Mila Kunis reveals a ‘parenting fail’—she told her daughter to literally push back a bully
Actress Mila Kunis candidly shared her “biggest parenting fail” on Ellen DeGeneres’ web series called “Mom Confessions” recently, and how she and her husband, actor Ashton Kutcher disagreed on it.
In the video, Kunis was asked to talk about the challenges and happiness that parenthood brings.
One of the questions was “What’s your biggest parenting fail?” Kunis then shared the piece of advice she gave her seven-year-old daughter Wyatt Isabelle, a story that she said is “about to get me into trouble.”
“There was a little kid in my kid’s preschool that wasn’t very kind and pushed my daughter. My daughter came back and she was like, ‘Such and such little kiddo pushed me,” she said.
The Friends with Benefits star continued, “And I instinctually said, ‘Did you push her back?' And my daughter’s like, ‘No!’”
Kunis then advised her daughter to “push her back next time. You push her back and say ‘no thank you’ and walk away.”
At this point, Kunis said she saw her husband’s disapproving look, who let out an emphatic “No!”
Even with Kutcher’s disapproval, the mom of two held her ground and told her daughter, “You stand up for yourself and say, ‘No, thank you.’ But I said don’t push her off of a ladder, or off of a swing or off of a slide, but on the ground, even Steven, you push her back.”
“I’d say that’s a parenting fail,” said Kunis, who is also a mom to almost five-year-old Dimitri.
When asked, “What trait of yours your child has that you wish they didn’t?” Kunis said, “My daughter is me. She is independent and feisty and wonderfully smart and it is an incredible trait to have as an adult but really hard to wrangle as a kid. She as a million answers to one question and she’s not wrong.”
This is not the first time that Kunis and Kutcher’s parenting choices have been put under the spotlight.
In July, the couple stirred conversations when they revealed in the Armchair Expert podcast that they do not wash their children unless they can see actual dirt on them.
Kunis said as a kid, she “didn’t shower much anyway” while Kutcher said he washes his “armpits and crotch daily and nothing ever.”
Even some celebrities gave their two cents on the matter, some adamant that it is important to take a bath every day like Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Jason Momoa and Cardi B, while others like Jake Gyllenhaal shared the couple’s sentiment.
The couple poked fun at the debate over their bathing habits in an Instagram video posted by Kutcher with Kunis in the bathroom giving their children (who were out of shot) a bath.
Kutcher jokingly said, “You’re putting water on children? Are you trying to melt them? Are you trying to injure them with water? This is ridiculous, what’s going on?” In the video, Kunis is seen trying to suppress a laugh.
Kutcher captioned the post, “This bathing thing is getting out of hand.” with the hashtag #KutcherBathroomTalks.
Eventually, Kunis clarified during Ellen DeGeneres Show interview that she and her kids do shower after all.