Ben Affleck: Why it’s important children are brought up by two parents

The actor’s comments will likely spark backlash for single parents, widows, widowers and the like, who are raising children on their own.

Ben Affleck’s philosophy on good parenting is sure to raise eyebrows.

The actor, who is promoting his upcoming flick “The Tender Bar,” argued that it’s “important” to have two parents to successfully raise a child, the New York Post reports.

“It’s important to have two parents for the rearing and upbringing of a child,” Affleck, 49, told WSJ. Magazine for its December/January issue.

“The most important thing to me is to be a good father. Boys need to be taught,” added Affleck, who is father to 9-year-old son Samuel with his ex-wife, Jennifer Garner.

“How to behave, how to conduct yourself. What your values should be. The ways my father did that for me are really meaningful — as are the ways in which he was absent.”

Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner. (Photo by BG004/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images)

Jennifer Garner poses with children Violet Affleck, Samuel Garner Affleck and Seraphina Rose Elizabeth Affleck. (Photo by Albert L. Ortega/Getty Images)

Affleck’s comments will likely spark backlash for single parents, widows, widowers and the like, who are raising children on their own.

“The Way Back” actor has been successfully co-parenting Samuel and his two daughters — Violet, 16, and Seraphina, 12 — with Garner since they first separated in 2015. They finalised their divorce three years later in 2018.

“You need a father for positive reinforcement,” he continued, likely not realising the alienation of mothers. “I got that from my father — and missed it when he wasn’t there. In some ways I was able to see both sides: growing up with — and without — a father.”

Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by BG004/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images)

Affleck admitted that the prospect of losing it all — his family and his career — was the ultimate motivator in finally getting sober and kicking his addiction, something with which his father also grappled.

“And yes, there were moments where I really faced the thing that was most important to me and the prospect of losing that. And that is what ultimately changed things for me,” he shared. “I didn’t get any stronger or develop any willpower. I simply met that threshold. You know, somewhere in the amygdala it said, ‘This is too painful. I’m not going to do this anymore. I don’t want to do it.’

“It was a moment after which it became clear that this was not the life I wanted.”

This article was originally published by the New York Post and reproduced with permission

Originally published as Ben Affleck: Why it’s important children are brought up by two parents