Comedian Dax Shepard admitted that he offered to pay for his 11-year-old-daughter to freeze her eggs when she turns 18 on a recent episode of his “Armchair Expert” podcast.
He told co-host Monica Padman that his daughter Deltie had mentioned while on vacation that she really wants to be a mother. Deltie is 11 years old, so obviously too young to become a mother right now, but instead of smiling at his daughter and telling her she’ll be a great mom, he implanted the idea that motherhood is something to put off as long as possible.
“Anyway, so she’s saying she wants to have a baby,” Shepard said. “And I said, when do you think you’ll have your first child? When you turn 18? And I want to be supportive of whatever. I don’t want to plant any seeds that I’d be judgmental or whatever. And she said, no! 18?! What do you think – really?” (Sign up for Mary Rooke’s weekly newsletter here!)
“I said, ‘My guess is between 35 and 45 is when I think you’ll have kids,’” he continued. “I said, ‘and I think we’ll, if you want to, we’ll freeze your eggs when you’re 18. Like I’ll pay, I’ll pay for you to get your eggs frozen, so you don’t have to think about that.’”
Of course, the conversation was cloaked in supposedly supportive language. However, telling your daughter that you see her waiting until 35 or 45 years old before she becomes a mother and adding that you’d be willing to freeze her eggs when she turns 18 to make sure she doesn’t live an ordered life is going to have a lasting effect on how she views pregnancy and motherhood.
This is no different than female celebrities praising their abortions at award shows because killing their child allowed them to advance in their careers. When your young daughter comes to you with the dream of being a mother, you shouldn’t turn around and make her second-guess that choice. Our society demonizes motherhood at every turn. We act like it’s a death sentence when it’s the most beautiful accomplishment a woman can achieve. Nothing compares to motherhood. (ROOKE: The Best Thing Married Women Can Do For Themselves In 2026)
Sometimes the floods, fire, and salted earth of the Old Testament start looking more and more reasonable.
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