Kristen Bell recently shared a post dedicated to her husband’s 14th year of sobreity. Kristen and Dax Shepard have been married since 2013 and they have two daughters together: Lincoln, 5, and Delta, 3. (They’ve been together since 2007, got engaged in 2009 and waited to get married until same sex marriage was legal again.) These two spearheaded the “no kids policy” in 2014 which resulted in increased protections for children of celebrities baby. While they’ve shared embarrassing stories about their kids and traded on their family image to sell projects and products, they’ve never shared photos of their children’s faces on social media, which is admirable in a way. (Dax has shared a video of Lincoln riding a mini motorcycle and recently Kristen posted a photo walking Lincoln to kindergarten, shot from behind.) So it’s nice that Kristen posted some baby photos along with this message to Dax on his sobriety anniversary. Kristen used cute emojis to cover her children’s faces, which makes me think that her daughters are really happy and well behaved behind those cartoon faces. Here’s what Kristen wrote:
At least Kristen and Dax are somewhat consistent about protecting their children’s identities. I still think Kristen shouldn’t have told the pinworm story about her youngest daughter, which she shared multiple times in different contexts. As the mom of a teenager, I know her daughters will appreciate their privacy when they reach that age. They’ll also surely be mortified by many other things their parents do.
In terms of Dax’s sobriety, both of them have been open and honest about his past struggles with addiction. 14 years of sobriety is amazing. I do think Kristen is right that Dax has helped a lot of people. Look at Ben Affleck. It doesn’t matter if you have tens of millions in the bank, are an Oscar winner, or date Playboy models. Addiction will kick your ass.
Also, that story about having to put their dog down got to me.
Embed from Getty Images
Embed from Getty Images
Look at their dogs!
Photos credit: Getty and Getty Images for Baby2Baby, sent via promotional email
I like them both but I always thought it was a little disingenuous that they talk about the intricacies of their kids’ lives and don’t think that is as much – if not more – of a violation of their privacy.
Agreed.
Choosing to talk about your own children and having strangers frighten and take pictures of your children without your consent is different.
You are in control of one situation and have zero control of the other. Being able to own what you put out there versus not having any control over images of your children and how they are taken and the narrative that is formed around them.
I wouldn’t say they are heavy on sharing the intricate details of the children’s lives. That would be Kardashian territory.
I beg to differ. When kids do not have the age – or the maturity – to give consent, you are being your own child’s paparazzo. Not great for people with 100 followers. Terrible for people with millions of followers.
That is exactly why you don’t know what their kids look like and they have millions of followers. You just proved my point, they protect their children. They cover their faces.
@Reese, you’re sharing their intimacy, cute or embarrassing moments for everyone who knows them. Even if you don’t show them now they will have some notoriety in the future most likely. Or the people’ they’ll meet will know stuff about them. How is that protecting anyone?
These children will never live in what would be considered a “normal” setting by sheer relation to their famous and rich parents.
They will grow up in a privileged manner that the majority of the humans on this planet can only ever dream about.
Sharing a couple? How many stories are we actually talking about? Is going to have a major impact and breach of privacy to the same extent of having random strangers jump out of bushes and snap your picture?
Having strangers walk down the street and be able to recognize you? Know your name because they public has grown up with your image? Imagine having some random person calling your child by their name because they recognise them by a pictures?
The two are not the same.
*sighs* I don’t think we are talking about the same thing. I believe that kids’ stuff being constantly photographed and shared in social media turns them into psychological experiments (i.e. behaving for the camera / lack of privacy and judgement) whose consequences will only be known when these new social media babies hit 40.
We are living something akin to the hippie times where there were lots of good stuff coming from testing educational and social boundaries but a lot of crappy parenting was also going on. And lots of films were made about those times, lots of books written (Joan Didion’s for instance), about how people took the message of love and twisted it completely. Like we are doing currently with accessibility i.e. the beauty of us probably being in different continents having a chat now turned into a self-reflexive, self-advertising, children-cuteness exploiting medium.
One thing I agree with. These two are far less obnoxious than most people who post things of their kids and are at least protective of their identities.
I agree there’s a big difference between parent control photos vs. paparazzi, and I also like that they don’t put their kids faces out there. I have no idea what their kids look like. All young kids of celebs should have that anonymity.
If I were a famous parent, I would probably be a little more strict than them in what stories I shared publicly, but overall I think their approach to the kids’ privacy is a good thing.
When you share stories about your kids, you create a narrative when there wasn’t one – meaning you take a piece of their privacy by initiating it all. No, it’s not a paparazzi camera in the kids’ faces, but it’s still somewhat of an invasion.
Posting pics of your kids from behind or with Emoji’s over the faces is disingenuous. Stop with the hypocrisy.
I must be missing something…instead of posting kid’s pics with their faces covered, how about not posting any of them at all?
they don’t mind doing commercials with other people’s children. is privacy only for some children?
Pretty sure children whose families have chosen to bring them to auditions and put them in commercials and get paid for it aren’t looking for privacy? They are. I don’t think paparazzi are out hounding a random 4 year old from a Samsung commercial to sell the pictures they way they would the Bell-Shephard kids if they could.
the children are not at an age to consent.
These two can eff right off. I don’t care about these neurotic fools.
I hate them too. I think they are fake. That pic of herself crying at a kids preschool graduation sealed it for me. Her feeling a tear in her eye and going, “oh! The fans will love this! It’s so real! Lemme take a picture of MYSELF at a kids life event. “
I will never understand the mentality of some celebrities that the only way that the only way their kids get exploited is by pictures. Why post photos at all? Or just keep your Instagram private? This seems like selective privacy concerns.
I think it’s admirable, too, I don’t understand the criticism. She and Dax can tell all the stories they want, but their girls can go to a park with grandma and no one will know who they are. I read a lot of celebrity gossip — obvi — and I have no idea what their faces look like.
She is… not the greatest at metaphors.
You are the “fertiliser”?! Accidentally hilarious. You’re calling your husband poop.
Ok, ok, I am not an expert in fertilisers and some of them maybe are not poop, but that’s where my mind went.
But. Always good to know that someone chose the good path and is strong. Congrats Dax.
The pix of him mocking her at wedding are funny. I like him more than I used too. I don’t care much about pinworm mama though. I tend to get on better with men, even though I love my sisters and besties. Even my husband realizes my infinity for a one on one chat with his buddies on basketball, politics. Whatever….🤔
I didn’t realize that women don’t keep up with basketball or politics.
I do obviously. I just have better relationships with men, always have.
To be honest everytime I see a post about these two I expect a divorce announcement…
Back to the story, 14 years of sobriety is an awesome achievement!
If you guys love them, you should listen to Dax’s podcast “Armchair Expert”. “Bell” (as Dax affectionately calls her) is interviewed and Dax gives a short intro explaining that they were irritating the crap of each other before he interviewed her and he almost decided not to air it but then decided that it was real and married people get on each other’s nerves all the time and that it should just be what it is. It’s a great interview and they clearly love each other.
The other interviews are all well done and Dax does a good job interviewing his friends (and oversharing about himself). I love Seth Rogan but couldn’t listen to 2 hours of just his voice. The interview with Jon Favreau (Obama’s speechwriter) was very interesting. Mea Whitman was really interesting and David Harbour is swoon-worthy!
I’m super into this podcast!
me too! They’d be a lot of fun to hang around too I think.
You are the fertilizer for the garden of our life???? Are you f-ing kidding me?!!