Chris Stapleton Says Time With Family This Year Is 'a Privilege and a Gift'

12/22/2020 01:26 pm EST

Chris Stapleton is a father of five, but due to his busy touring schedule, he often doesn't get to spend as much time with his family as he'd like. This year, that changed because of the pandemic, and Stapleton joked to Country Now that he's gotten "a lot better at changing diapers."

"I get 'em all up every morning and make 'em breakfast and watch 'em run around, you know," he said of his younger kids. "It's a special thing to get to do. What a privilege and a gift, in a year that on the surface might seem very devoid of gifts." His oldest children are now preteens, which makes for a new parenting experience. "You get to really check in with — my older children are 11 and 10…so there's all kinds of new personality and emotional space to explore with them," he mused. "It's really interesting to talk to them and hear their takes on things, their likes and dislikes, and they're very opinionated."

Stapleton, his wife Morgane and their kids live on a farm, and the "Starting Over" singer shared that his simple tastes will extend to the family's holiday plans this year. "We'll probably just stay at the house, put up a Christmas tree, eat too much and take a nap on the couch," he said.

Stapleton and Morgane have never publicly shared their children's names, though when they welcomed their fifth child in 2019, they shared that they were parents to a new baby boy. In 2018, Morgane gave birth to twins, and the couple also has a son and a daughter. Stapleton previously opened up about his and Morgane's decision to keep their children's information private, explaining that he wants to allow them to make that choice for themselves.

"I signed up for this," he said backstage during CMA Fest in 2018, via The Boot. "My children did not. I am a very private person, and in that respect, I keep my children out of it. They're children, and they deserve the chance to be children."

"My wife comes out [in the public eye], and she's an adult, so she can choose to do that," he added. "My children did not make that choice, and [talking about them in detail in public] is, for me, kind of off limits."

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