After reading and watching all of Angelina Jolie's latest interviews, I think the infamous mom of six has a down-to-earth take on the joys and crazy challenges of her big brood that doesn’t cost one penny to copy. Here’s five parent Do’s I’ve gleaned from watching Brad Pitt’s other half.
1. Embrace the chaos of your kids: Angie does. She actually admits in an interview with ABC News that mornings in the Jolie-Pitt household are mayhem! Sound familiar? It sure does to me — I’ve got four kids and it was a relief to hear that the Brangelina duo have no help first thing in the a.m. and things do not go smoothly! “We got shoes going on and somebody brushing their teeth and somebody put that down and stop screaming and no, you have to wear that jacket, I can’t find the pink one, please, just go out the door,” she laughs.
Now what would stress most mortal women – six young kids out of control — gets made manageable, not by Angie trying to pull off motherhood perfection, but by laughing at the nuttiness of the situation: — “We are still able to do it," she says (Angelina describes herself and Brad as” bartenders” and “waiters “as they try to feed their kids in the morning), "because we manage to have a great laugh. We do it together and we find fun in it.”
That, my friends, is good advice — coping with the demands of kids is such a challenge – it’s better to simply go with the crazy flow than to try to corral your household into orderly perfection.
2. Angelina swears that she and Brad have made their kids, not their careers, their number one priority: Yes, It’s easy for her to say that work doesn’t come first when she can command $12 million for a film, and can pick and chose when she works and what movie she works on, but it’s clear that this pair — unlike many other celebrity parents — really has made a firm commitment in their actions, not just in words, to make their kids number one.
"The most important thing is our children, they’re our greatest responsibility,” the 35 year old recently told Parade.com. “It’s our jobs… And when we pass away, that’s what we will have done with our lives.”
The star of Salt insists that she and Brad do not work at the same time — they can’t, because their movies so often take them to foreign film sets. She just finished shooting the thriller/drama The Tourist in Venice, while Brad played nanny daddy. “I keep telling Brad he owes me,” Angie recently told Vanity Fair magazine. He’s had a few months off in one of the most beautiful cities in the world, with the children.
Now, realistically, that’s NOT something us regular moms and dads can do, but — in Brad and Angelina world, it is do-able and the fact that they take their children everywhere, and trade-off working, makes their commitment clear.
Read more for the 3rd, 4th & 5th reasons Angie should be awarded mom of the year!
More from HollywoodLife.com:
Angelina Jolie Looks White Hot In Mexico While Promoting 'Salt'
Finally- Angelina Jolie & Brad Pitt's Dream Wedding
Bonnie Says! Hey Angelina, Don't You Think You're Being Crazy Iressponsible Doing Your Dangerous Stunts When You're A Mom Of Six?
Follow Bonnie Fuller on Twitter: www.twitter.com/bonniefuller
Give me an 'average' wage earning citizen doing something meaningful any day of the year and I'll be impressed. Lives of the rich and fabulous mean nothing in this economy unless their in the trenches saving lives.
1. Believe everything that somebody says in an interview, after all, Mel Gibsom gave plenty of good interviews.
2. Call somebody who spends an hour or two a day with their kids before the help arrives Mommy of the year.
If you had to pick a famous person, how about Jennifer Garner? Every picture you see of her is not some publicity shot, but a nice picture of her out with her children and not a nanny in site. Julia Roberts seems to spend much more alone time with her kids than Jolie...but of course, she isn't coming out with a movie right now and doesn't seem to use her kids for publicity.
There's nothing wrong with having nannies when you have many children, a lot to do and plenty of money to afford help.
We all know that the "Mother of the Year" award really belongs to the unknown woman, probably single, who takes care of her many kids, without much money, and definitely no nannies. How to find her? We're talking about famous people, so why not Angelina Jolie?
We don't know for a fact that Julia Roberts spends much more alone time with her kids, and she IS coming out with a movie, "Eat, Pray, Love." We don't know that she and Jennifer Garner don't have help (a nanny/nannies).
Interviewers always ask Angelina about the kids. All she does is answer questions.
I'm sure if interviewers ask Jennifer Garner about her kids, she'd answer too. People are just more interested in reading about the Jolie-Pitt family.
It would have been much easier for Angelina and Brad to leave the kids behind with family and nannies. I like the fact that they take all six plus nannies with them on location.
I'm sure there are plenty of mothers out there who do a similar or better job in obscurity.
Save the Mommy of the Year title for a single mom who works 2 jobs in an attempt to give her children food and a roof over their heads, while not being able to pass sick or cranky kids off to someone else to deal with.
Just take and be happy with the parts of the story that show that she does appear to care about the children (which was my major concern with adopting so many and having more) and strives to do the best she can for them.
Don't hate on successful women, and for gosh sakes, everyone I know with kids, (and yeah, I help sit when I can) would LOVE to have a nanny once in a while. If they can afford it, but strive to remain the primary care-givers, more power to em.
Conversely, I know Born-Again families who have 16+ kids, draw from welfare, and run their homes like military institutions. I guess you have to with so many kids in one house. Still, it seems very odd and arrogant to me since so many kids need homes already, and it seems like the only issue in the matter against adoption would be proving financial stability, and a possible second opinion towards the religious indoctrination. I cannot say in the slightest however that they do not love each and everyone of those kids, and try to do the best for them.
So again, there is good and bad in every situation, unless we live in the house with the parent's we can't totally speak to motive, and just be happy with the good parts here.
That does not change my belief that Angelina deserves this title less than a woman who continues on in the face of adversity Angelina will never have to face due to her wealth.
Faved & fanned!
1. There is always a full time parent at home
2. Even if the nanny isn't there first thing in the morning, knowing that in 1 hour the nannies were going to show up to clean up and take care of the kids would be in the back of a person's mind. It is very very easy to laugh at chaos when you only have to deal with it for an hour a day for a few months at a time in between leaving for several months to shoot a movie.
When she can watch 6 kids all day with no help, plus feed them, put them down for naps, dress them, change them, peel them off the floor, provide snacks, dinner, drinks, give baths, brush their teeth and put them to bed, not to mention keeping up on laundry and going to the grocery store, THEN I will consider her for mother of the year.
Right now, she's not even close.
(Bonnie ...good luck in Hooray for Hollywood, few believer's left)
Sean Penn is a real humanitarian.