Joeanne- Thanks for sharing that! It made me go “AWWWW!” It warms my heart to hear Angie speaking in such an endearing way about the twins!

I think somewhat it is true whether you have two or ten… you keep them busy, make time for individual time, and there will at least be LESS jealousy.

Whether or not there is any still depends on the child’s temperment and personality.

But my oldest has yet to feel jealousy over his brother or sister. now that they are 4, 7, and almost 9, he will sometimes come to us and ask for more individual time, but it’s because we are working on getting him to use his words to express himself more, so we’re pushing the envelope on that one. He has aspergers and so we want him to get better at expressing his emotions and emotional needs.

Now, our second son was jealous initially… but by letting our oldest step up to being that really BIG brother he wanted to be and letting him have turns to hold his sister (on a boppy pillow), give her a pacifier, and help out with changing diapers and such (never by himself of course), it allowed me to have that hand free to give my middle child his cuddle, his reassurance, and he got over it before she was 2mo old.

I really do find that if you just simply realize any acting out is a cry for attention and then give it as positive reinforcement when they are not acting out, you will definitely reap benefits.

I was raised with 12 brothers and sisters and we got along great. We still do. It was great always having someone to play with. The only problem I had was I didn’t make friends very easily. But that was just me because my siblings still have friends from kindergarten!!!

Big families are wonderful.

awww here’s a cute interview where Angie talks about the kids, including the twins
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What are the joys and difficulties of having twins in addition to four other children?
It’s beautiful, they are so fun!It’s a lot of hard work, and we are always exhausted, it’s twice the effort but also twice the fun, and thankfully Brad and I have taken plenty of time off work to be together. We organize ourselves so as to be able to adapt work to our family, the children study at home…so each one receives his healthy dose of attention from us!

Do you also find time for yourselves?
That is the hardest part, trying to find some time to be alone. Even when we close our bedroom door they come and knock straight away. Often at the end of the evening, after having put everyone to bed, we go into the bathroom to talk, and as soon as they hear the sound of water running they all run in because they want to jump into the bath with us! But it’s fun, Knox and Viv (the twins) are the cutest things in the world, they do nothing but smile. Once you have three of four children, having six isn’t really that different, it’s chaos anyway!

http://daily.chictoday.com/2008/10/05/angelina-jolie-enchants-new-york-at-changeling-premier/

Haha! Nicole, we think alike!

It is true that nouvel is masculine “new”, but as I recall, Shiloh got her middle name in honor of Jean Nouvel, a famous French architect, Brad’s favourite. Also Marley, Zahara’s middle name, is in honor of Bob Marley.

I actually think they named her after Jean Nouvel, the architect, not the French word “nouvelle” which is why it’s spelled like it is. Zahara’s middle name is from Bob Marley, and Viv’s middle name is from Angelina’s mother Marcheline, so the girls’ middle names after actual names.

I’ve always pronounced is “know-vell,” but I’m not sure.

Why does this article say she says the twins don’t take up too much of their time? The quote is this:

“They’re so many of them that they’re busy with each other and the kids don’t take up too much of mommy and daddy’s time,” she revealed.

How is that limited to only the twins?

I’m french and “nouvel’ means ‘new’ but in for a girl it should be ” nouvelle” actually I prounnounce it “nu-vel” or maybe “noo-vel”, you know like in the name “Belle” ( which means beautiful by the way)

but I don’t know if they prounouce it à la manière française !

I thought Nouvel was pronounced like New-vel??