Back in early March, videos of Ben Affleck and his son Samuel, 13, walking around at a sneaker convention went viral. The videos, which were posted to Get Sole’s Instagram account, revealed Samuel to be a massive sneakerhead who was in awe of a pair of $6,000 Dior Air Force 1s. When Ben saw the price tag, he made a quip that if Samuel wanted those sneakers, it was ”a lot of lawns you gotta mow there.” The clip was endearing because, well, all parents have found themselves in Ben’s shoes (pun intended!) before. It showed that although Ben is a rich dude who can afford to get his son expensive shoes, he wasn’t the kind of divorced dad that spoils their kids rotten.
Ben is currently promoting The Accountant 2. On Tuesday, he and his co-stars Cynthia Addai-Robinson and Jon Bernthal stopped by Today with Jenna & Friends. During the interview, guest co-host Andy Cohen brought up the viral SneakerCon video. Ben explained that as a parent, he loves his kids and wants to get them all of the things, but also understands the importance of teaching them the value of working hard and earning your own money. He then revealed that both of his older children, Violet, 19, and Fin, 16, have jobs.
“He wanted these sneakers, and I was like, ‘These sneakers are $6,000, what are you talking about? What are you gonna do, mow lawns? You got $6,000?’ ” Affleck joked. “He was like, ‘We have the money.’ I was like, ‘I have the money! You’re broke.'”
Affleck continued, “You love your kids. You want to give them everything and do everything for them, but I think you definitely do them a disservice by not connecting [if] you want something that you want, you have to work for that.”
Guest co-host Andy Cohen then asked if Affleck’s kids have jobs. The star shares his kids, Samuel, Seraphina, 16, and Violet, 19, with ex-wife Jennifer Garner, 53.
“Yeah, my oldest two have jobs. In fact, one just got a job, the kind of classic teenager working a shop job — I won’t say what it is,” Affleck replied. “My older one in college is working and trying to get an internship for the summer.”
“And yeah, my son, who’s 13, he’s reckoning with that reality right now. He’s looking at no shoes in his closet. Well, he’s got shoes, just no crazy expensive fancy shoes,” Affleck said. “And I’m like, ‘Well, if you want that, you can work 1,000 hours.’ You know what I mean? Minimum wage. And once you work 1,000 hours, you may not want to spend that on a pair of sneakers.”
It is totally unsurprising that Ben and Jennifer Garner are making their kids get jobs to learn about money, responsibility, and work ethic. I figured that Jennifer was absolutely the type of mom who would make sure her kids worked and didn’t become entitled Hollywood brats. Before the sneaker video, I probably would have assumed that Ben was the type of parent to spoil his kids rotten. I’m happy to be proven wrong.
So, what kind of jobs do we think Violet and Fin have? When I was 16-17, I worked at a local Hallmark store and then at CVS. I don’t know why, but the way Ben describes it as a “shop job” gave me this image of Fin working at an ice cream parlor or something. As for Violet, I bet she’s looking for a political internship of some sort. I don’t think her major at Yale has ever been publicly confirmed, but we know she’s been politically active in the past. Anyway, it’s nice to hear that Ben and Jen are doing their best to raise responsible, grounded children who don’t take what they have for granted. I’m sure they’ll all end up being lovely adults.
Here’s the clip of Ben talking about the sneakers and his kids having jobs:
Photos credit: Xavier Collin/Image Press Agency/Avalon, Faye’s Vision/Cover Images
Is Ben actually a good dad? I believe it. And 100%. Knowing the value of something is more important now than ever.
At least he’s got that part right! He’s a man-child when it comes to relationships, but he’s not without talent and really commits to his profession, his kids and Matt Damon.
I seriously think he’s still alive and battling to stay sober bc Garner made him understood his kids didn’t deserve to become damaged or watch him destroy himself. I also think he doesn’t come from money and even after becoming succesful, he did the work to be taken seriously as more than a pretty face. It’s only natural that he pass the value of self-drive and responsibility to his kids, regardless of their privileged rearing. Good for him and Garner!
I believe it. Ben totally seems like the type to make his kids work. I recall when he and Matt Damon were teenagers wanting to become actors, they would have their daily lunch “business meetings.” They both plotted and planned for their success. And when they weren’t getting the roles they wanted, they wrote Good Will Hunting together.
Say what you want about these two (Garner and Affleck), but they seem to be decent parents. Also Jlo, I think her ambitions killed many relationships but she seems to be a devoted mom.
Yes I bet both Ben and jen want their kids to work.. They, neither, grew up wealthy. They see the life of a rich celebrity kid. I bet it scares both of them.
I started working at 10. It was because my dad died and we were poor. I worked full time, and I went to school. I. Just didn’t sleep much. But I kept my mum and I afloat. My day started at 5, 3 hrs work, school till 3,work till 7. From 10 till 17. I worked 18 hours on the weekend. That was my life
I don’t know anyone who lived my life in my age group. I don’t think anyone would understand that.
Look I’m not a Ben fan but he is teaching his children about having a good work ethic and you can have things but you must work for them. There are a lot of kids who come from wealthy parents and those parents give them whatever they want and in my opinion that’s setting them up for failure. I didn’t have rich parents and I worked at a grocery store. My husband comes from a wealthy family but he had to work. Both our children worked as soon as they were of age to work and they have made nice lives for themselves. I think Ben and Jen are doing the right thing.
That was funny, and gratifying to see efforts to keep their kids somewhat grounded. They’ll never have the real feeling of sacrificing given their privileged life, but having regular jobs as teenagers is so important.
These lessons are especially important when the parents are not together. Kids can’t pit one against the other if the parents are ad item.
Even when parents are still together, they won’t agree on everything all the time. One parent could be a spender/spoiler, while the other is a saver/shows restraint.
I appreciate Jenna bringing up babysitting because that was my job on the weekends in high school – not every weekend, the neighbors only needed a babysitter so often, haha. I loved it. And my dad would pay me to pick up sticks in the yard as a child. Like “ok that one is worth a penny, a penny, oh a nickel for this one, definitely a quarter here, another penny, oh wow look at the leaves on this one, fifty cents! ok go get some more!” Funny how after about an hours worth of work it always added up to the cost of one Barbie. One time I wanted a new Barbie and my dad said “ok, do you want to help me shovel the snow? If you help me clear the driveway we can go drive and get you that new Barbie.” I did not get a new Barbie. The next time it snowed, I approached my dad and said “I’ll help you shovel the snow but only if I can get a Barbie AND a lipsmackers when we are done.” After the job was done, and we went to KMart or wherever, he surprised me by buying me two lipsmackers. I asked why and he said “you worked really hard and didn’t complain, even though it was really cold, so I’m giving you a bonus. Remember that when you’re older.”
My daughter worked as a youngster 16 until college. This is the right lesson to teach your children, being independent enough to earn your own money for those special things you want.
To paraphrase my grandfather’s saying about purses from last week, no shoe is worth $6000 without at least $5800 cash inside of it. I know he’s a double movie star kid but where does a teenager even see something like that.
Influencers promoting brands on IG, for starters. The younger generations, a lot of them, love bling-bling products and brands.
The real trick is turning down freebies-with-strings that they must get offered for themselves and also for the kids.
When Ben said none of his. Oder kids worked Ina “shop” my mind went to coffee shop. They both (Jen and Ben) carry around coffee so constantly I’m sure their kids got to know the coffee shop owners very well. That’s fine I would want to know the people who my kids are working for especially if I was famous.
This is really funny and cute. That is a great line about mowing lawns. His son is so cute, and has quite a personality. I think he looks just like his mom. Also the oldest. The middle one looks like Ben.
Here, we have a multifaceted topic. (1) At a practical level, kids should absolutely be taught the value of money with having a part-time job or summer jobs, etc. It’s esp important now bc they’re bombarded with so much advertising and imagery that places value in material goods. (Don’t get me wrong; I enjoy shopping and having access to goods and services that improve my quality of life, helps me maintain basic needs (hygiene, connectedness, transport, etc.) It also gives them a sense of empowerment bc our societies are centred around economics as the main “organising principle”. If they want to participate in society, a part-time job – ideally one that doesn’t affect their studies – is important when they reach their teens bc it prepares them for full-time workforce participation.
However, life isn’t about work. (2) The view that a human being is labour / value of human being is not something to be that should just be assumed. Looking at history, viewing society through the prism of economics (see John Ralston Saul) is something that hasn’t always been. For me, since I’m sort of a Buddhist/Taoist, I believe human beings are so much more than that. But whatever your paradigm of life, the valuing of human beings as “hard workers” and by implication valuing them by their labour contribution to the economic world isn’t something to be taken too far. If you do take it too far, naturally you come up with questions like equal access to education, disabilities impacting their ability to participate, and the ethics of reducing human beings to labour inputs will come up. And of course, if and when AI takes over a lot of jobs, what are you left with? (Maybe everyone will have access to a a universal basic income and find something that gives them a sense of purpose (such as cleaning up the oceans).) At a personal level, what are you going to do when you retire? (Having said that, I love my job and my employer organisation and I work in role where it’s about contribution and not profit driven.)
The poster upthread who worked to support your family from the age of 10, I admire your grit and you are amazing. But I also see your experience as one that highlights the need for a social security system. You should have had help from the government.