Kristen Bell is an open book when it comes to her daughters Delta, 8, and Lincoln, 9.
The actress, who shares her girls with husband Dax Shepard, whom she married in 2013, tells REAL SIMPLE of talking to her kids about anything and everything: “I hate the word ‘taboo.’
“I think it should be stricken from the dictionary. There should be no topic that’s off the table for people to talk about. I know it’s shocking, but I talk to my kids about drugs, and the fact that their daddy is an addict, and he’s in recovery, and we talk about sex.
“There are all these ‘hard topics’ that don’t have to be if you give the person on the other end your vulnerability and a little bit of credit.”
Bell goes on to say of what her husband’s addiction taught her: “When I met my husband, he’d just recently started to be in recovery. If he found a pill, he’d be gone for three days. He’d miss Christmas and do lots of things that are inarguably bad things.
“I was a goody-goody with a temper. He was vulnerable and communicative. That scrambled my brain, because I was like, ‘I’m the one who does things right, OK?’ And he was like, ‘But you don’t, because you’re scared to say what you really feel.’ It was hard for me to say when something scared me. I realized that when I talked more about my fears, I gained more respect from not just my husband but everyone in my life.”
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Elsewhere in the interview, Bell shares the number one thing she’s teaching her kids.
READ MORE: Kristen Bell Says Telling Her And Dax Shepard’s Kids About Doing Mushrooms Backfired
She tells the mag, “Making amends and apologizing is an important thing in our family, because humans leave carnage wherever they go. I really respect when someone does something wrong or hurtful and they apologize.
“I’m like, ‘Yeah, right on.’ That’s important. If there’s one thing I want to teach my kids, it’s how to make amends—and that it’s for themselves, so they can like who’s in the mirror a little bit more.”
REAL SIMPLE’s digital issue is available now here and the print issue is on sale February 17.
