Over the summer, Mila Kunis & Ashton Kutcher confessed to rarely bathing their two children. Mila and Ashton appeared on Dax Shepard’s podcast, and they were all bonding about how it’s not necessary to regularly bathe kids and Mila even said that she never bathed her babies and now that the kids were older, she waits until she can see the dirt on them. It was the start of Dirty Ass Summer, where celebrities were all commenting about how infrequently they bathed or how often they bathed their children. So, Mila is on Ellen’s show today and of course Ellen asked her about this (literal) mess. Mila’s answers were not good.
During an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show that airs on Tuesday, Sept. 28, the Bad Moms star, 38, addressed the previous furor surrounding her remarks about bathing. As soon as host Ellen DeGeneres mentioned that “a lot of people are talking” about the couple’s comment, the actress groaned and said while Ellen was still talking, “It’s so dumb.”
A seemingly annoyed Mila immediately followed up with, “We bathe our dogs. Does that make people happy?” When Ellen asked to clarify whether the couple bathes their dogs more often than they do the kids, Mila replied, “Fact, yes.”
The star continued, “I know, this was blown…oy, yoi, yoi.” She shared about the podcast chat, “Then we all started talking that we don’t bathe our children very often, and/or ourselves. Well, I shower every day, but I don’t wash my hair every day. Like, I don’t find that to be a necessity.”
Mila told Ellen that her “intent” is to bathe the kids daily, but then things don’t work out as planned. “I wake up every day and like, ‘Today, ‘I’m going to shower my kids.’ And then bedtime happens, and I forgot to feed them.”
She went on to mock the other celebs who have contributed to the discourse, saying, “But apparently, The Rock showers, so congratulations, The Rock. You shower.” This led Mila to throw her hands in the air to apparently express she was flustered.
After Ellen again wanted to confirm that Mila herself showers but she just doesn’t regularly bathe her kids, the Ted actress said that her kids touch “a body of water” almost every other day. When pushed for more details, Mila continued, “Sometimes it’s the pool, sometimes it’s a sprinkler. It’s COVID. Who showered in COVID? We didn’t leave the house. Who cares?”
At the end of the conversation, Mila quipped that she didn’t make “this story any better right now,” leading Ellen to point out things got worse when she “added to it that you forgot to feed them.” A weary Mila clarified that she was just joking about not feeding them.
So now she claims to shower every day… and I don’t believe her. While I understand the idea behind “if the kids are in the pool all day, they don’t need a shower,” surely there’s a limit to how long that should happen? Like, the pool doesn’t wash off everything. And you’ve got kids wandering around covered in chlorine and sunblock constantly. Basically, I remain unconvinced that Mila and Ashton are bathing their kids regularly. I also feel like this was not the moment for Mila to mock people like The Rock who shower regularly and take care of themselves.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
Whoops!
Yep, what an idiot… Is there anyone in Hollywood using the diplomatic “no further comments will be released at this time”?
And mocking the Rock in the process, hmmm… Not a good professional strategy in that regard…
THE POOL IS NOT CLEANING YOUR CHILDREN. getting wet is not the same thing as bathing either, so just letting them run through the sprinkler isn’t actually getting them clean. I’m not saying they necessarily need to take a shower everyday, although I know how grubby kids are so it probably would be a good idea. I take a shower every other day and wash my hair every other day unless I did something in particular that made me feel gross.
yeah right? I love to jump in the pool after getting super sweaty from yard work or whatever, but when I dry off, I’m still funky. There is still a film of whatever on me, and now it includes chlorine. It’s nasty!
RIGHT! I HATE the idea that a pool does the same work as cleaning-honestly, rinsing in fresh water would be better than just tossing them in the pool
Apparently they find that chlorine cleans the kids. What’s next, put soap in the pool to clean them so that there will be no need to bathe them? FFS, when my children were infants, they were bathed every day!! All those rolls that they had always had bits of food or breast milk fermenting in those roles. As for when they were toddlers, if they weren’t dunked, they were wiped down with a face cloth with soap on every inch of their body!! It’s not that hard Mila and Ashton!!! Get a face cloth and start from the top and work down to the toes!!! Which always fascinated me as to how dirty their feet were as well, even if they wore socks/shoes!!
So she doesn’t bathe OR feed the kids regularly? Mila, if you’re trying to be cute or funny, this isn’t it.
They must have a nanny. What is the problem? Anyway, they brought it up so, play stupid games…
They do have a nanny.
That is true. The Nanny is the one who washes and feeds them every day.
The pool issue is a “fight” my husband and I get into regularly. I’ll say something like “okay they need to shower” and he says “well they just got back from the pool.” Are they using soap in the pool? No. I mean its better than nothing but its not washing their bodies .Same with sprinklers. We belong to a local pool so I just shower them off really quick and wash them down with soap before we go home, and its NBD.
I don’t wash my hair every day so I’m with Mila on that, lol.
But who washes their dogs more than their kids? My dogs are way more of a pain to wash lol.
You really id you really take seriously all this talk about this… oh Dear…. oh well…. ridiculous
@Jane — right? This topic always just kills me that people take this seriously enough to flog that high horse
Regular bathing is a high horse?
So ridiculous and exhausting. I’m team Mila. The joke about not feeding them was obviously a JOKE. Who cares, I’m sure their kids are loved and taken care of.
A pool has overly chlorinated water. How does that work for skin and hair?
Ugh, it doesn’t! I commented about this below but it’s terrible for your hair, even wearing a swim cap when I was a swimmer I still used a special shampoo. My only thought is perhaps they have a salt water pool. A friend of mine has one and they’re really nice, not quite the same havoc on hair and skin (that I’m aware of, I don’t know too much about them). All I can think is what a priority showing was (of course before getting in the pool) but also afterward.
We have a salt water pool/spa, but it’s still not the same. It is much nicer though than all that frickin chlorine!!
That was my first thought, too. In any case, swimming isn’t washing yourself.
Pools are FILTHY. Good Lord. Just bathe your kids, FFS!
All these years of human progress from the Enlightenment onwards, the rise of science in contrast to mediaevalist superstition, the evolution of plumbing, antibiotics, vaccines, indoor lavatories and baths, the proven destruction caused by malign microbiota and the simple, universal panacea of soap – and then comes Mila Kunis and other unwashed ‘celebrities’, making a virtue out of their grossness.
I despair.
I just love this comment.
Me too! 🙂
Pool chemicals are not exactly the best thing for the skin and really should be washed off.
We only bathe our kids 2-3 times a week and we have definitely used the pool excuse before. So I’ll see myself out of this super judgey thread.
Gross
Same, girl lol. They both seem to be getting work, I’m sure it’s fine ,whatever. I’ve used the pool excuse and the beach excuse. This obsession with bathing – who bathes when – is just weird to me. I’m certainly not going to cancel someone over their personal bathing habits lol
I live in South Florida and I know The Rock went to college in my hometown. If you live here and don’t shower daily you are nasty AF. It is like 99.99% humidity six months out of the year. Swamp ass is real down here. Almost everyone I know, regardless of where they are from originally, is a clean and shower freak. And I have no idea what beach you are going to but there is no ocean near me that is anywhere near clean enough to be a substitute for a shower. That’s just gross.
I’m actually quite a bit farther north than you, but I do hear you. But yeah, I’m guilty of letting my kids take a day off after a day at the beach. My point is really, I don’t consider it gross – you do. That’s okay. We’re not around you, Mila, Ashton, their kids, aren’t around me, so I just can’t really care. At this point, my kids are old enough to handle their own bathing, so I’m glad that’s one less way for people to judge my parenting LOL
LOL don’t feel judged! my kids don’t shower every day. But there’s a difference between every other day or so and what Mila seems to be describing. I get the impression she’s washing her kids once a week, maybe not even that.
@Millenial Same.
Thank you. My god, I guess if H & M announce they don’t bathe their kids every day all these judgy mcjudges on this thread will do a 360 and extoll virtues of building up a small bit of grime to fight off germs.
Okay. So why do you feel the need to throw H & M into this soup? If YOU don’t wash, that’s your business. If you admire those who, like you, don’t wash – that’s fine too. But the reflexive need for some people to hide behind others, unrelated to the issue is ridiculous. You just sound so defensive, and there’s no need to be.
😅
Hmmm, I think the correct move at this point is to just shut up.
So I have a 5 year old and twin 1 year olds. With the twins, literally food in their hair, getting licked by the dog, crawling all over the floors, playing in the dirt…not to mention sitting in a diaper with butt paste…the thought of not doing a basic rinse off and quick scrub down sits very poorly with me. With my 5 year old, again…even in lockdown he was playing outside in our yard, getting sweaty, sometimes going in a pool, but (maybe it’s because I was a competitive swimmer) showing at the very least after swimming in a pool is a priority because of all the chemicals. Not only that but at least for us, bath time triggers bedtime and part of us keeping a routine. Some days are better than others but it’s so bizarre to me it feels like she’s trying to create a narrative of “why is this such a big deal” when they opened this can of nonsensical worms that makes such little sense (esp considering they have a nanny).
Yeah, when my kids were around that same age there was no way I was letting them get into bed after all that without a bath or shower.
The pool thing is so weird to me (maybe that’s because I grew up going to the pool) because I use it as an excuse TO shower because you have all the chemicals on your skin and in your hair not to mention all the other bodies in the pool with you and the inevitable sunscreen you are wearing. How can you sleep smelling like that and waking up with dry skin and stiff hair? Idk.
When my kids went to outdoor day camp they showered every single night because they came home sweaty and dirty and there was no way I could let them go to bed like that. Was it a PITA? Yes but it had to be done.
@ Erin, to which you probably wanted to hose them down before they came into the house returning from day camp! My gosh, my kids are in their 30’s and I can STILL smell that stink kid smell!! It’s revolting!!
Plus, when mine were weee little ones, we lived in S. FL and SE Texas, so there was water evolved everyday. Plus, as @ Sunnydaze mentioned, it’s a wonderful opportunity to create a routine with bathing followed by a book, or two. My daughter still does that in fact. She bathes at night and reads afterwards. I read to them after they bathed each night, or before they went to bed.
Yet again what is unacceptable when you’re poor is praised when you have money. If my single mom had told everyone she rarely bathes or feeds us, we’d have been taken away.
@Am: Absolutely!
I don’t see anyone praising them.
Sorry but her ‘clarifications’ don’t fly. This woman is straight up naSSy!
I’m sorry but she, her husband, Dax & Kristen just all come across as unhygienic to me.
And lazy too!
Honestly, I’m chalking this all up to lazy parenting. They don’t genuinely believe their kids don’t need bathed, they just can’t be bothered, and make up endless excuses to validate themselves.
My sil is a good mother, but she’s incredibly lazy about enforcing rules that the kids don’t like! She just can’t be bothered with the hassle.
Everyone needs to chill. Many people have salt water pools these days. I force my kid into the tub once a week and he is not suffering. When they hit their teen years or join a sports team showering will become more frequent. It’s covid. None of us are going out (I hope). We should all be more relaxed. And yay to saving our most important resource – water.
I don’t know where you live but in U.k. we’ve resumed normal activities for months now and if I were to show up unshowered at work I’d be fired.
I even wash my cats if they get smelly, go figure …
Agreed. While I understand people don’t want a chlorine residue (and they probably have an outdoor shower by the pool to rinse that off) chlorine is antibacterial, that’s the whole point. It probably kills more germs than soap.
I completely appreciate the point about what flies for privileged people doesn’t for others. But I’ve also learned about the marketing of soap and how the industry created a problem to sell us things. We overclean our children and protect them too much from everyday dirt and grime, which is correlated with conditions like asthma being on the rise. I think it’s okay for children to be a bit mucky, personally. And I kind of agree that if they don’t smell they’re not dirty! Hand washing is needed as much as possible in COVID times but everything else kind of gets a shrug from me!
@ Sasha, I agree that it’s perfectly fine if your children are not bathed every day, as I mentioned. It’s good for them to build up their antibodies with being in the outdoors and getting into the dirt. But, there is a limit! It’s fine if you don’t dunk them every night, but they should be wiped down from head to toe everyday. That’s my opinion, but I have lived in Texas a majority of my life and S. FL, which is 110% humidity every day.
I just think that this is a hot button because so many people have a varying definition in regards to bathing their children, as they don’t have the ability to bathe themselves everyday. So, we are just voicing our opinion directed at the lack of awareness as to the importance of Mila and Ashton bathing their children. Apparently, Mila and Ashton are pissed that people are calling them out on their laziness.
Where did you learn this? Like a documentary? I am always wary of using correlations to caution against something. I mean, for a start, seasonal allergies keep getting worse year after year, which also could explain increased cases of asthma maybe more than people washing their bodies with soap?
As for Mila et. al. I am not gonna shame her for her personal bathing habits any more than I was going to shame Kate Hudson for letting her 3 year old have a binky. If it’s not hurting others then they can do what works for them.
The only thing I can think of is how she’s coming across a stuck up, whining person. Woman, you’re the one with your husband, not bathing your kids, don’t be mad at me for judging.
I thought they were saying they don’t use soap anywhere but the stinky places on themselves. Personally when my kids were small they didn’t need a shower or bath every single day especially in the summer when they are swimming so much. I don’t know why this is such a big deal.
In the summer, when they have far more exposure to chlorine/salt/sand/nature grit, you think they need to bathe less?
This is just a cultural divide, I guess because I don’t understand this logic.
Honestly, kids won’t die if they don’t bathe daily so I don’t think it’s the end of the world at all. I just find the arguments against daily bathing illogical. Just say you don’t do it daily because you don’t want to bathe them daily. It makes far much sense than pretending dirt and chemicals don’t exist.
I truly never did bathe my kids every day. And it’s 100% because I don’t feel like it and they aren’t being harmed by it.
Agreed. While I understand people don’t want a chlorine residue (and they probably have an outdoor shower by the pool to rinse that off) chlorine is antibacterial, that’s the whole point. It probably kills more germs than soap.
I don’t remember any of us kids going unshowered to bed after the beach and a bath in the sea… and I was a kid in the 1970s….
Yeah I don’t think it’s a big deal either. My nieces lived with me when they were little and they had their nightly baths but some days we didn’t get to it and it was ok. They had a rough time at home so we played and did fun things and laughed a lot, and if they fell asleep on the couch watching Frozen before bath time it’s OK. The worry here is neglect and it doesn’t sound like that’s the issue, more like a busy mom that should probably stop talking about this stuff publicly.
But do they touch soap as well? I’m guessing not. Yeah I think she’s embarrassed by the backlash and is now claiming to bathe regularly. Instead of you know…ACTUALLY bathing regularly.
That is just so lazy. They can have the nanny bathe the kids ffs!
All this to avoid admitting that your nanny is an invaluable member of your household so while you don’t bathe them daily, you’re certain the nanny does and it’s fine.
But God knows how hard it is for people to admit they don’t just hire help but actually use it.
I’m wondering if the kids even wash their hands before eating. Gross.
And Covid is no excuse to not bathe. Covid is an excuse to bathe more, because you need to get germs off of you when going to the store, etc.
Lazy parenting. I was a single, working mom who sometimes worked 10 hour days when my kid was younger. I still managed to bathe my kid and brush her teeth before bed. And sometimes I was up until 1am after waiting for said kid to go to sleep so I could take my own shower in peace! Kids in general are pretty gross and germy. She also says sometimes the forgets to feed them too? You have two parents at home and they don’t work regular grueling hours like the rest of us so really, what is the excuse??
I just throw my kid into the dishwasher every other day whether she needs it or not. That JetDry stuff is great for her hair.
As long as you throw’em a pop-tart when they come out you should be fine .
Mija, no aclare que oscurece.
I remember the magazine spread they did for their house (fancy barn), it looked really pretty. Now I believe it legitimately smells like a barn. Gross!
And her clarifications weren’t cute or funny. They were try hard and there was no need to come at The Rock like that.
I know it’s not necessary for a person to be likable but damn….she sounds really unlikable now. What a bratty, petulant answer to a mess of her and Ashton’s own making.
I thought that too. I was wondering if she sounds different “live,” but in print she sounds annoying.
She has always been like this. A few years ago she was interviewed by a journalist when she first started dating Ashton and she pointed out that Mila was really bratty and rude.
That interview has since been scrubbed from the internet.
She’s has a habit of being “out of touch” at times.
She has always been like this. A few years ago she was interviewed by a journalist when she first started dating Ashton and she pointed out that Mila was really bratty and rude.
That interview has since been scrubbed from the internet.
Why was she annoyed by The Rock in particular? A lot of celebrities weighed in. I assume they were all asked.
Never seen someone annoyed by someone’s admission of bathing before. Interesting.
I don’t get this idea that people didn’t bothering showering because of covid. I live alone and even at the height of lockdown I took a shower every day. I went for a walk. I made rare visits to the supermarket and pharmacy. Which was allowed. But even if I didn’t, I don’t shower for other people. I shower for me. To be clean. I don’t want to smell myself even if other people can’t smell me.
Idk if it’s just me but I feel grosser staying home for days than when I’m going to work every day.
I think it’s the lack of clean routine when you aren’t going anywhere. Plus I get sweatier, damper, etc when I’m braless, in my pajamas, or in workout clothes.
I guess I would assume the nanny is bathing the kids, and Mila and Ashton aren’t bathing themselves.
In the end, I’m not their friends, so I don’t really care what they do, but why did they bring this up if they don’t want anyone forming an opinion about it?
I feel like I’m taking crazy pills. As a species we have historically bathed once or twice a week. Multiple dermatologists have told me that bathing every day or even every other day strips the oils your skin needs to be healthy and nourished too regularly, especially if the water is hot. Like… what do you guys imagine is happening to a body hanging out in an air conditioner home in a matter of 24 hours that is so disgusting it needs to be vigorously scrubbed off? I grant you that if you get dirty or stinky, if you are going through puberty, or if you are a person whose natural BO builds quickly, daily showers are likely appropriate. But I don’t understand why so many people here think that scrubbing your body with soap every day is necessary for everyone in every circumstance.
You are too logical for most of the people here.
Same.
During quarantine (er and even not) I didn’t make my small kids bathe or shower every day either. And yes we have a pool they spent every day in. Hell, even now they’re in school we have an every other night shower schedule.
I have three kids, one husband, one shower. No way all five of us are bathing every day at this point, mostly because all my kids are still little enough to need our help. I don’t have time and I also don’t have a nanny. Once they’re independent they can shower every day, three times a day, whatever they like
I also don’t go around bragging about their bathing schedule or lack there of. To me that is the true WTFery of all of this
So well said. Also, when mold/humidty can be an issue that has to be factored in beyond the omg germs! Omg sweat! tone that sometimes happens on these threads. My baby is bathed every second day.
When you have five people in a shower, using it twice as much also means more tile/ tub scrubing, more electricity and water costs with the extra laundry you are doing.
And what about people who don’t have access to enough water to shower every day?
I’m thinking about the people living in the African village I visited 3 years ago (my kid’s dad is from the area and spends time there every year).
I was able to shower with a bucket of water (it’s actually super pleasant to throw a bucket of water on oneself), but it was a hassle to get the water from the reserve, and bring it to our makeshift bathroom.
The people in that village didn’t have running water, so definitely didn’t shower every day.
Is this gross?
I don’t think so!
It’s a bit insensitive me thinks, to use this word (gross) in the context of one’s perception of cleanliness. One can be very clean without bathing every day. That is a fact.
Eh, I spend hours daily at work , on the commute , gym , stores etc and I don’t know how often or what method folks around me use to bathe. If someone stinks , they stink … could have showered an hour ago. Could have been last week.
These threads just bring out the sanctimommies. I’ll take a stinky ass over a shitty attitude any day.