Jennifer Lynn Affleck (née Lopez) is a fairy princess on the December 2022 cover of Vogue. The “On My Way” singer is dressed in a flowing red gown as she holds onto a tree branch, dress floating in the air. She is absolutely stunning and very much the legendary singer, actress, and dancer that we all know and love. But when she’s at home, J.Lo is simply Mom to her teenagers, 14-year-old twins Emme and Max with ex-husband Marc Anthony. The Marry Me star is also a step-mom to husband Ben Affleck’s three kids, Violet, 16, Seraphina, 13, and Samuel, 10, with ex-wife Jennifer Garner. Now, the couple are one kid shy of their own Brady Bunch — and they are figuring out this whole blended family thing. J.Lo just dished on raising teens, disciplining styles, and co-parenting in a refreshingly candid interview with Vogue. We are hanging on to every word!
During her conversation with the outlet, she revealed that she and Affleck are teaching their kids about the importance of political and social issues.
“This generation is beautifully aware and involved and brave,” she told Vogue, “and they will call bullshit on stuff really quick. I want my kids to stand up for themselves and the things they care about.”
She encouraged her kids and all girls to speak up for themselves. “I want all the little girls in the world to get loud. Get loud!” she said. “Say it when it’s wrong. Don’t be afraid. I was afraid for a long time: afraid to not get the job, to piss people off, afraid that people wouldn’t like me. No.”
Yes, yes, yes!!! We love this advice — we want our daughters and our sons to not be afraid to stand up for what’s right.
Jennifer also gushed about co-parenting with Garner, calling her, “an amazing co-parent,” and revealing that she and Affleck “work really well together” to take care of the kids. Jennifer and the City on a Hill executive producer have reportedly “brought a lot of thought to the project of integrating their households, and they are learning about parenting from each other.”
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The kids’ feelings are the top priority, though, as J.Lo and Affleck blend their families. “They have so many feelings. They’re teens. But it’s going really well so far,” she told Vogue. “What I hope to cultivate with our family is that his kids have a new ally in me and my kids have a new ally in him, someone who really loves and cares about them but can have a different perspective and help me see things that I can’t see with my kids because I’m so emotionally tied up.” Aww! We love that. She genuinely seems to care about how the kids feel, and she is showing support and care to all five of them. It’s such a beautiful thing.
She’s also working hard to stay calm as a parent, choosing to set boundaries without raising her voice. “I really wanted to find a better way than having to put the fear in them,” she said about parenting her twins. “It’s like, I can hold a boundary with you but also be your ally. That’s the balance, where they respect you enough because you act in a way that they can look up to. It’s what I feel like I want to do because when I was young that wasn’t what it was.”
At the end of the day, she wants her kids to be good, kind people. “I’ll stress to them, like, I want you to do well in school,” she told Vogue. “And then my son always finishes the sentence. He goes, ‘But you care more that we’re good people.’ I say, ‘That’s right. I do.’”
That’s so inspiring. As a parent, we can get so bogged down in wanting our kids to succeed that we forget the most important thing is to teach them how to be kind. J.Lo has her priorities straight, and is a shining example for us all.
Jennifer went on, “The beauty of being a parent is that you think you’re going to teach them all these things, and you do. You pass on all the things that you know, all the knowledge you have.”
“But at the end of the day they wind up teaching you so much and reminding you of the things you need to know about life and how to love somebody and how to care for people,” she continued. “That in your 20s and 30s, as you’re doing your own thing, you can lose sight of. We get so self-centered at certain points in our lives when we have our goals and our things.”
Whether they are going on a family coffee run or simply navigating the complicated process of co-parenting, J. Lo and Affleck seem to be very much in love with each other and their kids, and that’s the most important thing.
Some of our favorite famous parents are authors, too! Check out these celeb-authored kids’ books.
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