Few things in life are as ideally designed to keep us humble as the experience of parenting. We can have the perfect pregnancy (though there really is no such thing as a perfect when it comes to pregnancy), we can read all the books, buy all the right organic food and toys, and decide what parenting philosophy is going to result in tons of sleep and completely well-adjusted, happy kids. And then we actually have the kid and realize that failure is basically inevitable.
The good news is that when we have an epic parenting fail — as we all will — we are in good company. Plenty of parents, including some of our favorite celeb moms and dads, have fessed up about their parenting fails. And we have to admit that it makes us love them even more. There is something really empowering about keeping it real about the fact that even the most loving parents sometimes make mistakes. Yep, parents can fail and the kids can still be okay.
It turns out that no kid has actually died of parental embarrassment, and even the biggest goofs can be something that everyone can laugh about later. So for anyone who is worried that someone is going to confiscate that "World's Greatest Mom" coffee mug, read on for some very funny moments when celeb parents failed, too.
Jennifer Garner
Jennifer Garner recently appeared on The Late Late Show With James Corden and confessed that she'd committed a "reply all" mom fail. It involved her poking a little bit of fun at one of her kids and then sending the email to her kid's entire sports team. Oops!
Kristen Bell
We can always count on Kristen Bell to keep it super real about her parenting experiences, even when some of her anecdotes might raise some eyebrows. This includes her story about the time when her kids were spotted drinking nonalcoholic beers during their Zoom classes in the early days of the pandemic.
Ryan Reynolds
We adore funnyman Ryan Reynolds and love that he confessed that his first parenting fail happened on the first day he was a dad! He told late-night host Seth Meyers that while his wife Blake Lively was in labor, he biffed the labor playlist and started playing "Let's Get It On." That may be the least appropriate childbirth song ever!
Halle Berry
Like many of us, Halle Berry has felt that surge of fear and panic that comes in the moment when it seems like a kid might be missing. She once lost her daughter, Nahla, in a store, freaked out, screamed for someone to close the store down, and then realized her kiddo was just hanging out inside the clothes rack next to her.
Hilary Duff
There are some ideas that are just so easy to see in hindsight that there was no way it was going to end well. As Hilary Duff discovered in 2014, one of those is taking a squirming, squirrely toddler to a place filled with delicate, breakable, and expensive glass pieces. A 2-year-old in a Christmas ornament store is bound to be a parenting fail!
Pink
Honestly, the whole Elf on the Shelf thing is actually designed to create parenting fails. Having to move the dang thing every day and create new scenarios is a lot of pressure! It's way too easy to forget to relocate the sucker, just like Pink's kids discovered.
Chrissy Teigen
Even the most adorable kids in the world (which, hello, totally includes Chrissy Teigen and John Legend's cuties Luna and Miles!) sometimes are just totally over it when it comes to getting pictures taken. The mom fail comes from trying to keep going for that perfect shot when a toddler is fully ready to kill the vibe.
Kelly Ripa
Is it a parenting fail to both embarrass and troll your kids on social media? Hard to say, but Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos love to share PDA and flirt with each other on social media, much to the dismay of their three children. A perfect example is when Kelly commented on one of Mark's posts wishing their son a happy birthday, quipping back, "You know what? Making him was so much fun."
Kailyn Lowry
Teen Mom 2 star and podcaster Kailyn Lowry fessed up to an all-too-common (and sometimes super embarrassing) parenting fail: forgetting to lock the bedroom door and getting interrupted having sex. She joked: "I won't tell the story because I don't want to put my kids on blast. I think I'm more scarred than them, though."
Mila Kunis
Mila Kunis just might have made a mom fail when she unthinkingly gave her then preschool-aged daughter some not-so-great advice. In her mom confession she said: "There was a little kid in my kid's preschool that wasn't very kind and pushed my daughter. My daughter came back and was like, 'Such and such little kiddo pushed me.' And I instinctually said, 'Did you push her back?' And my daughter's like, 'No!'" Then Mila encouraged her to "push her back next time and say no thank you and walk away." Thankfully, dad Ashton was there to suggest that maybe kids shouldn't be encouraged to push other kids.
Kim Kardashian
We generally don't think Kim Kardashian is the most relatable mom, but her biggest fail is actually pretty common. She's a briber! "I give in too easily sometimes, and I'm guilty of a good bribe," she confessed. Given her budget, we bet those are some really good bribes!
Casey Wilson
Casey Wilson, one of the hilarious stars of the show Happy Endings, shared that her mom fail was going waaaaaaay too deep on explaining things to her child, including really freaking out her then 4-year-old by being much too honest about death. She's also fessed up that she's not afraid to lie to her kids, especially when it comes to getting out of the house to have a social life by claiming that her fun dinners are actually work dinners.
Anderson Cooper
CNN anchor Anderson Cooper has been learning how to be a great dad mostly on the fly. He's noted that although he bought "all the parenting books," he didn't actually read any of them and he wasn't actually super on top of the whole baby-proofing thing. He joked that he was using "deer fencing" instead of baby gates!
Meghan Trainor
Aw, poor Meghan Trainor! Her parenting fail was, in her own words, that she was "boiling her [newborn] baby" by swaddling him in too many layers when she was taking him on walks. The poor little guy ended up with heat rash, and Meghan got some fresh new mom guilt.
Ciara
Singer Ciara is a tough but loving mom who is all about consistency — well, almost always all about that anyways! She's revealed that she sometimes struggles with staying firm on punishments and cracking under the pressure of getting those puppy dog eyes from a kid trying to get their iPad back!
