Every child is different and grows at different rates, and we definitely shouldn’t be expecting every child to hit every milestone at the exact same time!
Actress and mom-of-two Kristen Bell is speaking out about this in regards to potty-training after making headlines on the subject last year when it came to her 6-year-old daughter, Delta.
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Kristen Bell really does it all!
She’s an actress, singer, producer, and maybe most importantly of all, she’s a badass mother — literally!
Kristen and her husband, actor Dax Shepard, are the proud parents of two little girls, Lincoln and Delta, and they’re not afraid of sharing all their not-so-perfect moments about parenting.
In May of last year, Kristen made headlines for admitting her then 5-year-old daughter was still in diapers.
Kristen revealed that although her older daughter, Lincoln, was potty-trained early on, Delta was still struggling with it at age five.
The news garnered a lot of attention from moms and non-moms alike, who all had an opinion on the subject.
“Currently, my youngest is 5½, still in diapers,” Kristen said at the time.
Kristen added that “every kid is so different” when it came to developmental milestones, including potty training.
Of course, there were a lot of fans who didn’t agree with Kristen’s summary of events.
Many fans felt Delta was too old to not be potty-trained properly
“Hopefully, she means pull-ups at night… otherwise, that is messed up. We potty-train to speed up the process. But any 4 year old kid, socialized at all, would want out of them at that age,” one fan tweeted .
Other fans sympathized with Kristen and her struggles.
“Quit the mom-shaming. Her child won’t be showing up to college still in diapers. She’ll be ready when she’s ready and it’s none of your business,” replied one fan in defense of Kristen and Delta.
Kristen is speaking out about the subject again.
Kristen has opened up in a new interview about why she no longer feels any shame about her youngest daughter still working on potty-training despite the mom-shaming and critique she received when the story first went viral last year.
“The reality is I have two very different children,” Kristen said.
“One got potty-trained really early,” She added. “One got potty-trained much later. Both of them are going to, I assume, graduate high school and be able to function in the world and that will never be an issue.”
“She’s tinier and she can’t hold her pee throughout the entire night,” Kristen said of Delta.
“Once we realized it wasn’t necessarily something we were doing wrong and it was just the size of her body, it lifted all of the shame,” Kristen added. “I thought, ‘Oh yeah, this is just how her body’s going to grow.'”
Kristen maintains that her child will be ready when she’s ready.
“When she hits that milestone where she has a growth spurt, her bladder will be big enough and she will be fine. She’s not going to be wearing diapers in high school!” Kristen went on.
We love to see supportive mamas!
Kristen went on to say the important part of parenting was not hitting milestones by certain ages.
“You’ve just got to nurture these little ones until they’re out of the house. That’s really the only piece of advice. Make sure they’re alive until they’re out of the house,” Kristen said.
What do you think?
Do you agree with Kristen’s laid-back approach to the whole issue, or do you think that children should be potty-trained earlier than six years old? Let us know how you feel in the comments section below!
h/t: People
