The Reasons Jennifer Garner Is the Most Relatable Celebrity Mom

Back when she was starring in The Odd Life of Timothy Green, Jennifer Garner told us she was flattered by the fact that moms relate to her, but she finds it a bit strange:

"While I find it very kind, and I love that women who have kids relate to me, I find that I am by far the messiest, sloppiest, craziest! All the moms I ever see always look very put together, and I just don't get it. I don't see how they do it! But then again, I would look that way if I didn't have kids too probably."

Yes, she can afford all the help she'll ever need, but as someone who didn't grow up in the lap of luxury and who enjoys working, she still feels guilty when she does, which she told Huffington Post:

"There's an internal battle. I need to work, I need to work, I need to work, and I need to be home with my kids and the kids win. It's about getting the kids up and fed, getting one to school, getting the other down for a nap, going to the grocery store, picking one up from school, getting the other one down for another nap, cooking dinner . . . I live my life at these two extremes. I'm either a full-time stay-at-home mom or a full-time actress."

Unlike some moms-to-be who luckily look like they just have a basketball in their bellies, Jennifer Garner has a realistic experience. She told InStyle, "I wish I was one of those cute pregnant girls who wear skinny jeans throughout their pregnancies. But I just gain weight."

No, she's not marching on Capitol Hill, but she is making her family aware of the issues. Just this month she spoke at Elle's Women in Hollywood event. She told a funny story about her husband, Ben Affleck, that captures gender inequality perfectly:

"Not long ago we both had one of those magical days which we call a junket, where we both attended these lovely events where people come in every four minutes and they ask the same questions. I told him every single person who interviewed me — and I mean every single one . . . asked me, 'How do you balance work and family?'

"[Ben] said the only thing anyone asked him repeatedly was about the tits on the 'Blurred Lines' girl! We're talking about them — they are real and they are fabulous and everyone should take a look and enjoy. As for work-life balance, he said that no one asked him about it that day. As a matter of fact, no one had ever asked him about it. Not once."

Given how often she's in the gossip magazines and has to deal with catty comments, we can't help but love what she told Parade back in 2010, "I will tell you what I can't abide — and I think the Internet has really created a space for it — women criticizing other women and mothers criticizing other mothers."

Though it may have been an embarrassing moment for the whole world to see her undergarments, the fact that someone as glamorous as Jennifer Garner feels the need to wear Spanx just means that she's experiencing the same postbaby body issues the rest of us do.

Very few of us enter this thing called parenthood with a roadmap showing us how to raise proper, well-adjusted kids. When we spoke to Garner, she told us she calls on her mom posse for parenting advice too:

"I have a couple of celebrity mom friends that I go to for certain things that only they can — only we can talk about! But mostly I talk to my friends, my mom friends from Violet's school. And we just gab away like anyone. But pretty much I hang up from one mom friend and call another."