Ben Affleck was flabbergasted.
The actor revealed during his recent appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” that his 13-year-old son, Samuel, had asked him for money to bet on sports.
“My son asked me like a month ago, [he] was like, ‘Hey, um, can I get like 100 bucks to bet on sports?’” he told Kimmel.
“It’s like, what? [He’s like,] ‘My friends get $100, but if they lose it, then that’s it.’ I’m like, ‘Oh, that’s a real standard, what discipline! Like, so that you don’t come twitching back going, ‘I know that Green Bay is going to cover the over in the second half.’”
His confession came after he admitted that his dad, Timothy Byers Affleck, was a bookie when he was younger.
“My father worked at a bar but mostly made his money sort of being a small-time bookie,” the “Gone Girl” actor said.
“I remember our first washing machine, our first VCR, in fact, dad coming home like, ‘You can thank Steve Grogan for this,’ the quarterback of the [New England] Patriots. ‘Everybody keeps betting [on] the Patriots to beat the spread.’ And so I really was grateful that the Patriots were terrible; just thank Steve Grogan’s knees for our VCR.
“At the time, it was, like, shameful and kind of illegal. I mean, the statute of limitations has run out. Sorry, dad,” Ben added.
After coming from humble beginnings, the multimillionaire has attempted to raise his children — Violet, Seraphina and Samuel — with ex-wife Jennifer Garner fairly down-to-earth.
In fact, almost a year ago, the “Rip” actor was caught squirming when his son asked him for a $6,000 pair of Dior Air Jordan 1 sneakers.
“You like those because they’re expensive,” he told the teen, who then replied, “No, they’re tough! I’ve always said they look good!”
Although Ben agreed that the pair was very nice, he told Samuel that he had to mow “a lot of lawns” to afford them.
Shortly after, Ben explained to Jenna Bush Hager on the “Today” show that he wants their kids to learn the value of hard work.
“You love your kids. You want to give them everything and do everything for them,” he said, saying that he believes “you do [kids] a disservice” by not teaching them “you have to work” for what they want.
In fact, he wants to instill in them that, to get what they want, they need to work hard.
“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,” he explained.
At the time, he also revealed that Violet, 20, and Seraphina, 17, have already picked up several jobs.
Read the full article here
