Jennifer Garner is on the cover of this week’s People magazine. I like her styling in the shot but the interior shots, which you can see on their site, are much better. I guess the exclusive interview is to promote her new Netflix movie, Yes Day, which is currently streaming. I will not be promoting that movie, it made me see red. I don’t know if I’m more offended by the mother being seen as incapable of fun because she’s responsible or that her only desire is that her children recognize how much she does for them and love her in the clingy way a five-year-old does.
The excerpt People posted, however, talks about Jen as a creative pandemic mom. It also talked about how she’s faring as single parent and how she handles her busy life, which she compared to living inside a blender, in a very bizarre analogy about getting things done.
Leave it to Jennifer Garner to get creative.
Like many parents, the actress, 48, had to adjust to sheltering at home in L.A. with her three kids, Violet, 15, Seraphina, 12, and Sam, 9, with ex-husband Ben Affleck, 48, during the pandemic.
The time at home also taught Garner a little bit about herself.
“I’ve learned that I’m pretty sturdy,” she adds. “I’m okay when I’m in the house by myself. I’m okay when it’s just the kids and me. I’m okay when they fall apart. I mean I have my moments, but pretty much, I’m really okay.”From balancing her busy acting career with her work for Save the Children and running her cold-pressed organic foods company, Once Upon a Farm, Garner has become a master of multi-tasking. “Like today, I saw an email from Once Upon a Farm’s sales director… I emailed her back, ‘Can we talk on the phone later? Because I need you to explain what this means,’ ” she says. “To me, it feels good to be learning something new. I learned this with Save the Children. Even if you feel stupid, and you’re asking the same questions over and over. It feels good to be challenging myself.”
As for the future, Garner hopes to continue acting as well and looks forward to traveling again for work. “I love being home with [my kids], and I’ve been so lucky to have the flexibility to be home a lot,” says the actress, who will next be seen in the film The Adam Project. “But I miss the days of going on location and will be excited to just be like, ‘Yeah, you want me in North Carolina? You want me in Budapest? You want me in Paris? Yes! I can do all those things.’ I feel like I’ll zip around a little.”
As for her kids, the actress insists they don’t even notice her life in Hollywood. “They’re so much more used to Mom on Zooms with [Save the Children] coordinators helping kids in different states or Once Upon a Farm,” Garner adds. “I do so many different things. Sometimes I feel like I work inside of a blender. I mean sometimes the lid of the blender flies off and you get a smoothie all over your kitchen. That happens too. It’s not always pretty. But we get it done.”
I like Jen, I really do. But I swear she speaks every thought she’s ever had out loud. It’s fine, but it’s a lot. I think her work with Save the Children is wonderful and they’ve done so much for families during the pandemic. Plus Jen seems involved in both StC and her Once Upon A Farm food line, not just lending her name. So I’m sure she is busy. But in one breath she talks about being eager to “zip around” for work the minute COVID is over and the next she’s talking about her life’s blender lid flying off and half her work ending up on the counter. It could be Jen is speaking more about the moment, however. In the first part of the article, Jen described all the ways she tried to keep lockdown fun for her kids, which included silly videos and themed-restaurant nights, including a drive-in, replete with car trays attached to the windows for the burgers. Maybe Jen feels like she’s in a blender much more so during the pandemic. I think we’ve all viewed our lives differently when every aspect of it happens under one roof. I don’t know, either Jen or her life is exhausting, I can’t figure out which.
I was interested in Jen’s first comments above about being with the kids alone. I applaud the revelations that have come to her during this time. But the way she said she’s learned she’s “sturdy” and okay by herself in the house, it sounded as if this is the first time she’s ever tested that.
As a working mum, with a husband away for work nearly 50% of the time, I completely get her analogy of life being in a blender. Everything is going everywhere, while you’re trying to juggle and keep things going. And not loose your shiz simultaneously.
There’s nothing wrong with her wanting her old acting opportunities of being able to fly to random locations for shoots. I miss the opportunities I had in my life prior to kids, and work consuming those opportunities, and I would jump at it too.
I love Jen, she genuinely seems a kind, considerate and fun person.
You know, I generally like her too. I get that she’s not for everyone, but I like that she pushed back against Ben’s narrative about trying to “overcome” her or whatever, yet she still seemingly does her best to coparent with him. She’s always appeared, at least to me, to put her kids first and try to give them as stable a life as she can.
JG but she totally upped her life. She had a loser husband and cheated on him because Ben was huge. She’d not good and Ben was her next step up. But it’s not her first time
I think she just inadvertently told us a lot about herself when she made the comment about being sturdy: she didn’t think she could do it alone without a man. Which I appreciate the self awareness, at least she kind of explains why she put up with Affleck BS for so long.
I watched that movie with my kids when snowed in (big snowfall in Denver). It was so bad and offensive- we watched it just to make fun of it. Basically the mom “gives” her whole life to the kids, doesn’t work bc of course you have no not work to give you whole life, and then her kids don’t like her bc she’s too strict and somehow that’s like a legitimate criticism. The movie is all about her being for fun so the kids will like her. News flash, you can work and be devoted to your kids and teenagers aren’t supposed to like you, it means you are doing your job. Just unwatchable except to mock.
I hated it, too! And the kids were so cruel — all the things they wanted for their “Yes Day” were all designed to make their parents look foolish or be uncomfortable. The basic message to me was that that’s the underlying goal of the kids’ lives: make your parents miserable. And that the parents’ role is to be miserable and look foolish.
Also, the idea that kids complaining about normal parenting at school would result in the parents getting called in by the school staff is ridiculous — school staff just WISH parents would tell their kids no and ask them to do their homework.
I read that “travel for work again” thing more as when her kids are older and she has more personal freedom, not when the pandemic ends.
I think being stuck in the house on work zoom with just your kids for company was harder for a lot of people that are extroverts. Thats what I got out of that “sturdier than I thought” comment. I think there might be a little resentment that while she was homeschooling with the kids during Covid Ben is off to Ireland and Portugal for work. Like a lot of people I’m sure she is more than ready to travel again. I read she is accompanying Jill Biden to Alabama to highlight helping child poverty this Friday so good for her.
That cover picture is not good. Yikes.
She’s always had an army of nannies and housekeepers — I guess that wasn’t possible to maintain during this pandemic. Sounds like someone had to put on her big girl panties and actually do the grunt work herself. Yeah, so sturdy, so impressive… cleaning her own house and taking care of her own kids.
I live in a blender too and the thing is: everything is in flux all of the time. The kids change as they age, as they are challenged, and their needs change. For any working mom that feels “sturdy in the house alone” after mastering a killer breast feeding-napping-laundry-dish-washing and work schedule, ENJOY IT WHILE IT LASTS.
I thought things would get easier to WFH as the kids started to make their own lunches and pack their backpacks by themselves, and it is “easier” sure, but when my husband said he wanted to go out of town to visit has parents, I was still like “Don’t leave me here ALONE! We are ALL going!”. I am the CEO of a company I founded, and am wearing my “big girl pants” all day long baby!
Jen just sounds like a regular mom to my ears. I actually felt better after reading that someone with presumably more resources than I have feels the same way.
I like what she shares. I’m a stay at home mom with a special needs kiddo. I’ve been at home home solo (my husband decided he couldn’t handle everything and he left after the first couple months of COVID) after moving to another country for my husband. I find her authentic and appreciate her trying to keep it real.
Jen posted one of her “pretend cooking show” videos on YouTube today. She’s currently in Vancouver filming The Adam Project, so she got her wish to get out of the house.
I like her as an actress and a person, but I hate the film projects she picks (or maybe it’s her agent?). She plays too much to her Christian mommy audience, and those scripts are just awful. I’d love to see her collaborate with a good indie director, like Alexander Payne or Richard Linklater.
I think that Jen’s kids are older & Ben seems to be on a better path in his sobriety ( fingers crossed), Ben is probably parenting more than he ever had since the divorce. They probably have set schedules worked out between them now. Jen probably didn’t feel too comfortable leaving their children with an alcoholic father. I think most women who are single parents (especially that have 3 children) wouldn’t realize how sturdy they really are.