How Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard Figured Out Co-Parenting During COVID-19

Being a parent during the pandemic is no easy feat—juggling work, household responsibilities and childcare? Forget it. Actress Kristen Bell has been vocal about the hardships she’s faced during life in lockdown. Recently she opened up about co-parenting with husband Dax Shepard and her hopes on what the pandemic will teach Americans about sharing the household workload.

Bell appeared on an episode of LinkedIn’s digital show Working Together on Wednesday and openly discussed what her family life and parenting has been like in quarantine, mentioning that she and Shepard had been fighting a lot right before lockdown.

“The pandemic hit and we couldn’t leave the house. We had to watch each other eat and go to sleep together and brush our teeth and it was like he was the most annoying person in the world to me, and I was the most annoying person to him.”

While the couple has since been able to hash out their issues, Bell mentioned that she was still taking on the majority of the homeschooling duties for daughters Lincoln, 7, and Delta, 5, during lockdown, while Shepard continued to work on his podcast, Armchair Expert. However, she added he’s been receptive to trading off on parenting responsibilities.

“What we’ve settled on is that he is always open to allowing me to ask him for help and jumping at the opportunity,” she said. “So when he comes home, even if it’s just from the upstairs attic, he says, 'Thanks for watching the kids. Thanks for doing the house.’ And he’s not saying that to patronize me. He’s saying, 'Thank you for allowing me to go work right now ‘cause I know that you’re taking a lot of responsibility in the house, which allows me to go do my work.’"

She added, “These sit-down conversations in marriages happen to everyone. You really have to look around you and say, ask the questions of, ‘Do you feel like I contribute enough? Do you feel like this is equitable? Do you feel like you do 50 percent and I do 50 percent?’”

As couples around the country continue to figure out life with 24/7 parenting, hopefully more and more families will find themselves equally splitting the workload and easing the burden on moms.

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