Jennifer Garner Talks Parenting Her 3 Kids: 'I Try to Be the Best Version of Myself'

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When it comes to parenting, Jennifer Garner thinks it’s all about leading by example.

The 44-year-old actress opened up to Today Parents about raising her three kids, 10-year-old Violet, 7-year-old Seraphina and 4-year-old Samuel, explaining that she's working hard to make sure they grow up to be caring and empathetic.


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"I give it all I can," Garner said about how seriously she takes her role as a mother.

"I don't think empathy is something you can drill in someone's head," she noted. "You have to have faith that while your kids can seem to be selfish and concerned only about the word 'mine' sometimes, overall, they are watching you really carefully, and if you care about other people, they will too."

"I try to be the best version of myself and to have faith that they're watching me as carefully when I do something right as they do when I roll through a stop sign," she added.

While the Alias star is working hard to teach her kids good skills for the real world, she also opened up about her concerns about how technology will impact her children, explaining that daughter Violet's school is implementing laptops and other devices in the classroom.


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"Our daughter doesn’t have any of those things, and she's like, the only kid in the class who doesn't, apparently," Garner explained.  "So I found an old laptop this weekend for her, and I am kind of panicked about it. She's not on social media yet -- her school has a no social media policy until sixth grade -- but I know it's coming soon."

The actress also opened up about co-parenting with ex Ben Affleck in an interview with the Today show last month, saying that their lives still have to be all about their kids. 

"It has to be. You don't have a choice. It has to be," she said. "We are definitely a modern family. We're doing really well."


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