Nicole Kidman Gets Candid About Parenting Her Kids in Quarantine: It’s ‘Been Very Difficult for Them’

Nicole Kidman takes her role as a mom extremely seriously, but sometimes, things are just out of her control — like having to social distance amid the coronavirus pandemic. Aside from the typical challenges in quarantine, the Big Little Lies star said her two daughters, Sunday and Faith, have been having a “very difficult” time adjusting to life in lockdown.

“They are working through the emotions,” Nicole, 53, candidly shared in the November 2020 issue of U.K.’s Glamour magazine. “Our kids — because we travel, and we won’t be apart — are used to having to learn online. But the social distance has been very difficult for them.”

The Undoing star — who shares Sunday, 12, and Faith, 9, with husband Keith Urban, 53 — said “watching them pine and yearn for their friends” is one of the “hardest” parts. “For a 12-year-old, it’s about not being able to access friends easily … that’s a whole thing which every parent will be going through,” she explained. “And then, there’s a 9-year-old, who’s socially forming.”

Nicole said she understands why her little girls are having a tough time amid the global COVID-19 outbreak. “I pine and yearn for my friends too,” she noted.

Fortunately, the Academy Award winner’s home has been more crowded than ever as her sister, Antonia Kidman, and her kids Sybella, Nicholas and Alexander have “moved in” to help while she’s filming amid the pandemic. Antonia shares Sybella and her older kids Lucia, Hamish and James with ex-husband Angus Hawley, while she’s the mom of Nicholas and Alexander with spouse Craig Marran.

“We have three of her younger kids living with us,” Nicole shared. “It’s just fun because I just find their perspective not so heavy. It puts you in a more childlike place where you go, ‘I can move through this and it can be fleeting. It doesn’t have to become a massive weight.'”

Nicole may experience challenges like every other parent, but being a nurturing mom comes naturally to the star. “I like the feeling of taking care of people, that’s my joy and it’s not about then receiving something back,” she gushed. “I’m an eldest child, my mother had breast cancer when I was 17, and I had to take care of her. That’s a place in which I feel confident and I feel good when I’m able to do it.”

The Moulin Rouge! alum, who also shares Isabella Cruise, 27, and Connor Cruise, 25, with ex-husband Tom Cruise, said she always had this motherly quality because she “just [loves]” kids. “I said once, ‘I prefer children to adults,'” she dished. “I like adults more now, not more than kids, though. I love being around children.”

Way to go, mama!