Nicole Kidman Says Raising Teenagers is 'Really Nice'

Don Arnold/Wireimage

The age difference between her youngest child, 4 ½-month-old Sunday Rose, and her eldest child, 15-year-old Isabella Jane, has given Nicole Kidman a birds eye view of what’s to come when baby girl reaches her formative years. "It’s strange, but in a great way, to have teenagers," the 41-year-old actress notes. "For a period of time it’s secretive and then it’s not." Now that Isabella and her 13-year-old brother Connor Antony have reached age "where they start to open up," Nicole says "it’s really nice." Teenagers are also useful for keeping mom hip to the times!

"They keep me informed about things I would not know about otherwise, [like] music and things in culture and, well, Bella and Keith really like the same music, which is interesting to me."

Bella and Connor are Nicole’s children with ex-husband Tom Cruise. Sunday is her daughter with husband Keith Urban.

Source: Calgary Herald

Comments

I got closer to my mom when i was a teenager. I went through the secretive phase and then the opening up. Now my mom is one of my best friend. I hope it’ll happen to her and her kids too.

- Jade on November 26th, 2008

I find it a bit unsettling hearing her talk about how nice it is to have teenagers when she so seldom seems to see them. I think her parental set-up with Tom Cruise is so odd. Of course, none of us know what is really going on – but I hope she gives her older children the same love and attention she is giving Sunday.

- Sheri on November 26th, 2008

Thats funny that they like the same music but not very suprising my dad & brother like a lot of the same music now but i wonder what kind of music if its country or rap or some other kind…

- Kelly on November 26th, 2008

We have no idea how often Nicole sees her kids and it is really none of our business. Just because we don’t see Paparazzi shots of them together it doesn’t mean anything. Poor Nicole can’t win. If she doesn’t mention Bella and Connor, she gets slammed, if she does mention them she gets slammed for it too.

- missmeghan on November 26th, 2008

Sheri, I don’t think it’s fair to assume that she “seldom” sees them.

- Natasha on November 26th, 2008

I loe Aussies. They say everything is “nice.” I traveled with a pair of Aussies a few years ago in Britian – it was hysterical. Everythng was “ohh, that is so nice.” Such a friendly group. Any Aussies want to go to Spain with me in April? I am thinking of going.

- Susan on November 26th, 2008

I agree missmeghan. But there is actually more to this interview. She said how Bella and Conner don’t want to be talked about. Bella, especially, she goes on to say “Shut up” a normal teenager attitude. I feel bad for Nicole on how she is judged on her parenting skills with her children. It’s not fair because people are judging her on stupid paparazzi photos. That’s cruel that paparazzi seem to be thought as a good source in seeing how much celebs are with their kids.

- Nicole Marie on November 26th, 2008

Well said, Nicole Marie! Kidman has said over and over again that she doesn’t like to be photographed with her children. And because of that, people assume she never sees Bella and Conner. How judgmental!
To me, it sounds like they have a normal relationship. (Or as normal as it gets with teenagers:-)

- sam on November 26th, 2008

‘As normal as it gets with Teenagers’ So true Sam!

- missmeghan on November 26th, 2008

Actually, Bella and Connor live with Tom’s sister, in LA. And just because they “don’t like to be photographed” doesn’t necessarily mean they won’t be. The pap. doesn’t really care about who wants to be photographed.

Of course it’s easy to raise teens, when you’re ex sister-in-law gets to deal w/ all the daily drama.

- Lola on November 26th, 2008

I agree with Sheri…I’m fond of Nicole as an actress but I also found it strange that I always see them in photos with Tom. So that naturally made me wonder why they would suddenly become camera shy with Nicole if that were the case…this is the first article quote that I’ve read that she mentions them. Although I’ll admit I’ve only read the small quotes.

Just my humble opinion (not right not wrong)

- T on November 26th, 2008

She lives in Nashville for gods sake. Not really the paparazzi capital.

- Roisin on November 26th, 2008

For all the years Nicole was married to Tom and obviously with her children all the time, I don’t recall any published photos of them.

It’s apparent that Nicole prefers that, and the kids do too.

Tom is the one who forced them into the limelight with all his drama of the past couple of years.

- DiamondGirl on November 26th, 2008

Thank you, “T”, for sticking up for me I’m not being judgmental in my former comment – it’s just that I’ve heard in interviews that Bella, in particular, feels like she doesn’t get enough of her mother’s attention. I just know, as a mother, that I would never, ever be separated from my children like their living situation is … but, as I said before, we don’t know what’s going on. I think we should all feel safe to express our opinions without being slammed for it

- Sheri on November 26th, 2008

Sheri- I think the thing about Bella feeling she doesn’t get enough attention from her mom was probably just a tabloid rumor.

Also, Lola, they don’t live with Tom’s sister. They live with their father (which would be TOM), step-mother, and one of their baby sisters. Tom’s sister happens to live with the family, as does Tom’s mother, so they, from what I’ve heard, look after Bella and Connor while Tom and Katie are away (and really, Tom’s mom and sister probably don’t do THAT much “looking after” Connor and Bella, especially Bella. Conner and Bella, especially Bella, are at an age now where they can mostly take care of themselves).

missmeghan- ITA! In fact, some of Nicole’s recent comments seem to confirm the fact that she sees Bella and Connor more than publically known. She mentioned that a photo of Bella holding Sunday is one of her favorites, and that, in the first few weeks after Sunday’s birth, she just wanted to be in the “bubble” of her, Keith, Sunday, Bella, and Connor.

Therefore, it sounds like they DID go to Nashville shortly after Sunday’s birth to meet their new sister. She also said, when she attened the 15th Annual Women In Hollywood Tribute that Keith and Bella split “baby-sitting” duties with Sunday so that she (Nicole) could attend the event (and BTW, I suspect the “baby-sitting” part was in reference to Bella, NOT Keith! Of course Keith wasn’t baby-sitting his own child! He was just being a father to her!).

- CelebBabyLover on November 27th, 2008

Also, for all we know, Nicole talks on the phone with Bella and Connor a lot.

- CelebBabyLover on November 27th, 2008

There is so much the public will never know when it comes to Nicole’s relationship with her oldest two children.
On one hand, Nicole gives the impression that she is very much involved in the life of her children but on the on the other hand, those children live primarily with Tom, they’re being raised as Scientolgist and according to Katie they call her “mom”. In addition, Nicole made a conscious decision to build a home for herself in Nashville knowing full well that if she lived in CA, she would have the opportunity to spend substantially more time with them and yet she chose to create more distance between them.
I would never voluntarily choose to live some place far away from my children. I do not know how Nicole deals with being away from her children so much.

- Di on November 27th, 2008

This is exactly how a mom would describe her teens. They open up to you and as a parent you learn about all types of “Cool” things.
I love how Nicole shares this with her kids.

- tj on November 28th, 2008

Remember, in the Scientology world,if you are not with them then you are against them. They are very strict about non contact with parents and family members who do not choose to be involved with Scientology. So whatever contact Nicole has with her kids, it’ Tom’s rules.
It would be nice to hear Tom honestly acknowledge Nicole as a good and loving mom instead of freezing her out and making her feel judged. I feel for Nicole. It must be so hard.

- amber on November 29th, 2008

Amber- How do we know that Tom sets the rules for the contact with the kids? First of all, keep in mind that a lot of what we hear on the Internet and other places about Scientology is either not true or is a big exageration (people who are Scientologists have commented here in the past, such as when Katie was pregnant and the whole “silent birth” debate was going, and set the rest of us straight!).

Here are just two examples: According to what you read on the Internet, Scientologist’s insist on feeding their babies a type of barely water formula. Yet Katie breastfeed Suri for at least a few months (Tom mentioned it, and we saw poor Katie with part of her nursing bra unhooked shortly after Suri was born! Katie was wearing a low-necked shirt, which is why her nursing bra was partly visable).

Also, Scientologists supposedly don’t celebrate Christmas, yet we’ve seen plenty of evidence that the Cruise’s do, and some Scientoligists who have posted here have explained that some Scientologists celebrate it and some don’t.

Also, Nicole has pretty much made it clear that it’s the KIDS’ decision to live in LA (recently, for example, she said that LA is much more of a “draw” for them than Nashville, and she hopes that someday they’ll want to spend more time in Nashville), NOT Tom’s!

For another thing, I have never once heard Tom speak ill of Nicole (except maybe when they first got divorced. Nicole had a miscarriage as the marriage was ending and there are rumors that he tried to insist he wasn’t the father of that baby. I have yet to read that in a reputable source, though).

In fact, when he was on Oprah this year, he said that Nicole has NOT been forced out of Bella and Connor’s lives and that he (Tom) and Nicole are on friendly terms(Nicole has indicated this recently as well).

I also think he HAS said Nicole’s a good mom. At any rate, he has never once said she’s a horrible mom or that she shouldn’t see her kids or anything like that.

Finally, even if Tom DID tried to control when Nicole could see Bella and Connor, Nicole could take him to court and change that.

- CelebBabyLover on November 29th, 2008