Kristen Bell & Dax Shepard Open Up About Being Totally Honest with Their Kids

We think it’s true that honesty is the best policy, even when it comes to telling your kids about mythical figures like Santa Clause and the Easter Bunny. In their new cover story for People Magazine, Kristen Bell and Dax Shepardopened up about being honest with their daughters, 6-year-old Lincoln and 4-year-old Delta. Apparently, they have a 100 percent honesty policy in their house, which surely makes for some interesting discussions.

“We don’t do any white lying, for better or worse. If they want the truth, they get the truth,” Shepard told People. He explained that when it comes to some truths, like the existence of Santa, his daughters come to their own conclusions anyway. “Here’s the thing: Our oldest daughter was not buying it. We were fine with the one lie, like ‘Yeah, he’s Santa. He comes from here.’ Then it was like, ‘Well, how’s he do this?’ We’re like, ‘Okay, so his sleigh is magic…‘ All of a sudden you’re 36 lies deep.”

He continued, “I’m seeing the best part of her brain at work, which is calling bullshit on things that can’t happen. I’m just squashing it with these new and more inventive lies and then finally I was just like, ‘You know what? You’re right. You smell a skunk and there’s one here.’”

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However, Bell noted that she and Shepard do their best to keep Lincoln and Delta from revealing these truths to other kids, whose families may have different views. “We definitely threaten a lot: ‘You cannot, cannot, cannot under any circumstance tell another kid what we told you! You now have a secret and it is your job, and you won’t get other secrets if you don’t keep this one,'” she said. “There are beautiful ways to explain it to them [that] keeps the magic alive.”

Telling their daughters the truth extends beyond just mythical figures. Bell and Shepard previously opened up about having the sex talk, which didn’t go quite as planned because their daughters just weren’t that interested. At any rate, these two seem to firmly believe in telling the truth, which is admirable.