Kristen Bell Says She and Dax Shepard Let Kids Roam Theme Park Alone
Kristen Bell Says Her Daughters Like to Drink Non-Alcoholic Beer
Kristen Bell continues to parent by her own set of rules.
The Nobody Wants This star revealed that she and husband Dax Shepard took a chance with an impromptu parenting decision on a recent vacation to Copenhagen with daughters Lincoln, 11, and Delta, 9.Â
“Don’t you find that going on vacation as a parentâit’s not a vacation, it’s just watching your kids in a different city?” Kristen asked Jimmy Kimmel during a Sept. 19 appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, noting that their children are “similar ages.”
Jimmyâwho shares Katie, 33, and Kevin, 31, with ex-wife Ginna Maddy, and Jane, 10, and Billy, 7, with wife Molly McNearneyâreplied, “It’s worse than being at home.”
“Truly!” Kristen added. “Because they have none of their creature comforts, they’re asking you a thousand more questions than they normally do.”
The former Veronica Mars actress went on to share a “hack” that she and Dax came up with during their trip to the Danish city, during which they stayed at a hotel directly connected to the historic Tivoli Gardens theme park.
“We just were kinda like, ‘Are we gonna [try] like free-range parenting and roll the die here?'” Kristen recalled. “We let them wake up, they woke up at like six every morning, they scanned their bracelets to go outside â didn’t see them for seven hours. Just running around Copenhagen.”
She added, “It was heaven. We had coffee, we played spades, and then around three we’d be like, ‘Anybody see them?,’ and then they’d run up and need a Band-Aid or whatever.”
Jason Bollenbacher/Getty Images for SXSW
When Jimmy asked if their kids needed parents’ permission to go on the park’s rides, Kristen noted that “it’s real loosey-goosey over there” when it comes to rules for kids.
“They’re both alive,” she joked. “They all returned home.”
The couple, who have been married for 11 years, are no strangers to making quick parenting decisions.
In fact, as Kristen previously told E! News, their joint commitment to never lie to their children “requires a lot of brain power” and on-the-spot thinking.
“You have to filter what’s appropriate for their age group, what isn’t going to scare them too much, but just maybe enough,” she explained. “You have to make all these quick calls, all these blank decisions, and it’s hard.”
One particularly challenging moment came when one of their daughters asked where babies came from.
“One kid asked us and Dax started explaining the sperm meets the ovum, and truly, within 30 seconds, she had walked outside because she was so bored,” Kristen laughed. “So it’s worked in our favor, and we’re going to keep it up as long as we can.”
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