Let Google tell it and Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are great parents or absolutely suck as a mom and dad to their six kids, are homewreckers or genuinely fell in love while Brad was married to Jennifer Aniston, and are awesome at fundraising for great causes or total publicity whores who give money for attention. Whatever the gossip wags say about the international superstars, their kids will never figure it out from reading blogs and gossip sites, because Jolie and Pitt don’t let their kids Google them. Ever.
Pitt told Germany’s Bild newspaper that he and longtime companion Jolie have blocked their names on the computers of kids, Maddox, 10, Pax, 8, Zahara, 7, Shiloh, 5, Knox and Vivienne, 3, so their international crew adoptees don’t have access to the crazy things people say about their parents. “They can’t Google their mom and dad. I don’t want to make myself dependent on what other people think.” Pitt added that he and Jolie ignore the chatter, too. “We don’t even notice all the noise,” he said.
Which I guess is a good thing considering how many of us stand poised to jump all over Angelina for not doing a good enough job with daughter Zahara Jolie-Pitt’s hair. I know it would drive me bat crap if I logged onto my computer and saw people who don’t know me, don’t care about me and stand poised to judge me at every turn questioning my mothering skills, particularly when all I do, every breath I take, is about making sure that my kids are healthy and happy. And I know I’d absolutely abhor having to do damage control with my kids over that mess.
Which of course has me thinking about how I should be handling Google for my own two girls. I mean, obviously, there is absolutely no comparison between what my daughters can find on the internet about their mom versus what Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s kids could find out with a Google search of their parents. But kids don’t need to know, see or have an opinion on all things concerning their parents, and maybe—just maybe—putting all my parenting business on the streets could make my girls feel some kind of way when they get older. For sure, I have slowed down a bit on how much I say about Mari, in particular, as she makes her way into her teen years. And I do ask her before I write about her if it’s okay because my parenting journey isn’t just my business—it belongs to her, too. Luckily, there’s not a whole lot of crazy on the internet about their mama (whew!), but Angelina and Brad’s pronouncement did make me think just a bit. And Google myself. LOL!
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Denene Millner
Mom. NY Times bestselling author. Pop culture ninja. Unapologetic lover of shoes, bacon and babies. Nice with the verbs. Founder of the top black parenting website, MyBrownBaby.
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It’s smart of them to block their names. The Internet can be ruthless! One of the reasons that I stopped blogging at Mom on the Rise is because I was worried about the repercussions of focusing too closely on my daughter and my family too publicly. I also Google myself all the time! LOL
I’m glad to see they are implementing boundaries with their children. But I do think that children that young should without the presence of an adult while surfing the net
Actually I think it’s smart that they blocked their names. Unfortunately with popularity comes haters and folks who want to trash your name. These kids know who their parents REALLY are. Good for Brad and Angie for keeping it that way and creating a sense of normalcy for their chldren. And why did you have to go mention the hair???? LOL. #icant