How Kim Kardashian Navigates “Uncomfortable” Situations With Her 4 Kids

Kim Kardashian isn’t letting herself be pushed over by her kids. 

The Kardashians star—who shares kids North, 11, Saint, 8, Chicago, 6, and Psalm, 5, with ex Kanye West—recently shared how she has started to stand firm when it comes to discipline. 

“It takes a lot of work,” Kim admitted to pal Zoe Winkler on the Nov. 12 episode of the iHeartRadio What in the Winkler? podcast. “Yesterday, one of my kids was really upset about something about their phone and I was like, ‘You know what? Then you just don’t get it.’And it was tears the entire way to school.”

But while she didn’t like seeing her kid upset, Kim wouldn’t let herself budge on confiscating their device. 

“Usually I’d say, ‘Okay fine. Here. Have your phone. Just stop crying,’” Kim continued. “I was like, ‘If I don’t put my foot down and I don’t do this now and fight through the tears—as uncomfortable as that is—they’re always going to get their way, the lesson won’t be learned.’”

And so, Kim shared she also learned a valuable lesson in parenting through the experience. 

“I toughed through it,” she continued. “And then today, same thing. Did not cry. Respected the fact there was no phone.”

Kim and Zoe—the daughter of actor Henry Winkler who shares three kids of her own with husband Rob Reinis—also commiserated on receiving judgment from others about their parenting styles. In fact, Kim admitted that her mom Kris Jenner—who is also mom to her siblings Kourtney Kardashian, Rob Kardashian, Khloe Kardashian, Kendall Jenner and Kylie Jenner—is among her biggest critics. 

“This is the one really frustrating thing that my mom does,” Kim added. “My mom is the most judgmental when it comes to snacks and candy and her house has every candy, ice cream—it’s like a kid’s heaven.”

And the SKIMS founder went on to detail a snide remark she had recently received from her mom. 

“My son went into her freezer last night,” Kim explained. “And he goes, ‘I don’t want cake, I want an ice cream instead.’ And she’s like, ‘Look at him eating that ice cream.’”

Keep reading for more of Kim’s words on motherhood. 

"Ultimately, what matters is that kids feel loved and heard," Kim—who filed for divorce from the rapper in 2021—told GQ in a November 2023 interview. "You want to be sensitive because they're just kids, and it's hard to go through no matter what age."

"She'll be like, 'Dad is the best,'" she shared on a November 2023 episode of The Kardashians. "'He has it all figured out. He doesn't have a nanny, he doesn't have a chef, he doesn't have security. He lives in an apartment.' And she'll start crying, 'Why don't you have an apartment? I can't believe we don't have an apartment.'"

In a November 2023 episode of The Kardashians, Kim joked her sister Kourtney Kardashian "always says that North is my lesson on this planet."

"I'm supposed to learn even more about patience—she teaches me patience," she quipped of her oldest daughter. "She has taught me a lot about life."

"I worry about giving my kids too much," she wrote in a Wealthsimple essay published in July 2018. "We don't do gifts. They have to really earn it. But we talk about it all the time, about not getting too much and just trying to be as grounded and well-rounded as possible."

"Being a mom just not makes you give a f--k about anything else but what's immediately going on inside in your home," she said during a Calvin Klein ad campaign photo shoot in 2018. "Sll the other stuff kind of fades away."

The SKIMS mogul added, "Nothing matters but your family, so I think it really helps you center and get grounded."

"It completely changed my life. You have a different set of proprieties," Kim once said in a Mobio Insider Q&A. "Nothing matters except your brand new family."

"I have such unconditional love for my kids," Kim shared in a 2017 blog post. "No matter what, I will always love them and support them in anything they choose to do in life."

Being a mom also shined new light on her own upbringing.

"My family was so close growing up; now that I'm a mom, I understand the bond my mom and dad felt with us," she added. "There can be ups and downs with kids but no matter what, I always learn so much from them. Being a mom is the most important job I have."

"I try to share my life. I definitely love doing that, but I think I'm a little bit more cautious these days about what I do share," she explained on The View after her Paris robbery. "I've learned through experience that things in real time I might change up a little bit. I might take a photo, save it, post it when I leave the place or when I'm in a different location because I don't think that worked out for me so well when I was posting every last detail."

"I took a hiatus after I had the baby, and found it challenging to start working again because I didn't want to spend any time away," she revealed to E! News after the birth of North West. "But you adjust and prioritize, and just figure it out!"

"I have to figure that out first before they really see and then if we're celebrating, you know, her, I just want to celebrate the baby," Kim shared on The Real in 2017. "I think I have to explain it to my kids first and figure out how I'm going to explain it to them."

"I'm like really thankful," she shared in a 2017 episode of Keeping Up With the Kardashians. "I'm seriously so grateful for her and that someone is just so like selfless and kind to do this."

"I know some people find breastfeeding such a private, personal experience, while other people are very open and even breastfeed in public," she wrote on her app in January 2015. "Now that I'm a mom, I say whatever makes you comfortable goes."

"We talk about baby brother all the time," the reality star told E! News in 2015. "She's so sweet and yesterday she said, ‘Mommy, can I give baby brother a kiss on your tummy?' and she kissed my stomach. "

Calling her daughter "super sweet," Kim admitted at the time that North does have "a hard time when I hold other babies but she's been getting a little bit better."

She added, "I'm hoping that with her brother it's a whole new experience."

"I don't take it for granted," Kim said in a 2015 episode of Keeping Up With the Kardashians. "The fact that this is a miracle that's happened and I'm just so blessed to be pregnant again." 

Then expecting her second baby, Kim wrote on Twitter June 2015, "Pregnant KiKi does not play!!!! *BLOOP!*"

"Precious moments like this when we were traveling on tour with you are what I live for," Kim wrote in a June 2015 instagram post. "You're such a good daddy to North & you will be the best daddy to our new son too!"

"I secretly loved the rumors I was faking my pregnancy bc I was so skinny!" Kim tweeted in July 2015, while she was pregnant with her son Saint. "LOL Well can't hide it now! 5 month (20weeks) and 20lbs up."

"You know it was really hard for me to get pregnant so I do feel really blessed that I am pregnant," she told E! News in November 2015, "and at the end of the day it is a million times worth it." 

The Keeping Up With the Kardashians star fired back at trolls who claimed that she was faking her pregnancy, posting a nude selfie with the caption, "First they said I'm too skinny so I have to be faking it...Now they say I'm too big so I have to be faking it...SMH!"

"Everyone's body is different, every pregnancy is very different!" she continued in an August 2015 Instagram post. "I've learned to love my body at every stage!"

"This pregnancy, I would love a Lorraine Schwartz diamond choker, like the ones I've worn before to the Art + Film Gala," she quipped on her app in November 2015. "Too much? LOL!"

"Having my daughter is my biggest achievement. All the things you used to do, you just don't care about anymore. Your child becomes the #1 priority." -Kim Kardashian, Twitter, February 2015.

"Having my daughter is my biggest achievement," Kim tweeted in February 2015, before she welcomed her young daughter Chicago and sons Saint and Psalm. "All the things you used to do, you just don't care about anymore. Your child becomes the #1 priority."

"Feeling extra thin with all of the super models!" she joked on Instagram in October 2015. "LOL #InStyleAwards"

Kim recycled the Givenchy gown she wore to the 2013 Met Gala, during which she was pregnant with North, for a Halloween costume amid her pregnancy with Saint. 

"Still fits," she captioned an October 2015 snapshot. "I think I nailed the Kim K costume!"