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Busy Moms Will Understand Why Kristen Bell Sometimes Tells Her Kids This White Lie

by Gillian Walters

Kristen Bell is often praised for her honesty, especially when it concerns her two young daughters. From keeping it real with the girls about death to her candid conversations with them about emotions, Bell prefers an upfront parenting approach. And given all of the truthfulness here, some fans might be surprised to learn that Kristen Bell lies to her daughters about their birthdays. But before you question Bell's integrity, it's first important to note the relatable reason why she's not always honest in this department.

Bell, mommy to Delta, 3, and Lincoln, 5, is in a sweet parenting spot at the moment. And what I mean by that is she can get away with telling white lies from to time to time without prompting a full-blown interrogation from her kids. It's only when children get past the age of 6 or so that they start to question your innocent lies, whether it be about the sudden closure of the ice cream shop (sometimes this excuse is just easier than saying no) or about the time of day (there's no shame in pushing the clock forward to expedite the bedtime process). But when you're kids are young, you can get away with a lot more, something Bell has taken advantage of when her busy schedule conflicts with Delta and Lincoln's birthdays.

“If it’s, like, a Wednesday and we can’t celebrate and we’re both working late, then — guess what — your birthday is on a Saturday,” Bell explained while visiting the TODAY show Wednesday. “They don’t know.”

Fair enough, right? Many busy parents out there have to get creative for their professional and personal lives to co-exist.

It's also worth pointing out that a birthday is not just a date on a calendar. Birthdays, especially for kids, are about celebrating and spending time with the people you love.

Obviously, Bell is not the only parent out there who lies to their kids. A January 2013 study conducted in China and the United States found that many parents rely on certain types of lies to get through common parenting dilemmas, and researchers were even able to organize these fibs into specific categories. Some categories included, according to the BBC: "Untrue statements related to misbehavior, untrue statements related to leaving or staying, and untrue statements related to positive feelings."

An example of an untrue statement related to positive feelings, for instance, would be when a parent tells their child that their goldfish took a long vacation to the ocean to visit relatives when in reality, the pet is dead (yes, I'm aware that escalated quickly).

Of course, Bell doesn't rely on tiny fibs too often. The mom prefers honesty when dealing with Delta and Lincoln, a sentiment she has addressed numerous times before.

My favorite example of this? I *love* how Bell teaches her kids to approach their emotions with honesty and acceptance. She explained, according to HuffPost:

I stopped saying, "It’s OK," to anything in their lives. My older daughter gets embarrassed a lot, and I don’t say, "It’s OK. It’s OK." I simply sit next to her and I say, "Do you feel embarrassed?" And she’ll say, "Yes." And I say, "I feel embarrassed, too, sometimes. Sometimes I trip and I feel embarrassed or I break a bowl and I feel embarrassed. I used to feel embarrassed a lot more as a kid, but as you become an adult, some of that stuff goes away."

As you can probably already tell, Bell is an amazing, thoughtful, and hardworking mama. And if she needs to lie to her daughters about their birthdays on occasion to get the job done, then more power to her.