Kristen Bell got way more than she bargained for when she opened up about her daughter's experiences with nighttime diaper usage at the age of 5. After sharing her personal story on social media, it didn't take long for mom shamers to rise to the occasion and start throwing insulting comments toward Kristen's direction. Her shamers were seemingly comfortable engaging in judgemental behavior and unsavory commentary.
Mom shaming is never acceptable. In fact, shaming of any kind is absolutely never ok. However, we can't prevent it from happening. What we can do is learn a thing or two from how Kristen Bell handled this situation and silenced her haters. She turned a very negative situation into a positive one. She has set an example on how to handle difficult situations. Parent Herald reported on her perfect response to her haters. She simply stated that the "Twitterverse was awful to her." She went on to say that every child is different. "She could not deny that she has a five-and-a-half-year-old who wets her bed sometimes. It was okay for her because she knows that her daughter is getting there."
The Story & The Shaming
When Kristen Bell decided to open up and share the personal detail about her 5-year-old daughter occasionally wearing diapers, she likely did not count on a slew of haters and shamers weighing in with their opinions. After being judged and ridiculed, she responded on social media by saying, "It's an interesting time to be a mom. Used to be that your mother-in-law was the only one that had an opinion on how you change a diaper, and now everyone on the internet has an opinion too. We should get a badge for every judgement we face."
What these mom-shamers didn't count on was Kristen Bell's refreshingly mature attitude and one-of-a-kind way of silencing them without slinging back deep defenses or insults. This was definitely a display of class and respect that nobody was expecting, and certainly one that not many were used to seeing. Kristen Bell managed to maintain her dignity and carried on in a way that most did not anticipate. Perhaps we could all learn a thing or two from the graceful way in which Kristen Bell handled this situation.
Kristen Bell's Surprising Reaction
Rather than feeding into the negativity or responding in a challenging, defensive, or negative way to the shamers, she tuned in, heard the feedback, and took this as an opportunity to make a change.
The more her haters and shamers took to social media to criticize her, the less she fed into the negativity. She declared her perspective respectfully and went on with her life with the comments in mind in a positive way.
Kristen Bell flipped the script in a way we've never seen, and now, moms and mom-shamers can both learn a lot from this experience. She opted to motivate herself to make a change. Despite the fact that her shamers delivered their message in a negative fashion, Kristen Bell felt it was best to approach the situation in a positive way and saw this as an opportunity to grow and learn. Her social media trolls didn't bring her down. In fact, they motivated her in the best way possible.
Bell stated her point and perspective without being overly defensive. Oprah Magazine quoted her, "When you're out in the world or scrolling through social media, please give moms the benefit of the doubt. Because odds are that mom is operating on four hours of sleep, hasn't washed her hair in three days, and is wearing yesterday's underwear." All moms can relate to this, even if they don't admit to it.
The Changes
Not long after the negativity started pouring in, Kristen Bell seized the moment by seeing an opportunity to acknowledge the good side of those comments rather than be embarrassed or get angry about them, and she thought of a creative way to get her daugher out of diapers. She started putting her daughter on the potty at 11 p.m., and according to Parent Herald, "Two weeks later, they pushed their daughter a little farther."
According to Woman's Day, "They wake her around 11 p.m. before they go to bed so she can use the restroom before going back to sleep for the rest of the night." This has resulted in the removal of the diaper and huge progress has been made in the household.
Kristen Bell has kept this conversation very real. Woman's Day has quoted her respectful and honest response,
"No one should feel ashamed if their kid has an irregular pattern for potty training,... and if you want to try this 11 o’clock make-them-pee trick, great, there’s no shame in any of it. Sometimes it takes kids until they’re even older than 5! But I’ve never met a high-schooler who pees their pants all day. It’s going to stop at some point."
She gracefully silenced her haters and by normalizing the situation and using their feedback as motivation for growth and change.