Madonna runs a tight ship at her house.
There are some things that she's done in the interest of parenting that some of us may not exactly agree with.
Some things she's done may have alienated some of her other kids. But hey, we're not allowed to judge. It's her household.
Madonna makes sure that Guy Ritchie knows she has to talk to her children "when and how often she chooses", even when he's the one who has them.
This even goes up to four times a day!
You'd think it would be healthy for families to discuss divorce, but Madonna wants no mention of it at all.
It kind of makes sense, as there is no use living in the past.
When the world found out that her daughter would be going to a French school, no one was surprised.
Madonna has always put so much emphasis on education, especially with her children.
She once said:
“No boys for [Lourdes] until she's 18 years old. She’s a good girl, though. She doesn’t have it easy. Late-night TV, junk food and mess are not tolerated in my house.”
Now Lourdes is 23, so that rule is long gone.
She may be a fashion icon, but she's not so keen on her daughter taking similar risks.
Even when it comes to something as simple as skinny jeans.
"I have a go at her and say, 'Can't you wear something else? You have a closet full of clothes and you wear the same pants every day.'"
Apparently, Madonna once said that she's never cooked a meal by herself.
She has a cook, and apparently her kids really like to cook as well. So maybe they feed her instead.
To an extreme, some people would argue.
Madonna's ex-nanny wrote a tell-all book about Madonna. She mentioned that when Madonna is sleeping, there is to be no sound. Not even the running of the shower.
Like Tony Montana before her, she would like her kids to "say hello to the bad guy". In her own words:
"I'm bad-cop, I'm the one that says no. I accept that role. I'm not the popular parent."
They may be the kids of one of the most popular superstars of all time, but that doesn't mean they get out of helping their community.
She makes sure her kids do nice things.
"My daughter goes to children's hospitals to read my books to other children, and as she and my son get older, I'm sure they will become more involved in community service."
Guy Richie has to follow her rules whenever he sees his kids.
These rules are very similar to the ones she imposes on her children already.
Every parent, in this new age of technology, is trying to get their kids off their phones.
Madonna did the same, and she's afraid doing so fractured her relationship with her older kids.
"Not completely, but it became a very, very big part of their lives. They became too inundated with imagery and started to compare themselves to other people, and that’s really bad for self-growth.”
Even when they're not at Guy Richie's house, Madonna still has a no TV rule.
In fact, the only type of media that they'll have in the house is music.
"I mean we watch movies at night on weekends but TV, no and phones, no. Music and dancing and talking to each other. Old fashioned.”
Madonna runs a tight ship when it comes to cleanliness.
One time, Lourdes didn't keep her room clean and her mom punished her by taking away all of her clothes.
"... picking up things in her room, making her bed in the morning... She wears the same outfit every day to school until she learns her lesson.”
There were reports a while ago that said the reason Rocco went to live with his father was that Madonna not only ran her house strictly, but also because there was an early curfew.
"His life (in London) is not strict, he's not Madonna's son, he's more like a regular teen. Guy lives a very normal life, Rocco is not on movie sets, if he doesn't want to be there."
Madonna was never really taught manners:
"For example, mothers teach you manners. And I absolutely did not learn any of those rules and regulations."
So judging from that, we can assume she wants her children to be very well trained in the art of being polite.
She has control over everything in her house, including her daughter's hair... to a point.
Lourdes wasn't allowed to dye it until she was 14. And when she was, she actually posted about it.
"I'm just going to use this blog entry to tell y'all a little bit about myself. I'm 13 and I'll be 14 in October, so I can't wait for that because I am FINALLY allowed to dye my hair... THANK YOU MOTHER!!"
Obviously, if you're going to be the child of a celebrity, you're going to be in the spotlight a whole lot.
But for Madonna's children, it seems like they're always front and center.
Its part of the reason that Rocco wanted to go live with his father and Lourdes is so rebellious.
Unlike a lot of other families, Madonna and her kids celebrate holidays not in the comfort of their own home, but in exotic places like Malawi.
Not so much of a rule, but a nice perk.
