Jennifer Garner Stopped Having Mom Guilt After Listening to Her Own Mother's Advice

As a single mom-of-three, Jennifer Garner's thriving career is just as busy as her home life — but the actress revealed she doesn't allow herself to get consumed with mom guilt.

The brunette beauty thanked her own mother for helping her adopt a healthy mindset when it comes to balancing work and play.

"Working moms get such a bad [rap] ... We get all freaked out because we’re told constantly, ‘You have 18 summers,’ ‘You have this much time,’ ‘Time is fleeting,’ and it makes you panic," she shared in a new interview.

"My mom has always said to me, ‘You’re their mom forever, don’t worry, you can do your job. I wish I had worked, I would have been a better mom. Your kids are going to be so proud of you.’ She’s always given me that kind of grounding in that sense."

"So, if you come from a place of expansiveness instead of feeling just like, ‘I can’t be a mom because I’m also working, and I’m supposed to be guilty all the time...’ You better just lean into wherever you are any day, like right now, just be here when your kids show up, be there and we’ll have a great time," the Alias alum, 51, explained.

Luckily, Garner — who co-parents Violet, 17, Seraphina, 14, and Samuel, 11, with ex-husband Ben Affleck — is able to include her kids when it comes to her career, as they do taste tests with her when her company Once Upon a Farm is trying out new products.

"If they're [home], they're like, 'Mom, that new innovation in the fridge, can we try that with you?' They have a lot of ownership over this innovation," she said when a reporter asked.

She was also asked about whether or not her offspring have inherited her "amazing" work ethic.

"They're still figuring out who they are, but from what I can tell right now, yeah, absolutely," the 13 Going on 30 star replied. "But I don't want to put any pressure on what I expect of them, because they'll decide if they're going to have a crazy work ethic or if they're going to have a more measured approach to life."

When the kids aren't under her care, they're with Affleck, 51, and his wife Jennifer Lopez, who co-parents 15-year-old twins Emme and Max with ex-husband Marc Anthony.

Last year, the singer said their families were blending well.

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"The transition is a process that needs to be handled with so much care. They have so many feelings. They’re teens. But it’s going really well so far," Lopez said of combining households. "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."

Access Online interviewed Garner about motherhood.