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Angelina is teaching her kids to question authority; is an obsessive packer


We covered some of Angelina’s extensive Hello! interview earlier today, and she talks so much about everything that it was hard to include all the quotable parts in just one installment. My husband brought home German language celebrity magazine Bunte for me today, which also features an exclusive Angelina interview, and I had to tell him I couldn’t use it because we just have too many stories about her today. I’m pretty sure she doesn’t say anything we haven’t already heard from her, but I’ll check and get back to you if there’s anything new.

Angelina frankly told Matt Lauer on the Today Show this morning that she was considering adopting again and that her kids are pretty much used to new arrivals by now. She also said that she didn’t really think her family would settle down in one place for ten years as Lauer asked and that if they did decide to stay put it would be something the children would help decide on. She said “so far we’ve moved them a lot and they like packing their bags before the next adventure and they like making new friends wherever we go.” She said she wanted to teach them to be at home in the world and to be adaptable.

The kids may enjoy moving around, but they each have comfort items that they bring with them as their family moves around the world. Angelina talked to Hello! about how she packs and what her children have to have at every stop along the way:

On being an obsessive packer
“Brad will tell you that I’m an obsessive packer. I tend to pack my stuff over and over again, and I like to keep it all as small as possible. I have a small closet and a small suitcase, and I like to pack just exactly what I need and no more. I like to get it just right. I take books in my suitcase and usually a change of slacks and some changes of flat shoes, and that’s about it. Well, that and some private girl things. But really, I like to travel light. The kids pack a lot more than I do.”

On her children’s comfort items
“There are certain things that we know they love - favourite storybooks and things like that - and we do try and take those with us, because we don’t want to have to buy a bunch of new stuff every time we go to a new place. We do want the kids to feel they blend into the environment, so they each have a little bag that is their own, that they’ve packed with their special little things that they want to take with them to the new place. Their things are very important to them and they’re all very different.

Maddox has army men, Pax saves bits of rope
“Madd is interested in the military right now, so he has a lot of little army men and military planes. Pax has bits of rope - that’s his thing, for some reason - and also stuffed monkeys, which he loves. Pax packs a lot - his bags are very small, but they’re really heavy. Zizi has a blanket that was once actually pink, but now is the dirtiest shade of brown you can imagine. Shiloh has little, what she calls ’silkies’, which are like these little square things with silk on them that are very important to her because she just has to have them… and I think that’s about it. Knox and Viv don’t have things yet because they’re too small, but I’m sure that just as soon as they’re ready for them, I’ll hear about it.”
I wonder what she means by “private girl things” - lingerie? She talks like such a mom!
Angelina also spoke frankly about teaching her children right from wrong and to trust their own instincts and question authority. I never quite thought of it that way, but she makes a good point. I’m not sure if her children are old enough to grasp it, although Maddox is seven so maybe he gets it.

On teaching her kids to question authority
“We try to teach our kids right and wrong and how to follow their instincts. When we’re watching TV, and they say to me, ‘Is the guy on the screen a bad guy?’ I say, ‘Well, is he hurting someone? Because if he is, then he’s a bad guy.’ I’m bringing them up to question authority, because I think it’s important. I tell them that just because someone is in office or is a policeman or something, that doesn’t mean they have the right to tell you to do something you know is wrong.”

On bringing up little citizens of the world
“We don’t officially live in France. The children all have American passports and are American, too, but I also think that one of the best things about America is that we are a melting pot, a mix of many, many different races and nations. My kids were born in different countries, in Asia, Africa and Europe, and I expect them to learn about those places and to appreciate all other parts of the world, not just their own. Yes, they have their own nationalities and are very proud of them, but that certainly doesn’t diminish the fact that they’re America. To me, that is what being American is.”


And finally, Angelina talked about her children’s homeschooling and her plans to go back to work next year. She says they have a lot of flexibility and advantages as actors.

On her children being homeschooled and getting family time
“The older children are all doing very well right now and I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that we’ve all been spending a lot of time together as a family. The kids are home-schooled, and until Brad started working on his film last week we’ve neither of us been working, we haven’t gone away and we haven’t spent too much time with the babies instead of with them, so we’ve been getting a lot of time together. Everybody’s been getting a lot of time, so everybody’s doing pretty good.”

On their flexible jobs
“We have to do a lot of forward planning in our lives, but fortunately both Brad and I are at a place in our careers where we can ask the studio to accommodate us. This week has been planned for the Changeling premiere for a long time, so when Brad accepted the film he’s doing now, he said from the beginning that this was a week he wanted to have off so that he could be here with the children while I work, and I do the same for him. I’m sure there are a lot of people in the studios who get very irritated with us.”

On going back to work: she did take a year off
“I’m planning to go back to work in February - there’s a project I’m looking at now that will begin at the end of that month. It’ll have been over a year since I last worked and there was a big discussion in our house of, ‘Should I go back to work?’ Brad was wonderfully supportive. He said ‘Your work is part of you and you should do this. We’ll be fine - the babies will be sitting up and hanging out in your trailer, and the kids will come to visit when they’re not at school. It’s going to be all right.’”