For Kristen Bell, Parenthood Changed Everything

There’s a lot of things you’re “definitely going to do” with your hypothetical kids. Eat organic, for instance. Or never let them play video games. Then you actually become a parent.

For Kristen Bell, changing viewpoints involved vaccinations.

“I thought I would be anti-vaccination before I had kids,” she tells Good Housekeeping. “I’m very crunchy, and happily so. But there is a lot of scientific, proven information out there that shows why vaccinations are necessary. Kids with autoimmune diseases, kids who are receiving cancer treatments — they can’t be vaccinated because their immune systems [can’t handle it]. If your kid has leukemia, he can’t get vaccinations; if he then goes to school with my kid and I chose not to give my kid vaccinations, I’m putting your kid at risk. To me, that’s unacceptable. There are the weak among us whom we have to protect. As moms, our responsibility is not just to our kids — it’s to all the other kids, too.”

That’s a pretty firm stance. And it was kind of the same with having kids at all. Bell and husband Dax Shepard weren’t sure parenthood was right for them. “When Lincoln came out, at first I was like, ‘Eh, what do I do with it? I can take it home?’” Bell says. “But when I started breast-feeding, the oxytocin or my hormones or hundreds of thousands of years of evolution kicked in. I didn’t want to let her go. Having kids feels like that first seventh-grade crush that overwhelms every molecule in your body, but it’s permanent.”

Life with Lincoln, age 2, and Delta, 4 months, has changed everything in the Shepard household. And mom and dad wouldn’t have it any other way. “Our dinner parties have changed. Now they involve guests who are in diapers and are a lot pickier,” says Bell. “The other day, Dax said, ‘Where did we get all these kids?’ It’s weird to me that all of a sudden I have a family of four. I own two people!”

But two is the limit. “I loved being pregnant — but I don’t want to be outnumbered!” says Bell.