Dax Shepard and his wife Kristen Bell have two daughters, Lincoln, three, and Delta, one and a half. Dax and Kristen will tell the occasional personal story about their kids, and as a couple they have appeared in ad campaigns based around their home life (for Samsung tablets and home appliances). They’re very protective of their daughters’ images however. They don’t share photos of the girls on social media and they started the “no kids” campaign to stop paparazzi from taking unauthorized photos of celebrity children.

Some have called Dax and Kristen’s openness about their home life a mixed message. I’m thinking of a recent article from Maria at Lainey Gossip, whom I want to credit with helping me consider this. That’s what came to mind when I heard that Dax told a highly personal story about his seemingly unilateral decision to get a vasectomy after his wife had a pregnancy scare. However, this is his story to tell, you know? Here’s some of what he said on Kimmel:

On how hard it is raising two girls
It’s the Tet Offensive at home… Because when you have one you have a two hour nap hopefully if things go well. Then they go to bed two hours before you. So you have a straight four hours. When you have two there’s no hours. It’s them from sunup to sundown.

On if the girls come with them on set
These two girls have gone to more places than I had been when I was 30. I kind of resent them. It’s annoying. They’ve been to Cuba.

Kristen gave all their stuff away to Cuban people
We came with all this luggage and toys for the kids and their clothing. Then we got to our next stop… I opened the bags there’s nothing in our bags. She gave it all to the people of Cuba. She didn’t run it by me. She had heard they need things so she found a charity and she gave everything we own away. We got to New Orleans there’s no diapers there’s no jammies there’s no toys. It’s just a fresh do-over.

Jimmy: Do you think you will have more children?
No. Last year, my wife was working in Atlanta. We were there she goes ‘I’m so stupid. I’ve been sick for ten days and ignoring it. I’m definitely pregnant.’

I was like ‘We’re going to turn into Jon and Kate plus eight. We already have no life. This is going to be not worth living.’ I freaked out. That happened on [a] Tuesday. She had to work so for eight hours we didn’t get a pregnancy test. For eight hours I was imagining my life with all these kids. That was Tuesday, I flew home Wednesday for a meeting. Thursday morning I had a vasectomy. I had a vasectomy and Kristen was not thrilled that I did it so quickly, but I’m a man of action.

[From Jimmy Kimmel Live]

After that he told a story about how he had just fifteen minutes to procure a sperm sample for the doctor for his follow-up visit because he was stuck in a meeting that ran overtime. So he described how he had to get off in his car into a jar while driving in heavy traffic on Laurel Canyon. I’m not familiar with LA but he described Laurel Canyon as “one of the twistier roads in America.” He said that the surgery was effective though and that “the great news is I’m sterile.” I mean this was funny, it was a good anecdote for late night TV because it was entertaining.

That was so nice that Kristen gave away all their stuff, but it sounds impractical too, like maybe she could have saved a few things for convenience’s sake. She’s got a good heart though.

Here’s Shepard on Kimmel. Thanks to E! for featuring this:

photos credit: FameFlynet and Getty