Jennifer Garner opens up about how working with children improves her parenting

Jennifer Garner has found that acting alongside kids isn’t just good for her projects, it’s good for her parenting too. 

The The Last Thing He Told Me actress joined Kylie Kelce’s Not Gonna Lie podcast on Thursday, where she spoke candidly about everything from her hit romantic comedy 13 Going on 30 to raising her three children: Violet, 20, Seraphina, 17, and Samuel, 13, with ex-husband Ben Affleck.

“I love the intimacy of that relationship, whether they’re a toddler and I get to become best buddies with a toddler, or whether it’s a little kid, a teenager, or a young adult. I just—I love them,” Garner said. 

She further said, “And they help give me perspective on myself as a parent. I’m practicing that relationship, even practicing the friction of it, and [finding] ways that I can take that home and do a better job.”

The Alias alum also shared one of her key takeaways from parenting: knowing when to hold back. “Because really, your kids get to a point…where you’re not supposed to tell them everything. 

You’re supposed to stay quiet,” she explained. “I don’t know when that happens, but all of a sudden, it’s not on you, and you’re actually—you’re in trouble.”

Garner didn’t shy away from discussing personal choices either, including her decision not to get Botox despite trying it in the past.

“My kids are like, ‘Mom, promise us you'll never get a facelift,’” she said. “And I say, ‘I am unlikely to rush toward a facelift.’ Yet I refuse to make that promise because I am me today, and I don’t know how I’m gonna feel.”

Earlier this month, during an appearance on The Jennifer Hudson Show with her The Last Thing He Told Me co-stars, Garner admitted her kids often find her “fully cringe.” 

“I asked my kids if they were going to watch this season of the show [season 2], and they were like, ‘Do you need us to?’ But kids don’t want to see their parents cry, or have a romantic scene, anything. We’re just embarrassing,” she laughed.

Despite the occasional embarrassment, Garner’s reflections reveal a parent who is constantly learning, both on-screen and at home, and cherishing the lessons that acting alongside children can teach.