Hillary Clinton is sharing her perspective on parenting.
The former Secretary of State and presidential candidate, 73, spoke with Dax Shepard Monday on the actor's Armchair Expert podcast.
The conversation covered a range of subjects, including Clinton's extensive political career, but quickly turned to the topic of parenthood.
Explaining that he has looked forward to raising children, Shepard, 45, admitted to Clinton that he's also afraid of making mistakes, and asked about the former First Lady's own experience of raising daughter Chelsea Clinton, 40.
"You want, obviously, the best, but you also want to try to be aware enough so that you don't make what you think were mistakes made with you, right? We all do it, though, there's no escaping from it. We are the products of our own parents' efforts to raise us," Clinton told Shepard, who shares daughters Lincoln, 7, and Delta, 5, with wife Kristen Bell.
Clinton told Shepard about her own upbringing — she described her father as offering a more "tough love" approach while her mother was "incredibly focused on education and on supporting me to be independent and outspoken" — saying that her parents' differing parenting styles worked well together.
"The combination of the two of them really worked. And I think that's another way of thinking about it. You know, the combination of you and their mom, brings different experiences, and aspirations for them, and kind of together it all works," Clinton explained.
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The What Happened author said that as she was raising Chelsea, "it was constantly trying to find the right balance."
"Not imposing on her what I wanted her to become, but trying the best I could to enable her to become whoever she was going to be. You know, it's hard. I mean, it's the hardest job I ever had," she said, warning Shepard that parenting will only get more difficult as Delta and Lincoln continue to grow up.
"It's a constant balancing act. But that's part of the joy as well as the challenge of being a parent. With a 5 and a 7-year-old girl in your house, you know, it's going to get more complicated. I hate to tell you that. It's going to get more complicated. I actually think raising kids today in some ways is a lot harder than it was for my parents raising us."
Bell, 40, recently shared some of her own views on parenting, which include prioritizing her daughters' mental health.
In October, Shepard and Bell spoke with Dr. Wendy Mogel to discuss how their daughters have fared doing school online during the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
"I'm going to prioritize her mental health, just like I prioritize my mental health, and if she is too overwhelmed, I'm going to shut the computer and take a 5-minute break," Bell said in the parenting conversation. Shepard added, "When we can all take off our student and educator hats at the end of the night, it's really nice."
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