“I want to make sure my kids have gratitude” – Jerry O’Connell Spills on How he Prepares his Twins for Life

Actor, Jerry O’Connell posed for the latest issue of PEOPLE with his cute 8-year-old twin daughters, Dolly and Charlie.

Though, parenting twins at one time is a challenging task for any parent, 42-year-old O’ Connell says that he and model-actress wife, Rebecca Romijn‘s first priority is to make sure their daughters are grounded people.

On raising the twins:

“The first thing we try to do is just make them polite. I’m not even joking. That really goes a long way. When they meet people, looking them in the eye and greeting them. Saying their name. Saying thank you. Saying please. As simplistic as that sounds, it’s really important. It’s a great foundation to start from.

I tell them, ‘You can’t chat with anybody on there.’ They’re like, ‘Oh, people are trying to talk to me.’ I’m like, ‘You can’t talk to any of them. Like, don’t make me watch Dateline with you. This is how it starts.’ ”

On raising the twins in privilege:

“After that, I want to make sure my kids have gratitude. They’re pretty privileged. We live in a beautiful suburb of Los Angeles. The craziest thing we have to deal with is traffic. I’ve looked into volunteering places and such, [but] my job is not nearly done yet. I want to make sure they have gratitude. I think if they understand that and I think if they have gratitude, I think a lot more will follow.”

On the twin girls growing up:

“I have one daughter who’s boy crazy, who talks about boys all the time. I’m like, ‘Listen, you can do all that when I’m dead, when I die.’ I mean, she’s 8 and she’s like, ‘There’s this boy … ‘ I’m like, ‘Talk to your mom about it please. La la la. I don’t want to hear it.’ ”

On growing up in a house full of boys:

“I never had girls. That was all new to me. It still is new to me. Girls are, like… my daughters can get emotional. Maybe now I’ll talk to them through my new Mattel doll, the new Mattel Jerry doll,” he jokes. ” ‘

Photo credit: People