Though their individual net worths are now in the multi-millions, Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher never forgot where they came from. The couple both grew up poor—Kunis’ family had struggled to adjust to the US when they immigrated from Ukraine when she was 7, and Kutcher, who grew up on a farm, had to take on a variety of jobs to finance his studies.
"How do you raise a child to not be an a**hole?"
Now that they’re both Hollywood superstars, one of their main concerns is not raising entitled children. “The one topic of conversation we had even prior to ever having kids was always, ‘How do you raise a child to not be an a**hole?’” the 32-year-old actress said on the Sydney, Australia-based radio show The Kyle and Jackie O Show.
The couple, who have a 22-month-old daughter named Wyatt Isabelle and are expecting a second child, know that teaching their kids to stay down-to-earth won't be easy.
"They’ll never know what it’s like to have ketchup soup for dinner."
“It’s so important because we both came from pretty solid poverty backgrounds and grew up very poor and are very much self-made and are very aware of what a dollar is worth cause it’s 100% earned by us,” she added.
“Nothing’s been handed to us. And our kids will never know what it’s like. On one side it’s beautiful, cause they’ll never know what it’s like to have ketchup soup for dinner, but on another side, they’ll never know how to appreciate things."
"You have nothing. Mummy and Daddy have a bank account."
“It’s a matter of teaching them from a very early age that, you know, ‘Mummy and Daddy may have a dollar, but you’re poor,’” she joked. “‘You are very poor, you have nothing. Mummy and Daddy have a bank account.’”
Kunis and her husband can joke about their previous socioeconomic statuses, but the couple are still very conscious about where they put their money. For their wedding bands, they decided not to buy overly expensive rings, though Kunis’ engagement ring was a Tiffany ring.
“My engagement ring’s in a safety deposit box, and I’m like, I can’t wear this because someone’s gonna chop my hand off for it," she explained. "And so I was like, our wedding bands are gonna be wonderful and beautiful and simple. And so we got them on Etsy.”