Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis ‘Balance Each Other’ Out While Treating Their 2 Kids ‘Differently’
Ashton Kutcher opened up about how he and his wife, Mila Kunis, parent their son, Dimitri, and daughter, Wyatt, differently.
The former That ‘70s Show star said that he felt like his and Mila’s different parenting styles “balance each other” out during an appearance on the Thursday, September 5, episode of the “Throwbacks” podcast.
“My son, I’m always like, ‘Yeah, let’s go for it.’ Like, yesterday we’re popping wheelies on a bicycle in the driveway or it’s like, ‘See if you can jump down four stairs,’” Ashton, 46, told “Throwbacks” hosts Matt Leinart and Jerry Ferrara. “[With] my daughter I just want to protect her. When my son cries, I’m like, ‘All right, what did we learn? Let’s move on.’ But when my daughter cries, my heart is out of my body and I can’t put it back in.”
However, the Your Place or Mine actor added that he “noticed” that Mila, 41, did the opposite.
“She’s very strict on our daughter and, like, a gushball with our son,” Ashton explained.
Ashton also confessed that he felt like there might have been certain factors in his life growing up that led him to parent his daughter, 9, differently than his son, 7.
“There’s probably, like, a ton of, maybe in some sense, toxic masculinity that I had in my life that treats my son different than my daughter in that way,” the Iowa native added.
He also gushed on the joys of being a girl dad.
When asked about the specifics, Ashton replied, “I don’t know if it equates to being a girl dad or it equates to her being my first, but when I had my daughter, I had never been so in love in my entire life. And Mila and I talked about it a lot. Like, I’ve never loved anyone this much. Ever.”
That doesn’t mean Ashton’s relationship with Wyatt doesn’t come without its own set of challenges, he noted.
“I think the challenging thing with daughters versus sons is that the relationship dynamics with daughters are difficult. Like the friendship stuff is a whole other level with them, especially with my daughter,” Ashton said. “If she’s, like, out with her friends in some way and isn't in sync with her friends it's a real thing. My son's kind of like me, ‘OK, let's go throw the football,' but the relationship stuff is challenging.”
Ashton and the Luckiest Girl Alive actress first met in 1998 when they both starred in That ‘70s Show. The couple began dating in 2011 before Ashton popped the question in 2014. They married in 2015 in a secret ceremony at The Secret Garden at Parrish Ranch in Oak Glen, California, and went on to welcome Wyatt in October 2014. Mila and Ashton expanded their family once more when she gave birth to Dimitri in November 2016.
Both Ashton and Mila have been open about sharing the struggles they sometimes run into as parents, including the Black Swan star saying she sometimes found it hard to balance work and motherhood.
“You’re still stressed out and there’s still the idea of the guilt of leaving your kids, but you know that they’ll be OK,” Mila told Entertainment Tonight in 2021. “Because I’ve already done it once and the kid doesn’t resent me, so I was like, ‘OK, I think I can do this.’ I also need to enlist help. Working full time, my husband has moved his company here, so he works full time. We needed help.”
