Jennifer Garner’s son Samuel, 7, is obviously a big How To Train Your Dragon fan. For his birthday she dressed up as the character Astrid (this is what she looks like) and had a special dragon cake made for him and everything. Only Samuel wasn’t impressed at all as you can read in the caption. America Ferrera, who plays Astrid, thought this was cute and wrote about it in her Instagram stories.
Do you remember when Garner talked to Dr. Oz about the paparazzi? She said Samuel, then four, hated the men with cameras, thought they were laughing at him, and didn’t want them around. She said “That is just something he’s gonna have to grow up with, because if we move to Timbuktu, some person in Timbuktu’s gonna buy a camera and follow us around.” That’s telling, isn’t it?
This isn’t fair to Samuel. He was embarrassed by his mom dressing up for his party so she thought it was a great idea to Instagram it and make it public. He’s only seven now but he’s going to reach an age where he has to contend with all the details of his parent’s divorce, his father’s many girlfriends, and photos of himself growing up. (I guess in the scheme of all that this photo of Garner isn’t that bad.) That’s not all Garner and Affleck’s fault but they did put a lot of it out there. Also they court that image. How do you think these photos (below) happened? Oh and there are exclusive photos of Garner out to dinner with John Miller last night, but only one of our agencies has them and we don’t have that premium subscription. That photo agency gets most of the exclusives of the Garner-Afflecks. Update: Daily Mail has those photos. (I mentioned in that story about Ben stepping out with Lindsay that Garner would do that soon. I bet she wrote it on her calendar with a little heart around it.)
Photos credit: Backgrid and via Instagram
LOL! Those photos of her with the boyfriend! Who had “less than 5 days after Ben and Lindsay were photographed” in the betting pool? 😂
Something he’s “just going to have to grow up with”? Yes…because his parents decided he’d have to grow up with it. There are a lot of ways to minimize the contact and impact, his parents have done none of that. 🤷♀️
Yes, to all of this.
There’s a huge difference between strange men following your entire family (not just those in the business) while yelling and photographing, and being a goofy embarrassing mom on social media (which every mom has a right to do if they so please.)
And she posted an embarrassing photo of herself, not even her son.
These are absolutely not the same.
I’ve always found her martyred paparazzi victim stance ridiculous & hypocritical considering all of the carefully constructed narratives her & Ben maintained while he was trying to establish himself as the big Hollywood Director man.
She plays the game like everyone else, & she definitely has a specific brand of “hollywood mom” that she’s maintaining. It is what it is, but don’t act like you haven’t used your children as part of the game either. I cancelled her once she did that “Mexican gang v pure white mom” movie last year.
Yeah, I don’t see the big deal here. If anything, she showed that she was not afraid to embarrass herself…
Plenty of criticism to give but not here.
Exactly.
Thirsty, so thirsty. She just can’t let go.
Jen is so boring without troubled Ben to babysit. My kids would have been horrified if I dressed up at their birthday parties beyond age 2. WTF is wrong with JG?
Ben made JG moderately interesting with her martyr rep. Now Jen is starving for attention.
I’m going to support her on this one. I don’t share anything of my kids on social media so I get the need to keep it fiercely private and allow them to create their own digital footprint. But she hasn’t shown him, or his reaction. And what she did wasn’t intended to embarrass him (thinking of those dads who drop kids off in bathrobes and curlers etc.). That, to me, is a huge distinction. This is not much different than doing it at Halloween…and as a mom of an almost 7yo, an eye roll =/= dying of embarrassment. Its a default setting.
Exactly! It sounds like he liked the costumes at 6, and at 7 they’re not so cool anymore. It’s more about her than it is Samuel.
She and Affleck are perpetually trying to generate interest in their kids, their home life, and their respective love lives. Their complaints about pap attention are lies — they live for it all. They would never move out of the pap-central area where they live. So fake!
I have an 8 year old son — sometimes your kids are embarrassed by your very existence and it’s our role as Mom to lean in and not let them get away with it, especially at 7. She looks awesome. He’s not in the picture. He’ll have at least a million Google hits in the future before this will even come up on his list of parental issues.
+1
Not really a big deal, and it’s not like Samuel is the only kid ever embarrassed by his parent, and people put everything on social media these days. He’ll probably laugh about it in the future when looking through old pictures
It seems like she’s always complaining about the paparazzi. I like how Angelina Jolie deals with it and it seems like her kids deal with it better than garners. Jolie doesn’t make a big fuss and has said that as long as they keep their distance she basically doesn’t care if they take her pic. I think it’s a healthier way to look at it. Garner complains so much that even her kid is having issues.
She complains about the paps but she depends on them to generate interest in her now that she’s not Mrs. Ben Affleck.
Back in the day funny/embarrassing stories about one’s own children were reserved for close family and friends. Now parents post everything on the internet for anyone to see. It’s unfortunate. She needs to stop.
It’s funny i was talking to my sis about how back in the day before cell phones people would just show up at your house. Now everyone needs to be invited, 👀
It struck me as her making fun of herself, and I find it humorous. I remember my first eye-roll moment with each of my kids.
He’s only 7 and already embarrassed of her. Hmmm lol at that age don’t kids like it when their parents dress up in costumes ?
The cringe is strong. *face palm*
I see nothing wrong here. She didn’t show his face or reaction and she explained what she was doing. No harm, no foul. I sort of like her posts that she has because she seems like a happy person and she is not throwing her child on the cover of a magazine in a belly baring top and make up on. Plus, she is not posting selfies of herself half naked either so she is a win in my book.
She doesn’t need to show his face or his reaction. She’s making it about him in the first place. This is as bad as Ben taking pics of Sam’s room and then showing them on Ellen. NONE of this is our business. We don’t need to know about Sam’s birthday party or see what his bedroom looks like. But Garner and Affleck have sold their kids’ private lives to the media and it’s really sick.
Not as sick as others. I have just started following her so I have not seen her kids up there and I work so I don’t watch Ellen or any of the talk shows that are on during the day.
The video they left the restaurant and went in the car, her BF didn’t even open the door for her and they are still in the early stage of the relationship …
I don’t see the problem with her instagram post. If anything it’s self-deprecating.
She loves the pap attention. I’ll never believe otherwise.
Nice costume. I don’t see the problem. She doesn’t put her kids in any of her posts. The pictures and videos are always done from her POV with the kids out of view.
She’s always talking about her kids on her social media and then tries to act all bewildered at the paparazzi attention they get. She’s ridiculous and fake. What’s her public angle going to be when they’ve gotten older and she can’t do stuff like this? Back to posting about walking her chickens and reading to the dog?
Her boyfriend is fugly, no lips whatsoever. Doesn’t even get the door for her. Her career is kaput, all she has is her IG.
I like the cut of your snark.
I don’t mind her at all. I think that she has that self-deprecating humor and she doesn’t take herself seriously and I like people like that. I am just glad that she is over with that Ben Affleck crap. I hope that she is happy with the new guy.
You seem nice. I’m not. Which is probably why I have the exact opposite opinion….lol. 🙂
Where you see “self-deprecating humor,” I see a parched, phony, hypocrite — someone who diligently works at seeming like she doesn’t take herself too seriously. To me, she is all “appearances.”
I think she is a funny but stable mom.
One day when her son is old and his mother is no longer on this earth, he will cherish these memories. He’s lucky to have a mother that cares so much. Not all children have that.
Really? I really don’t see much of a problem here at all. I would say about 95 percent of celebs I follow have either videos or pictures of their kids regularly on their social media and neither Ben or Jen do that. I also have never seen them on covers of any magazines or spreads. So a picture of Jen in costume talking about her son’s reaction to it seems a little picayune to gripe about.
It’s telling to me that he’s already embarrassed by her at 7. Maybe she should take a backseat at his party, dress normally, and let it be about him.
Exactly!
Jennifer did not post a pic of Sam or has never yet posted a pic of any of their children. Neither Ben nor Jen have ever sold their children’s pics when they were born to People or any other other magazine.
What she posted was making fun of herself not Samuel & just a parent realizing that her little boy is growing up!
Exactly!