Mila Kunis is dishing out her parenting concerns.
The That '70s Show alum got candid about life with her and husband Ashton Kutcher's kids—daughter Wyatt, 10, and son Dimitri, 8—sharing that because of her Jewish upbringing, food plays a huge role in how she approaches motherhood.
"I have a fear of not having enough food," Mila told Noa Tishby in a video published Dec. 26 to mark the second night of Hanukkah 2024. "My fear of someone being hungry. Like, the worst thing my kids can say to me is, 'I'm hungry.'"
Especially because, as the 41-year-old noted, "Food fixes everything."
"You're tired? Eat some food. You're cranky? Eat some food," she joked. "A health person's gonna say this is unhealthy and we're doing something wrong, and I understand. I'm working on it. But it is just something that's embedded in me."
Another lesson she learned at a young age? "I was raised with a lot of guilt," the Bad Moms actress quipped. "All the time. I mean, superstition and guilt."
But growing up Jewish was an interesting experience for Mila. As she explained, her family "grew up doing nothing" while living in Ukraine.
"I always knew I was Jewish, but I was told never to talk about it," she said. "I think because I was in a country that didn't allow for religion."
Instead, Mila was "raised culturally Jewish."
"For me, it's a culture," she noted. "And as I had kids—and my kids very much identify with the religion aspect of it—I'm like, 'OK, I guess we'll do Shabbos and we'll do the candles. There's so much beautiful tradition in it."
And much of the decision to introduce Jewish customs to their children came from Ashton, 46, who encouraged Mila to get back in touch with her religion.
"I fell in love with my religion," she said, "because he explained it to me."
In fact, as Noa and Mila got ready to light the Hanukkah candles together, they actually called Ashton to confirm they were lighting the candles in the correct order.
As Noa joked, "When it doubt about Judaism, call Ashton Kutcher."
For more about Mila’s takes on motherhood, keep reading.
On Her Biggest Motherhood Misstep
Mila Kunis knows that nobody's perfect, and she'll be the first to fess up to her mistakes—especially when it comes to apologizing to her two kids with husband Ashton Kutcher—daughter Wyatt Isabelle and son Dimitri Portwood.
"The only thing I've ever felt guilty about, and I actually apologized to my 3-year-old, is when I overreact," she told People in 2017, recalling an encounter with her then-toddler-aged daughter. "I'll walk away, and I'll come back, and I'll sit her down and I'm like, 'I'm really sorry. Mommy overreacted. Do you forgive me?' And she's like, 'Yeah, I forgive you.' Whether she understands what just happened or not, I want her to know that I'm as flawed as she is."
Kunis encourages all moms to realize that their best is more than enough for their kids.
"It's so taboo to be like, 'I feel like I'm not perfect,'" she explained in a 2016 interview with A Plus. "You just have to know you're doing the best you can, and that's more than enough. I know I'm the best mom Wyatt's ever had, and I'm the best mom for her."
On Needing a Break
During an appearance The Ellen DeGeneres Show, the actress revealed the real reason she and Kutcher teamed up for their Super Bowl 2021 commercial for Cheetos, which found the couple working with Shaggy to put a modern spin on the singer's hit, "It Wasn't Me": They needed a break from their kids.
"It was in the peak of the pandemic, it made no sense logically," Kunis explained. "I was dying to get out of the house."
Kunis then joked, "I got two days off from my kids, I'm a horrible mom!"
On Dealing With Bullies
Kunis' biggest parenting fail?
"Well, here's a story that's about to get me in trouble," Kunis recalled on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in 2021. "There was a little kid in my kids' preschool that wasn't very kind and pushed my daughter."
Kunis' immediate response was to ask Wyatt if she had pushed the classmate back, a tactic Kutcher did not co-sign.
"I was like, 'Push her back next time. You push her back, and you say, 'No, thank you,' and you walk away,'" Kunis shared. "And I turned around,
She continued, "I was like, 'Don't push 'em off of a ladder or off a swing or off of a slide, but on the ground, even Steven? You push 'em back.' I'd say that that's a parenting fail."
On Bathing Habits
Remember when Kunis and Kutcher nearly broke the Internet in 2021 by discussing their family's grooming routine—or lack thereof?
"When I had children, I also didn't wash them every day," Kunis said on the Armchair Expert podcast. "I wasn't the parent that bathed my newborns—ever." Kutcher added, "Here's the thing—if you can see the dirt on 'em, clean 'em. Otherwise, there's no point."
On Not Setting Bathroom Boundaries
Kunis and Kutcher have established open-door policy at home. Literally.
"That includes the bathroom," the Luckiest Girl Alive star told E! News last year. "It's just one of those where, for better or for worse, as a family and the kids have all kind of embodied bodily function as a very standard norm."
And if people find themselves surprised by Kunis' admission, not to worry, she understands: "I'd never thought that I would be the person that was able to go to the bathroom with the door open."
On Nights Out Looking a Lot Different
Kunis just can't hang like she used to and she'll be the first to admit it.
"My girlfriends and I went out to dinner a month ago and I got home at 10:30 from a dinner and I had three penicillins which is a delicious, delicious beverage," Kunis told E! News in 2017. "[I was] hammered. Three drinks, I am now a very cheap date."
But what about wild date nights with her husband?
"No, because in the morning we still have kids," she joked. "Your date night can't be that wild because at 7 in the morning you still have, 'Mama' and you're like, 'What? I'm up.'"
On Not Taking Yourself Too Seriously
"I think we're silly at home. We're very goofy parents when it comes to our children, but that don't have skill," Kunis said of her and Kutcher's shared parenting style on the Teach Me Something New podcast in 2020. "I think that's just being idiots. I think we're very comfortable with ourselves acting a fool at home, but maybe that comes from the idea of being comfortable in your own body, and in your own skin, and in your mind and not having a fear of making a fool of yourself."
And that extends to sometimes wearing a costume you don't want to in order to please your child, which Kunis did for Halloween one year.
"This is what sucks about having a kid: They tell you what to do and you listen. Because you pick your battles, and you're like, 'Well, I guess this is not one of them," she explained to Jimmy Kimmel in 2017. " I was trying to convince my daughter, 'Don't you want to be Batman or Superman or something awesome?' She's like, 'No, mom! I'm going to be Cinderella!' I was like, 'Eww! Gross! OK!'"
As for Kunis, Wyatt requested she dress up as Elsa from Frozen. "I was like, 'No, kiddo. Mama's not Elsa,'" the actress recalled. "Guess what mama was? Mama was Elsa. I sucked it up, you guys. I had a blonde wig on and everything."
On Letting Go of the Little Things
Even though she didn't love dressing as the ice queen for Halloween, Kunis did take away one major lesson from playing Elsa: Let it go!
"Another important thing to learn is that kids have a personality that has nothing to do with you," she explained to Glamour. "I have a really sweet daughter. She wants to hug all the other kids. I didn't teach her to be sweet. It has nothing to do with me. I've realized you can control only so much."
On Loving Her Children Unconditionally
"If she murdered somebody in cold blood, I would love her," Kunis joked to Ellen DeGeneres of her daughter. " I would be like, 'That's okay.' It's so weird, but when she was born, I was like, 'This is the most incredible thing that's ever happened.'"
On Going Back to Work
After taking an extended break from acting following Wyatt's birth in 2014, Kunis admitted she "cried" when she returned to work.
It's weird, it's very strange," she told Jimmy Kimmel. "If anyone's a mom, and being a stay-at-home mom, it's a very weird feeling to all of a sudden leave your child."
On Shifting Her Aspirations
During a Reddit AMA held during her break from acting, Kunis explained of becoming a parent, "It is the most life-changing experience you can have, in my opinion. Everything changed. I am proud to be a stay-at-home mom. I have no desire to be in front of the camera. I find her to be the most challenging job I've had."
On Limited Wardrobe Choices
Finding clothes that feel comfortable during and after pregnancy is a struggle that the Friends With Benefits star can relate to.
"Having a baby and breastfeeding," Kunis told E! News, "nothing fits in these dresses anymore."
On Supporting Other Moms
Kunis isn't here for any mommy shaming.
"It's the competitive energy that is so destructive," the That 70s Show alum made clear to PopSugar. "You only are a mommy in this way for such a brief amount of time anyway that you don't wanna look back and be like, 'Why did I care about that stupid nonsense?'"
On Being Shamed For Breastfeeding in Public
"It didn't matter to me what other people thought," Kunis explained to Vanity Fair in 2020. "That's what I chose to do, but I think it's unfortunate that people are so hard on women who choose to do it and do it in public. In the States and in our culture, we sexualize the breast so much that there's an aspect of it that people just don't know how to wrap their head around the idea of showing your breast in public. But I respect the opinions on both sides. If it's not for you, don't look."
On Maintaining a Healthy and Realistic Perspective
Putting pressure on herself to have it all? Hard pass.
"There's no such thing as balance," Kunis told E! News at the premiere of Bad Moms in 2016. "It doesn't exist."