Nicole Kidman: 'It's Harder' to Travel With a Toddler

Flynet

With a motto of “have baby, will travel,” Nicole Kidman says that daughter Sunday Rose, 17 months, is “okay” with life on the road — but as she has gotten older, it has become “a different type of traveling.”

“It’s harder now to pack her up,” Nicole concedes. “When they’re 6 weeks, they’re easier to travel with. And you’re breastfeeding, so it’s easy to feed.”

While mom, baby and dad Keith Urban prefer to stay in their adopted hometown of Nashville whenever possible — “that’s why I don’t work that much,” Nicole says — work commitments can’t always be ignored. To that end, the 42-year-old actress adds,

“I just can never be away from her, so she comes wherever I go, as you see.”

As she promotes Nine — in wide release on Friday — Nicole couldn’t help but reminisce about making the film just weeks after giving birth.  “I was wrapped into that dress,” she says. “That’s when I had big boobs from the milk. That’s the benefit of breastfeeding.”

Source: USA Today

– Missy

Comments

lolade ibrahim on December 22nd, 2009

sunday rose is so adorable and i love the way nicole dresses her . They seem very dowm to earth

Amy on December 22nd, 2009

Does anyone else thinks it’s weird that Nicole says “I just can never be away from her,” (refering to Sunday), but is rarely seen if ever with her two older children?

Jen on December 22nd, 2009

No, its not weird. A baby is different. I couldn’t be away from mine when they were babies. Now they are older and don’t want to hang around Mom anymore. Her older two haven’t lived with her for years so I am sure they are used to being apart.

Amy on December 22nd, 2009

To Jen-
yes babies are obviously more dependent on parents, that wasn’t my point. My point was I think it’s weird that she says she can’t stand being away from Sunday, but it appears that she has no problem being away from her other children, who you pointed out haven’t lived with her for years.

Christie on December 22nd, 2009

This topic was covered to death in the last Nicole/Sunday/Keith posting just the other day. Just because she is not with them doesn’t mean anything. It seems pretty obvious (at least to me) that there is some sort of arrangement in place with her and Tom Cruise regarding custody of their two children. Obviously, since none of us know them personally, we will never know the real situation. How do we know she DOESN’T have a problem with her other kids living most of the time with Tom and Katie and not seeing them? Then again she could see them all the time and we just don’t see the photographic proof – like I said we don’t know the real situation.

shirese on December 22nd, 2009

I really like Sunday Rose’s name.

Nicky on December 22nd, 2009

This is my one peeve when it comes to this family. Just because there’s not photos of Nic all over her two eldest ala Tom/Kate/Suri, doesn’t mean she doesn’t love her teens.

As witnessed by photos over the years with Bella and Connor when she was with Tom, she is a lovely mother.

Or perhaps she, now that she’s divorced from Tom has now become part of the church’s disconnection policy. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disconnection

Sunday Rose is her chance to be a mom without Church rules dictating things. So if she wants to revel in it, by all means who are we to say anything bad on this?

mrsh on December 22nd, 2009

I agree with Christie and Nicky. I think there are things going on that we don’t know in regards to her relationship with Bella and Connor. It is quite publicly known that the Church of Scientology has a strict disconnection policy, as Nicky pointed out. With Tom being so heavily involved in Scientology, it would not surprise me if Nicole is very restricted in her contact with Bella and Connor as she is not a practicing Scientologist, and has gone so far as to speak against the Church of Scientology. I would imagine that it DOES pain her to be away from her older children, but I doubt she can do much about it. All the more reason she may hold so close to Sunday Rose.

Cathey on December 22nd, 2009

Sunday has a very beautiful smile!!

Saddened on December 22nd, 2009

Nicole Kidman is a wealthy woman. If Kidman felt her children were being kept from her, she has the resources to fight. When she and Tom Cruise divorced she was the custodial parent. But it seems that since right before her relationship with Keith Urbane began Nicole has distanced herself from her older children. I find it strange that so many people on this site defend her so strongly.

Me on December 22nd, 2009

Saddened,
I guess I feel the urge to defend her because of how mean some of the rumors are:
She doesn’t love her older children…
She doesn’t see her older children…
How would you like to be judged so harshly by people who don’t know you. People who follow rumors like they are the gospel truth.
She has repeatedly said they’ve asked her not to talk about them. Just because she doesn’t bring a camera crew along for a visit with her kids, doesn’t mean the visits don’t happen… except in the eyes of the rumor mill.
How sad that a woman can have her character attacked because of gossip.

Sarah K. on December 22nd, 2009

Saddened, I find it strange that so many people jump to the conclusion that she doesn’t want them. It’s like people want to think that she abandoned them. There are a million legitimate reasons why she does not have primary custody and none of them have to do with Scientology or abandonment. We do not know these people. We do not know how often they see each other. We will never know, so let it go people.

lizzielui on December 22nd, 2009

Saddened,

People defend her strongly because none of us know the details of her private life and how often she sees those kids. Everything any of us think we know is based on a few photos and speculation so how can you tell what type of mother she is, or what type of relationship she has with Bella and Connor based on pap photos? It’s silly really. Furthermore, where is the outcry when Tom and Katie are off filming movies at months at a time and Bella and Connor are back in California? He was in Germany for months filming Valkerie while the kids were here in the States. How do we know that they are not spending time with Nicole then? If you really think about it, we rarely see Bella and Connor with either parent. It just so happens that the few times that we see them they are with Tom because he and Katie are out and about more. Again, the kids spent Thanksgiving with Nicole, yet the were no pics. If she hadn’t mentioned it to People magazine none of us would have even know about it and many would have been saying, “It’s a shame the kids didn’t see their mother on Thanksgiving.”

maggie on December 22nd, 2009

i have said it time and time again but i just cannot understand this whole situation…. this whole ‘i need to be with her all the time’. YES bella and connor dont want her talkin about them but i bet they mean they dont want her saying what their likes and dislikes are etc. i have seen Nic on lots of chat shows where she has spoken about Connor and Bella but since Keith came along and Sunday its like shes forgotten about them. YES do not talk about them sure BUT is it gonna hurt them for their Mom to talk about her love for them?!!!!

jen on December 22nd, 2009

Nicole saying “I just can never be away from her,” (refering to Sunday), does not mean she doesn’t feel that way about her other two children. For all we know she feels the exact same way about all her children, but can’t be with the older two for reasons that are beyond our knowledge.

Marie on December 22nd, 2009

This is a very cute story, love Nicole, wish people would give it a rest about her older kids. It’s their business how they divided the custody. Keith & Nicole have every right to be overjoyed with their baby. I’m so happy she was able to have a biological child. Merry Christmas to everyone!

Blue on December 22nd, 2009

Scientology is a very dark unusual religion so who really knows what has gone down behind closed doors with the Tom/Nicole/Bella/Conner situation? Nicole doesn’t seem to have been able to give herself over to Scientology so maybe that is where problems in her marriage and parenting relationships with Tom/Conner/Bella stem from. How do we know that these children were ever allowed to fully bond with Nicole as their mother? Tom is a very very powerful man in the acting community and within the Scientology community certainly more powerful than Nicole. She seems to have a different life now with her new husband and baby and I’m sure she is relishing being able to fully mother a child without the input and control of the “church” of scientology. In a way I can see why her situation would be akin to becoming a first time mother. I have often wondered if Tom is the bio father of Conner & Bella and that is why aside from religious differences he is the more dominant parent in their life. I could be completely off base by all of the assumptions but I am 100% certain that there is way more to this situation than meets the eye and probably more then any of us will ever know.

Erica on December 22nd, 2009

Blue:

Connor’s resemblance to Tom is a bit uncanny isn’t it?

Tazina on December 22nd, 2009

It’s great the baby is always with her. She really is a good mom. I don’t know about the two older kids. They likely prefer the lifestyle they have with their father. Also, they likely have friends where they are and this is where they want to be, not unusual for kids of that age. But we don’t really know for sure do we what kind of contact Nicole has with them.

Ashley on December 22nd, 2009

for all those ppl who criticize Nicole for “not enough time” with her older children, have you considered that her children “prefer” to live in LA where they’re home-schooled by their aunt rather than live in TN? They’re teenagers now, as Nicole mentioned a while ago, she’s respecting their choice and letting them live their lives. That doesn’t make Nicole a bad mother.

Saddened on December 22nd, 2009

I also find it strange that some of you have no trouble painting Tom Cruise as a villian and Nicole as a saint. Once again Nicole had custody of the children after the divorce. She had them with her in New York when she was dating Lenny Kravitz. Then she seemed to disappear from their lives. If I reversed Tom’s name with Nicole’s people would would crucify him.

diana on December 23rd, 2009

odd to read all these comments because i ran into nicole this morning (she is staying with her parents a few houses up and was out for a morning jog).

i think nicole was very well parented (her family are lovely lovely lovely) and i would be staggered to discover that she was anything but a very good parent to ALL her children. speculation about abandonment etc is utterly unfounded. modern families can get complicated and take unusual forms … and that is all there is to it.

Liliana on December 23rd, 2009

I think painting a picture of either side is quite difficult when none of us has any clue as to what occurs in their personal lives. People can assume as much as they want but their basis is nothing but other assumptions. No one knows these individuals so to judge them as if one does makes little sense.

If Tom was really such a tyrant, there would be plenty that Nicole could legally do to make sure she received equal time with her children, if not more.

I have no reason to believe Nicole’s relationship with her children is strained. She has no obligation to the public to talk about her private life. I doubt she cares what others think of her and she in no way has to justify the way she chooses to live her life.

I think it’s a waste of time to continue this debate every time a post concerning Tom/Katie/Nicole/Keith is posted. No one will ever know the full story so why bother?

My Barefoot Child on December 23rd, 2009

It is so nice to hear her talk about breastfeeding in such a positive way! Thank you, Nicole!

CelebBabyLover on December 23rd, 2009

Christie- Very well said, and I couldn’t agree more! Just because we don’t see pictures of Bella and Connor visiting Nicole doesn’t mean that they don’t see her. Saying that (that they never see her) is, IMO, on the same level as saying that Britney Spears favors Jayden over Sean Preston, Suri wears heels all the time and never plays with other kids, or that Liev Schrieber favors Sasha over Kai.

All of those things are things we can’t possibly know for sure just by looking at paparazzi photos.

Liliana- I think you said it best of all! It’s not really fair to paint EITHER of Tom or Nicole as “the villian”. Like you said, none of us know Tom or Nicole (or Katie or Keith for that matter), so we can’t possibly know what the real situation is behind closed doors.

To add my own two cents….Another possible factor in why we see the kids with Tom and Katie more than Nicole and Keith that I don’t think anyone’s pointed out yet: Nicole and Keith are much more private people than Tom and Katie. When you think about it, we also see Suri way, way, WAY more than we see Sunday.

We often go MONTHS without seeing Sunday, whereas we see Suri on pretty much a weekly basis, and sometimes even several days in a row! Therefore, I think it’s a pretty safe bet that Nicole is simply very private with ALL of her kids.

As far as Blue’s comment about Tom possibly being Bella and Connor’s bio father…I doubt that’s the case. The two main reasons I believe it’s not true are:

1. If it was, I think it would have come out by now, or that there would at least have been strong rumors by now.

2. I don’t think there would have been such strong rumors about Tom being sterile if there were any truth to him being Bella and Connor’s bio father.

Anyway, I DO think Bella and Connor each resemble him a little….but I don’t think that means anything. Adopted kids often end up resembling their adoptive parents (for example, Zahara used to resemble Angelina quite a bit when she was younger, and several people have said that they see Brad’s facial expressions in Pax).

People also sometimes wind up resembling people they have no relation to (a prime example would be how several people have commented on Sheryl Crow’s son Wyatt looking a lot like Lance Armstrong. Also, when Everly Kiedis was younger, people, myself included, used to remark that he looked like a male version of Suri, and a lot of people, again myself included, think Valentina Pinault and Levi McCounahgey look a lot a like).

Cara on December 23rd, 2009

Really, this woman is too funny. ‘Dont work that much now that she has a baby’. ‘ Face is all her own, nothing done to it’ ! Absolutely hilarious, who does she think she is kidding.

I don’t doubt that Scientology have a strong hold over her children with Tom, which could limit her time with them. I do admire that she never says a bad word about Tom, the father of her children. I would imagine she has some spectacular stories to tell about her life with Tom Cruise.

It is very true that Nicole and Tom, when they were together, really did keep their children out of the spotlight, it was very admirable. Strange that now they are apart, both of them parade out their gorgeous little ones regularly.

shirese on December 23rd, 2009

I have no idea what goes on in the private lives of anyone including celebrities. I will not say that I have not wondered why Bella and Conor are less with Nicole and Keith than Katie and Tom. In fact, I don’t see them that much with Katie and Tom. To be fair though, I do not personally know these people. I just hope they are as valued to Tom and Nicole as Suri and Sunday are.

Anders on December 23rd, 2009

Cara, actually, Nicole really doesn’t “parade” Sunday around. She and Keith prefer to keep a low profile in Nashville because they happen to be private people.

And to everyone saying she’s a bad mother (or something) because she’s never photographed with her two eldest children, I remember Nicole saying in an interview that they don’t live with her because they prefer L.A. to Nashville and she wanted to respect their wishes. They’re both old enough to decide where they want to live and they probably already have a lot of friends in that area. Plus, you never know what sort of questions shes asked in interviews. It could be that the reporter never asked about Isabella or Connor or that they decided to not use parts of the interview that mentioned them. Maybe she does talk about them more, but it isn’t put into articles.

Personally, I don’t know whether or not Nicole is a good mother just like no one else knows if she’s a bad mother. The only people that know that are her family and friends. I think that all that really matters is that she seems to be trying to respect her eldest childrens’ wishes and loves them enough to not comment on their personal lives.

lori on December 23rd, 2009

Cara, I think that this day and age, with the full blown media obsession: paparazzi, magazines, twitter, blogs, cel phone cams and all that jazz, that its becoming much, much harder for parents to keep their children’s privacy. So I think its a bit unfair to say that Nicole is parading little Sunday arround when the only time we do see her is in instances where they’re “caught” (like at the airport, see above).

I’m by no means a Nicole defender or whatnot, but has anyone ever thought that she simply avoids bringing up Bella and Connor because she will then be pressed for more details of the custody arrangement or her current relationship with Tom? Any private person would avoid discussing custody dealings and their ex, no?; for all we know the terms of their settlement can be quite bizarre. If she came out and said “I love Sunday but I really miss my other kids” would that make you guys happier? That she’s airing out her personal grievances? I can’t fathom any parent liking the fact that they’re so removed from their kid’s life (and whether you like it or not, we know this “removal” has a lot to do with them practicing Scientology).

shirese on December 23rd, 2009

Lori,

I agree with most of what you said but I beg to differ with the part about knowing for sure that any “removal” (if there truly is one) is because of Scientology. I am not defending Scientology. I am Agnostic myself. But it can’t be both ways where on one hand we say we know nothing of an arrangement but then on the other hand Scientology must be the reason why.

hayley on December 23rd, 2009

i think maybe we should all take a breath and calm down, lets face the facts of that we really no nothing about any of it so really all we are doing here is starting nasty rumours about a family we don’t no which is not fair.

at the end of the day all the children in the cruise/kdman family look to be happy and healthy, what more do we need?

CelebBabyLover on December 24th, 2009

Anders and lori- I agree completely with your comments about Nicole not really “parading” Sunday around. Like I said in my earlier post, we often go MONTHS without seeing even one picture of Sunday. lori, you also were bang on point about the way the media is now.

Plain and simple, the media was a whole different animal when Bella and Connor were little. Certainly part of the reason we didn’t see them hardly at all when they were little is because Tom and Nicole made an effort to keep them out of the spotlight. However, the fact that the media was nowhere near as celebrity baby crazed back then was also a huge part of it.

As far as Suri is concerned, it makes me chuckle when I see people talking about how Tom and Katie parade her around. I mean, when Tom and Katie kept Suri completely out of the public eye for the first six months of her life (she was actually four months old when her first photos were taken, but, because Vanity Fair is a monthly and not a weekly, that issue didn’t come out until October, when she was 6 months), people complained about them “hiding” her and came up with all sorts of crazy conspircy theories.

Yet now that we DO see her, people complain that Tom and Katie are “parading” her around. Bottomline: Celebs just can’t win! They get criticzed if they keep their kids away from the public eye, and they get criticized if they go out in public with their kids!

CelebBabyLover on December 24th, 2009

hayley- Right on!

Elizabeth on January 3rd, 2010

I have to say that both of the arguements on each side of the Nicole and her adopted teenage kids have some merit but I tend to think that the pictures are only half the story this is someone who repeatedly does not mention her two older children in interviews and was quoted in Marie Claire that she didnt feel like I mother until she gave birth to Sydney Rose. For me that said it all, I dont care much for either her or Keith but as an adopted kid myself I think that it is rather obvious a woman of her means, publicity and popularity could for once mention her teenagers when asked about her kids.

KAREN on January 8th, 2010

Elizabeth,
She was not quoted in Marie Claire as saying that she never felt like a mother until she gave birth to Sunday Rose. She said that she did not think that she would ever get to experience having a child. The pregnancy, birth, etc. She also said that she cried when seeing the baby on the sonogram because of the same reasons. I am a huge Keith Urban fan and so I read what is put out there about both he and Nicole and have not ever read that about her not “feeling like a mother.”