Any mom who has experienced childbirth knows it comes with a mixed bag of both emotions and physical feelings.
Two such cases? Jennifer Garner and Kristen Bell, who sat down to chat with other moms about a variety of parenting topics in the season 4 premiere of Momsplaining with Kristen Bell.
One mom named Emilie Haskell, who is five months pregnant with her first child, tells the actresses that she’s “feeling pretty good” but “starting to get a little bit nervous about labor.”
“I think it is the most romantic day you’ll ever experience,” replies the Peppermint star, 47. (She and ex Ben Affleck are parents to son Samuel Garner, 7½, plus daughters Seraphina Rose Elizabeth, 10, and Violet Anne, 13).
“You’re a better person than I am because I was gonna say, ‘It’s gonna look like a homicide,’ ” counters Bell, 39, who shares two daughters with husband Dax Shepard: 4½-year-old Delta and her big sister Lincoln, 6½. “Way more blood than you think there should be.”
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How Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard Teach Their Young Daughters the Truth: “We Don’t Dumb It Down”
Another of Bell’s guests, Deanna Clower, is mom to a 3-month-old baby. Currently on maternity leave, she asks for Bell and Garner’s guidance on how to “get back to feeling like Deanna the person instead of Deanna with a newborn” baby: “When does it get better? When do you start to feel like yourself again?”
“The answer’s never. You’re not gonna,” The Good Place star tells her flatly after looking at Garner, who purses her lips and shakes her head knowingly. “Because you’re a different self. And it’s important to talk to others. Momming is hard, but it’s worth it.”
Another piece of advice the actresses give is to Megan Safar, mom to a 3-year-old and a 4-year-old who are just 11 months apart. Bell asks whether she has tried calling them by their full names (“Doesn’t work,” Safar says).
“You have to just be like, ‘Can you believe this little s— is having a tantrum?’ ” says Garner, and the women laugh. “I would say that is the mindset.”
In reality, Bell takes the advice of husband Shepard, 44, whose hilarious approach to instances when their daughters exhibit less-than-ideal behavior is respectably effective.
“He says, ‘Sometimes when they’re having a tantrum, treat ’em like the hot girl in high school: Just ignore ’em and then they’ll come to you,’ ” she shares. “I thought that was so silly when he said it, and then it actually works.”
Elsewhere in the 6-minute episode, Bell tells the women that when she went into labor with her first child, daughter Lincoln, she thought her water had broken, but instead she had just “peed [her] pants.”
Garner then asks their waiter to fill up a large strip of condoms with water, and the group plays a game called, “Did My Water Break or Did I Pee My Pants?” — where they hold the “water balloons” between their knees and race around the restaurant. As the only one whose balloon doesn’t break, Garner is declared the victor.
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