Kristen Bell: Being a mother is an absolutely unmissable part of life
Kristen Bell covers the May issue of Good Housekeeping to promote her role in House of Lies. She barely talks about the show other than to say she’s not stressing about her career. Motherhood is her main priority. Kristen gave birth to her second daughter, Delta, last December. So there’s the obligatory discussion of baby weight, which I omitted because Kristen’s doing the “I’m not worried about it, I burn off calories running after my kids” shtick. I think she is more focused on weight than she reveals, mostly because she talks about having exactly 17 pounds left to lose.
The interview is very long, so I’ve grabbed some bits and pieces with the full piece available here (including lots of stuff on her pro-vax stance). She talks about her childbirth process and raves about how epidurals make you feel great again. She admits to naming her second baby Delta because it sounds, “badass” (sorry, Designing Women fans). What I find most interesting are the parts about couple’s therapy and how she considers motherhood to be an “unmissable” experience in life:
On regular couples therapy: “I thought I had this life thing down pat when I met Dax. I didn’t realize that I needed a much bigger toolbox to have confrontations and disagreements with people. You do better in the gym with a trainer; you don’t figure out how to cook without reading a recipe. Therapy is not something to be embarrassed about. … I don’t mind advertising a healthy marriage. I’m trying, just like everyone else.”
She loves being a mom: “I wasn’t positive I wanted kids. But I can now confirm having them is absolutely unmissable. Before we had the girls, I asked a few people in my life who are annoyingly blunt and honest on every level if we should, knowing that if it wasn’t worth it, they’d have the balls to say, ‘Listen, don’t. Live your life.’ But across the board, everyone said it was unmissable. When Lincoln came out, at first I was like, ‘Eh, what do I do with it? I can take it home?’ But when I started breastfeeding, the oxytocin or my hormones or hundreds of thousands of years of evolution kicked in. I didn’t want to let her go. Having kids feels like that first seventh-grade crush that overwhelms every molecule in your body, but it’s permanent.”
Motherhood is karma: “I never understood my mom until I had kids. When she would look at me like I was the first drop of water she’d seen at the end of a desert trip and go, “You will never understand how much I love you,” I would go, “God, get away! Enough!” Even in my 20s, I just thought, “You’re so dramatic and overly sentimental.” Now I look at my kids that way and think, “Wow, this is a cycle.” Lincoln won’t understand it until she decides to have kids … that’s just the way it’s supposed to be. Motherhood right-sized everything for me. I’m happier, and I was pretty happy before.”
[From Good Housekeeping]
Dax also pops into the interview when the counseling subject comes up. He’s totally into regular couples therapy and doesn’t see why there’s such a stigma. I think there’s nothing wrong with therapy, but it often doesn’t work because lots of married couples try it as a last ditch effort. Sort of like trying to repair a car that hasn’t had an oil change in 15 years.
Kristen talks about many other things, including baby sign language classes (which CB covered already). She also discusses how heartbroken she was to have a second C-section with baby Delta. Kristen didn’t have a 70-hour labor like Jill Duggar, but she labored for over 24 hours when doctors told her it was finally time. Kristen says she fretted over Delta and Lincoln feeling unbonded because mommy couldn’t lift them for six weeks. I understand that concern, but it sounds like Kristen has more than made up for that brief period.
Photos courtesy of Good Housekeeping & WENN
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