s your role. You guys gang up and kill me. It’s you two against the world like that.'”
So funny!
Oh, and just because the couple had all these reasons for expanding their family doesn’t mean things played out exactly as they imagined, as Dax teased:
“It’s ironic, ’cause we’ve pretty much stopped traveling. We had two kids and all of a sudden we were like, ‘Oh, we’re never leaving town to work again.’ So ironically it didn’t even — the reason we had — it didn’t even come to fruition. But that doesn’t matter.”
Everything happens for a reason! And just for the record, despite these candid comments, it’s always been very clear Dax and Kristen love both their kids so so much! Though this will certainly be a strange thing for Delta to read one day… LOLz! Hear more from the podcast (below)!
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[Image via Dax Shepard/Kristen Bell/Instagram]