Jennifer Garner Living Life 'At Two Extremes'
 Courtesy W for use on CBB |
There is an “internal battle” being waged by Jennifer Garner, one that millions of other moms will identify with, and she opens up about it in January issue of W magazine.
“I need to work, I need to work, I need to work and I need to be home with my kids,” she explains, “and the kids win.”
That much is apparent when the 37-year-old actress is asked whether she has plans to return to Broadway after her successful run in Cyrano de Bergerac in 2007. Calling the experience “just my favorite thing I’ve ever done,” Jennifer says she’s nonetheless decided to stick with films, citing the more family-friendly work hours.
“[Theater] is hard on my family,” she notes. “You can’t tell your kids, ‘I’m exhausted. Wake up with someone else today.’”
For now, Jennifer says that daughters Violet Anne, 4, and Seraphina Rose Elizabeth, 11 months, have been enjoying mom’s undivided attention, and the day-to-day routine she describes is routine for many.
“[It's about] getting the kids up and fed, getting one to school, getting the other down for a nap, going to the grocery store, picking one up from school, getting the other one down for another nap, cooking dinner…I live my life at these two extremes. I’m either a full-time stay-at-home mom or a full-time actress.”
Click below to read about Jennifer’s “over-the-top” obsession with homemade baby food.
Jennifer’s family of four, which includes husband Ben Affleck, spent the majority of summer and fall in Boston where Ben made back-to-back movies. Although she admits she has help — then wonders aloud whether it is “snotty” to reveal as much — Jennifer says that their ability to move from town-to-town has gotten harder as their children have gotten older.
Violet, poised to return to preschool in California in November, had started to feel “a little nervous about whether the girls at school will already have friends,” according to Jennifer.
“We thought we could take them anywhere until they were six, but I don’t know if that’s going to work out that way.”
Looking forward to Halloween at the time of the interview, Jennifer revealed that Ben would be taking the hit with the costumes this year, dressing as Triton, King of the Sea to go along with Violet’s Princess Ariel costume and Sera, dressed as Flounder.
Last year, Violet and Jennifer went trick-or-treating in New York City while Jennifer was still pregnant — an occasion she does not remember fondly! “I just was so fat and huge and ugly and in a furry dog costume,” she recalls. “And of course there were tons of paparazzi outside and I couldn’t escape them! So I feel like that bought me a pass this year. I’ll take pictures.”
Calling breastfeeding “the coziest feeling in the whole world,” Jennifer says that she’s making homemade baby food for Sera, a practice she admits is “a little over the top.”
“I tell myself, ‘Just give her a jar of food and forget about it! Don’t be so precious!’ But it’s so easy — I just puree and freeze.”
From the sound of things, the decision to pursue parenthood was just as easy for the couple, who married in 2005. “We were together a year, and we just started breeding,” Jennifer says. “We were like, ‘Let’s have a baby!’ And eight days later…’”
Source: W, January issue
– Missy
