Brad Pitt: Time to Re-Consider Getting Married?

By Stephen M. Silverman

05/29/2011 at 12:00 PM EDT

Having long held the position that "Angie and I will consider tying the knot when everyone else in the country who wants to be married is legally able," could Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie be having a change of heart?

"The kids ask about marriage. It's meaning more and more to them," the Tree of Life star and father of six tells USA Weekend. "So it's something we've got to look at."

While a wedding may still be on the distant horizon, what Pitt, 47, does makes clear is that his children – ages 2 to 9 – have already turned his life around.

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"Kids hold up a mirror to you," he says. "You can't make excuses. You've got to make sure they've brushed their teeth and eaten a good breakfast. You want to be present if they wake up with a bad dream."

While he has admitted to enjoying the chaos his large brood sometimes creates, Pitt also owns up to a certain order in their lives, whether at their Los Angeles "base camp" – as he calls the family's main home – or on international film sets.

"On the road, we're a military mobile unit," he says. "The kids have got their stuff down to one backpack, and they're each responsible for their own bag. Mom does the packing; she's quite gifted at that. Puts in just what we need – nothing extra."

"We're pretty nomadic," he remarks. "We go where the crops are."

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Despite their extraordinary circumstances, he says, "Angie and I do everything we can to carve out some semblance of normalcy for them, to re-create the kinds of moments that were special for us."

That also includes private time for the adults. "There are no secrets at our house," Pitt says. "We tell the kids, 'Mom and Dad are going off to kiss.' They go, 'Eww, gross!' But we demand it."