Shepard and Bell spoke with People and Parents magazine and the former revealed how he tried to implement no television for the weekend as a form of discipline for his kids. And he admits that the strategy did not even up working at all. “I gave a ‘no TV for the weekend’ consequence, which was later revealed to be a barbaric punishment for us,” Shepard explained. Bell seconded her husband’s conclusion, saying that it was the first and last time they take away TV to teach their daughters a lesson. “Yeah, that will never happen again,” Bell agreed. While their disciplinary strategy did not work out, Shepard and Bell’s valiant efforts should be saluted. They aren’t the first parents to try and restrict screen time to discipline their kids and they certainly will not be the last. But in the golden age of children’s television (I mean, seriously, have you seen Bluey? It’s so good) — and in the golden age of parents being over-worked, under-resourced, and absolutely super stressed, most moms and dads are fighting a losing battle by trying to take away TV. The couple spoke about another losing battle they faced as parents: trying to keep their house clean after having kids. Bell said that their life became easier once they surrendered to the mess because “it’s not worth the stress.” Shepard agreed, saying they only tried to fight it for a bit before giving up. “The quicker you come to accept that you’re gonna live in a pigsty and that everything will be vaguely broken — the quicker you can accept that, the happier the experience is. We fought it for like six months,” Shepard said.
