Jennifer Garner Made Her Kids Muffins On A “Pretend Cooking Show”

Jennifer Garner is a mom to two teenagers, 18-year-old Violet and 15-year-old Seraphina, and an 11-year-old son, Samuel. These are pivotal years in the life of a mother: When the kids get older, some of us are trying just that little bit harder to please them. Doing things like, oh I don’t know, getting up at six on a Saturday morning to bake them muffins they might appreciate or might not, just on the off chance that they’ll love them. This is motherhood with older kids, just ask Jennifer Garner.

The Last Thing He Told Me star took to Instagram on Tuesday to debut a new video for her “Pretend Cooking Show,” which she filmed at 6 AM and immediately started to shush the overhead vent hood and her coffee maker, presumably in an attempt not to disturb her three children, who she shares with ex-husband Ben Affleck, in their sweet slumber... or just because Garner, like so many of us, cannot handle any noise, let alone loud noises, at such an ungodly, ridiculous hour.

“Everyone! The assault,” she said to the inanimate objects before singing the “Good morning” song which would surely annoy her children more if they heard her. She went on to explain that she would be making Alison Roman’s pumpkin maple muffins. “I can’t remember if I made them before. I can’t remember if my kids liked them. But they won’t remember either,” she said, and truer words were never spoken.

Garner went on to bake Roman’s recipe without the required tumeric, which Mindy Kaling joked in the comments felt “pointed,” and went on to bake way more muffins than the recipe required. Because Garner is intensely private about her children, we have no idea whether or not they enjoyed those muffins. It’s a mystery that might never be solved and we need to learn how to be fine with that. Though upon taking a nibble herself she declared happily “What’s not to love?”

The mom of three appears to be adapting well to life with teenagers, admitting in a November interview with with Hoda Kotb that she parents with a healthy dose of “benign neglect.” “I just think they’re such cool people and I want to hear everything,” she said at the time. “And I want to be around. But I also think it’s OK if they suffer from a little bit of benign neglect.” Considering she said that she started out as a super overprotective mom in the early years, this feels like a real journey for her: From smothering to early morning muffins her kids may or may not like. We feel that.