Kristen Bell—aka the reigning queen of “Nobody Asked For This, But Here I Am Anyway”—shared a totally normal and chill vacation strategy on Jimmy Kimmel Live! Thursday night (Sept. 19). Spoiler alert: It involves a theme park, her two kids, and the pure chaos of just… letting go.
Picture this: Kristen, 44, and her equally famous hubby Dax Shepard are doing what every parent dreams of—watching their kids not destroy the house. In fact, they decided, “Let’s up the ante and let them roam an entire country!” This summer, while on vacay in Copenhagen, their daughters, Lincoln (11) and Delta (9), got their first taste of what can only be described as ‘Free-Range Parenting: European Edition.’
“We like to do this thing every summer where we spin the globe, point randomly, and then just… go,” Kristen casually dropped into conversation like this is totally how people vacation. “We don’t bother learning the language, figuring out how to order food, or, ya know, basic things like understanding cultural norms. We’re basically walking question marks in another country—just observing like some kind of alien family trying to pass for locals.”
Ah, yes. The classic Bell-Shepard approach to travel: Go somewhere you know nothing about, and wing it like you’re filming a reality show.
Kristen also admitted the cold, hard truth about “vacationing” with kids. Spoiler: It’s not a vacation. “Taking your kids on vacation is just… parenting, but now you’re sweating in a new timezone,” she sighed. “You’re still just following them around and wondering, ‘Is this fine? Should they be doing that?’”
But then came the hack of hacks: They found a hotel that opens directly into Tivoli Gardens, a 7-acre Danish theme park, because, of course, Europe is magic like that. The hotel basically spat her kids out straight into the wonderland of rides and roller coasters.
“So we were like, ‘Are we really doing this? Are we going full free-range, or are we about to star in Taken 5?’” Kristen laughed. Spoiler: They did it. The kids woke up at 6 a.m., scanned their magic bracelets, and vanished into the theme park. Poof! Gone. For seven blissful hours. “We didn’t see them again until they needed a Band-Aid or something,” she added. Just kids living their best Scandinavian lives, probably racing Vikings and riding on mermaid boats or whatever goes down in Copenhagen.
Jimmy Kimmel, ever the voice of parental reason, asked, “Was that… okay?” Kristen reassured him, “Oh, yeah! They came back. I mean, everyone returned to America, so I call that a win.”
Meanwhile, while their kids were busy being future travel bloggers, Kristen and Dax did what any tired parents would do—absolutely nothing. “It was heaven,” she sighed. “We just had coffee, played Spades, and occasionally remembered to ask, ‘Hey, anyone seen the kids?’”
The ultimate parenting hack, courtesy of Kristen Bell—let your kids loose in a foreign theme park, trust in Scandinavian efficiency, and spend the day sipping coffee, pretending to care.
Kristen’s new rom-com series, Nobody Wants This (oh, the irony), hits Netflix on Sept. 26, just in case you need more hilarious “nobody asked, but here it is” moments.