Hollywood’s Most Permissive Parents

Kourtney Kardashian

It seems like Kourtney Kardashian constantly has to defend her kids — Mason, 12, Penelope, 9, and Reign, 7, with ex Scott Disick — and her parenting style from online haters.

In September 2019, she tweeted about her decision not to spank, writing, “In my opinion, beating children is not [how] to ‘get your kids in check.’ When children are hurting or frustrated, the answer is not to physically hurt them.”

In the past, the Keeping Up With The Kardashians star has also defended Reign’s long hair and taking vacations with her kids. In 2018, she wrote about her appreciation of attachment parenting and co-sleeping with her little ones. She said, “When I had Mason, co-sleeping just kind of happened naturally. It’s what worked for all of us to get the most sleep, so I quickly embraced it.” She later added, “When I had Penelope, I read The Attachment Parenting Book by Dr. Sears — and this style of co-sleeping really worked for us. During this time, Mason was also sleeping most nights in my bed. We made it work and I really just followed his lead for when we both felt he was ready to sleep in his room.”

In a 2014 Redbook interview, Kardashian fully embraced her parenting style, saying, “I wouldn’t say I’m strict. I love to communicate with my kids, and I constantly check in and try to talk things through instead.”

Will Smith & Jada Pinkett Smith

Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith share two kids, Jaden, 23, and Willow, 21 (and Smith also has an older son, Trey, 29, with ex Sheree Zampino), and the couple are known for their totally relaxed parenting style.

In a 2016 interview with BET,Smith said, “First of all, I don’t give parenting advice per se, because it’s such a unique task. The greatest human task is to render a human being into the world. What I do with my children, that I feel that the greatest gift that I can give my children, is the freedom to be who they are. Jada and I are very serious about finding what they are, and encouraging them to be what they are because you can never be happy being what you’re not.”

Additionally, Pinkett Smith told HuffPost in 2016, “There’s many different ways to mother, there’s no one cookie-cutout way to be a mother. So, I think, as a mother and as a woman, trying to support other women in how they see it’s best to mother their children is very important. And also in being a mother and being supportive of your children and allowing them to self-actualize and become who they think they should be versus who we as parents want them to be.” This is great advice!

Alanis Morissette

While parents were figuring out how to homeschool their kids during the COVID-19 pandemic, Alanis Morrisette was busy sharing her “unschooling” philosophy. In a Vanity Fair interview in September 2020, the singer and mom to Ever, 11, Onyx, 5, and Winter, 2, says she lets her kids decide how they learn best.

“What I do with my kids is I watch their eyes,” she said. “So if I’m invested in them looking at this candle that I’m holding but their eyes are looking over there at the dappling through the tree, I’m gonna put that candle down…they [couldn’t] care less about my little agenda.”

She added, “If Ever wakes up in the middle of the night and asks me a question, I’m not gonna blow him off, ’cause this is the time he’s gonna learn about that dinosaur.” 

Morrisette is also a big fan of attachment parenting. “For me, attachment parenting is, on a very basic level, eye contact, skin-on-skin, responsivity, gentleness,” she explains. “If we’re not attuned to each other and we’re missing each other like ships passing, there’s not a chance for that deep connection that will be the hotbed for their whole life.”

Tori Spelling

In an interview with SiriusXM’s Jeff Lewis Live in June 2021, Tori Spelling admitted that four of her five kids are sleeping in her bed. “You know what, right now my kids and dogs sleep in my bed,” she said.

Spelling clarified that many of her children — Liam, 14, Stella, 13, Hattie, 10, Finn, 9, and Beau, 4 — have been sleeping in her bed since husband Dean McDermott was away for filming. “Since he left — this is not good, you guys — but since he left, he was gone for six months filming in another country, they all stayed with me,” Spelling explained. “So I currently still have four in the bedroom with me who have yet to go back to their rooms.”

The Beverly Hills, 90210 actress also opened up to People in November 2021 about letting go of “pressure and guilt” while parenting. “As long as they’re happy, they’re healthy, they’re loved, at the end of the day, I’m like, ‘Okay. Some things fell through the cracks. We didn’t get everything done. Tomorrow’s a new day,’” she said.

Tia Mowry

Tia Mowry isn’t afraid to admit that she co-sleeps with her kids, Cree, 10, and Cairo, 3, whom she shares with husband Cory Hardrict. In a July 2019 interview with People, Mowry said she bedshared with her son until he was 4 and was still co-sleeping with her daughter.

“My 1-year-old, ever since she was born, she was always in our bed. And my son was in our bed until he was 4,” she said in the interview. “My husband’s fine with it. Now, my mother on the other hand. She’s, like, so strict. She’s like, ‘You need to do the cry-out method. Put your baby in the crib.’ And I’m like, ‘No!’ I don’t want my baby to have any sign of stress whatsoever. You know?”

The actress also told Momtastic that she’s an “attachment parent.” She said, “I am definitely more of an attachment parent than not, because the some parenting principles I practice that just feel natural to me happen to be attachment parenting principles. This parenting style has benefited my relationship with Cree, mostly due to my work schedule. Being a working mom, my hours are crazy, so I do enjoy doing things like letting Cree sleep with me in bed and taking him everywhere with me. On the other hand, I do experience struggles with this type of parenting, and it is mostly based in the judgement of others. I know I get judged by a lot of people, however what I believe is there is no right or wrong way to parent a child.”

You do you, mama!

Kristen Bell

In the past, Kristen Bell has admitted that she takes a “casual approach” to parenting. Bell, who shares Lincoln, 8, and Delta, 7, with husband Dax Shepard, told Redbook in 2014: “I’ve taken a very casual approach, and we didn’t co-sleep other than the first few weeks. Lincoln sleeps wonderfully on her own and likes being in her crib by herself, and I let her breastfeed until she decided she was done. I definitely value giving her alone time so that when she inevitably isn’t the center of everyone’s universe when she gets a little bit older, it doesn’t feel like the rug is pulled out from underneath her.”

She’s also talked about her laidback, kid-centered approach to potty-training, when she told everyone in an episode of #Momsplaining in 2020 that her 5-and-a-half-year-old daughter was still in diapers at night. And in a 2017 interview with Babble reported by Parents, Bell shared that she doesn’t sweat tantrums in public. “If my child is acting a fool in the grocery store, the embarrassment is on her. In truth, that shouldn’t make me feel a certain way. She’s going to act the way a child acts, and I’m not going to let that reflect on me or bring me down. That shouldn’t make me feel ashamed or embarrassed in any way. Only you can make you feel a certain way.”

We love this positive approach!

Alyssa Milano

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Alyssa Milano has talked about the importance of parents demonstrating flexibility and listening to your kids.

“Listen, I think parenting is a constant state of learning, of getting it wrong and of working hard to get it right the next time,” she said in an interview with The Bump in April 2021. “I think we’ve all learned that flexibility is a really important trait to have developed in the past year as we’re raising our kids — and that it’s important to listen to them. Kids are suffering in this pandemic in a very different way than adults are, and we need to hear what they have to say about it and take them seriously when they tell us they are struggling.”

In October 2018, the actress told People that she isn’t a strict parent to kids Milo, 10, and Elizabella, 7, whom she shares with husband David Bugliari. She explained that her parenting techniques are tailored to her kids’ individual needs “because what works for one child doesn’t necessarily work for the other child.”

“[With] Milo, I can just even threaten a timeout and he would [behave] whereas my daughter…my mother-in-law suggested doing the counting thing, where you go, ‘One, two…’ And I don’t even know what would happen if I ever got to three, but she just looks at me and she goes, ‘Three.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, that’s not gonna work for her,’” she said.

Celine Dion

When it comes to raising her sons René-Charles, 20, Eddy, 11, and Nelson, 11, Celine Dion takes a casual approach. In an interview on Lorraine in January 2019, reported by Good Morning America, the singer opened up about raising René-Charles, who was then 18.

“He’s a normal teenager, growing, trying things, exploring — and I think that’s the way it should be,” she said. “Sometimes you try to embrace them, sometimes you’re trying to help them to find their path, but they have to find their own way at one point because if you pull the cable too, too much, they can really go wild and off.”

She added, “As any teenager, they have to try things because if you say no to so many things — they will turn around and still do them. So I am giving him more space. I trust him. He does stuff sometimes that I have to say, not necessarily agree with what he chooses to try, but as long as he’s using his intelligence and his mind and brain, I trust him.”

Mayim Bialik

Mayim Bialik, mom of Miles, 16, and Frederick, 13, with ex Michael Stone, has been candid about her approach to parenting over the years. In an interview with Green Child Magazine, she said, “Gentle discipline to me is not permissive parenting, which implies that parent and child are peers. It’s more about communicating your needs to your child and respecting his needs at the same time. It’s using the same logic with your children as you would use with a boss, friend, or your spouse. Children aren’t stupid, and they feel valued when we treat them with respect.”

It’s not about letting your kids do whatever you want — it’s about communication and respect. She added, “I often hear, ‘Oh, your kids are going to be so spoiled; the world is going to beat them up. They’re just going to expect everyone to love them.’ Yeah, I’m ok with a kid that expects everyone to love him. And when people don’t, I want my kid to wonder why, and then work towards a world where people behave kindly and with compassion.”

She also spoken up about spanking kids, saying in 2018, “You can’t hit your spouse, you can’t hit your student, you can’t hit a stranger, you can’t even hit your dog, yet we have laws protecting, defending, and justifying hitting a child. It makes no sense.”

Katie Holmes

Katie Holmes is doing just fine raising daughter Suri, 15, whom she shares with ex Tom Cruise. In an April 2020 interview with InStyle, she said, “I love her so much,” referring to Suri. “My biggest goal has always been to nurture her into her individuality. To make sure she is 100 percent herself and strong, confident and able. And to know it. She came out very strong — she’s always been a strong personality. She’ll pick an activity and work her butt off until she’s really good at it. Then she’s like, ‘OK, I’m going to try the next thing.’ She’s very focused and a hard worker.”

Holmes is known for being a more relaxed parent, telling People in October 2014, “I think we all need to just ease up. Ease up on the expectations, and the worrying. We’re all trying to do the best we can.”

It seems her parenting has been paying off! An insider reported to Us Weekly in April 2019 that Suri is “so sweet and well-mannered. She’s extremely polite and respectful. She’s just a good girl who is a joy to be around. Katie has done things right with her because she’s very grounded and down to earth. She doesn’t come across as spoiled or like a celebrity kid at all. She’s kind and she always shows gratitude.”