When it comes to raising small kids, everything is a negotiation — including knowing when it's time to give those bath-averse little tykes a good solid cleaning.
That's something Kristen Bell, 41, and Dax Shepard, 46, know intimately, so as they recently told TODAY's Al Roker, they've developed a special method of determining whether it's time to fight for that bath or not.
"It's a smell test," said Bell, who hosts "Family Game Fight!" with Shepard on NBC. "It's a foot smell test. And then you just pop them in the water or the shower or the bath."
Is there anything funnier than imagining Bell or Shepard or both giving the toes of Lincoln, 8, and Delta, 6, good sniff as a litmus test for bath time?
This topic came up earlier in August while the two visited "The View," and Bell noted that they can "forget" to bathe the kids otherwise. (Kids who, by the way, continue to surprise everyone: One of the girls interrupted the interview with Al!)
As Al noted, it's not true that boys have a greater stink than girls (something he knows personally as the dad to two girls and a boy).
Shepard added that "something happens in the summer" regarding the smell factor. "You're just bathing them far less and you're kind of leaving them in charge of it, which they're bad at it and then a whiff will hit you and you go, 'Oh, it's time!'"
It's a topic that Bell and Shepard feel keenly for another reason: their Hello Bello line of kid-focused cleaning products and soaps, inspired by such odors. The products are "premium healthy organic stuff for half the price of the other stuff," said Shepard.
"We say it's your mom's ingredients at your dad's prices," added Bell.