8 Stars Who Are Completely Open About Tough Topics With Their Kids

Here's what these celebs had to say about talking to their kids…

1. Kristen Bell & Dax Shepard

Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard's two daughters Lincoln and Delta may not have hit their double digits yet but they're already talking to them about hard topics like addiction and sex. Although some might find it "shocking," the couple believes it's important for their kids to know about it as long as they fully support them.

"I hate the word 'taboo.' I think it should be stricken from the dictionary. There should be no topic that's off the table for people to talk about. I know it's shocking, but I talk to my kids about drugs, and the fact that their daddy is an addict, and he's in recovery, and we talk about sex," Kristen said in an interview with REAL SIMPLE. "There are all these 'hard topics' that don't have to be if you give the person on the other end your vulnerability and a little bit of credit."

2. Jada Pinkett Smith

Jada Pinkett Smith's "Red Table Talk" may include some tough topics, but she believes it's important for her daughter Willow to be there to hear them all. During an episode dedicated to sex, Jada explained why she wants her daughter to be a part of the open discussion.

"People are like, 'Oh do you think that’s appropriate for Willow?' I'm like, 'Hell yeah, that's appropriate for Willow!' Is it life? If I have to sit up here and tell her that she has to be careful in these streets because of all the harm that may come to her because she's a young woman, I'm damn sure not leaving out the good stuff," Jada said.

3. Gwyneth Paltrow

Gwyneth Paltrow has always wanted to be open with her children Apple and Moses when it comes to important topics like sex. She says she tries to stay neutral and let her kids lead the conversations.

"I will always just encourage my children to really listen to themselves, listen to their instincts, listen to if something feels right and to act from that place. I try always to be neutral on the topic. I think my generation, we got a lot of messages around sex that made us feel bad about it. I try to just be curious. And teenagers are never going to want to talk to their parents about sex ever, so I sort of follow their lead," she said in an interview with ET.

4. Brooke Shields

Brooke Shields said she realized she had to have the sex talk with her daughter Ronan when she found her Googling "how to make a baby." While the teenager was initially hesitant about the whole thing, Brooke said if she wasn't ready to talk about it, she probably wasn't mature enough to be watching R-rated movies.

"And I say to her, 'Listen, If you can't say penis or you can't talk about sex…then you can't watch these R-rated movies you want to watch.' They're not as prepared as they think they are, so I broach it all the time," Brooke told Fox News.

5. Alyssa Milano

While Alyssa Milano's children are still young, she says she's ready to talk about the big topics as soon as they're ready. She believes it's important to have open conversations with her kids in order to make them "socially aware and conscious."

"I love it all. I'm ready. I'm ready! I would do it now if they asked," he told Us Weekly. "And for me, I think it's raising kids that are socially aware and conscious. But still have childhoods and aren't completely terrified from the moment they wake up until the moment they go to sleep like their mother."

6. Elizabeth Banks

Elizabeth Banks is all about being truthful with her children. She says that when they ask her questions, she wants to be honest and not tell them lies just because it's easier.

"If they ask, it's because they're curious and they're age appropriate. You should tell them straight up what it is. If you say 'stork,' then later on they're going to ask, 'What else does she lie to me about?' Because they're going to figure out soon enough it ain't storks," Elizabeth said on "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert."

​​7. Jennifer Garner

Jennifer Garner wasn't given 'the talk" by her parents, so she says she wants to be really open with her three children. Even when her kids were very young, Jennifer says she had already "given it a lot of thought, especially for [her] daughters."

"I've gone to hear specialists talk. I've read books. It doesn't mean that I have anything more figured out than anyone else," she said to Time magazine. "I want them to see sex as something joyful, as a gift, as a celebration of love and of their bodies. And it makes me feel really cool and hippieish to think of it that way."

8. Jenny McCarthy

When Jenny McCarthy's son was 11 years old, she realized she had to be open with him about some big issues. She says it all started when she accidentally told him "sex was like feet rubs" and then found him saving photos of feet on his iPad. Then, when he saw a video of a woman in labor, she says she knew it was time.

"I'm like, 'Oh my god, he's going to have a foot fetish for the rest of his life!' So I just sat down and had the real heart-to-heart talk with him," Jenny said, adding that she "always wants that open discussion" with him and for him to know "he can come to me with whatever he wants always and I will never get mad at him."