This story came out last week but I just saw it, so I apologize for my tardiness. Jennifer Lopez appeared on Live with Kelly and Mark to discuss her large, blended family. Although Jen and husband Ben Affleck are enjoying a big, happy family vibe, the fact is, when they united their two fronts, they ended up with a whole house full of teenagers. Of all of the things you want doubled when you merge households, teens are likely not your first choice. Jen told Kelly and Mark that it was kind of a shock to go from babies, who tend to listen to their parents, to these pre-teens and teens who “start challenging you.” I imagine if you multiple that by five, yeah, that would be “tough.”

Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck have their hands full.

During a new guest appearance on Live With Kelly and Mark, the “Let’s Get Loud” singer opened up about her and her husband’s blended family. Between them, the couple share five children in total, four of whom are teenagers.

“That’s almost five teenagers. The youngest is 11, so he’s not quite [a teen], but preteen,” Lopez told hosts Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos. “He’s an angel.”

She added, “The teenage years are tough. They start challenging you and everything. You have this baby for a while and then it’s like your best little friend who loves being with you all the time, and all of a sudden they’re like, ‘Get out of my room.’”

Consuelos—who shares three children with Ripa—offered a few words of comfort to the multi-hyphenate: “But, you know they come back when they’re in their 20s.”

“Twenties?!” Lopez replied. “Jesus Christ! I’m so depressed.”

“It’s crazy, I feel like I had them yesterday. They were just babies a little while ago,” Lopez continued. “It’s the time when they are individuating and they are challenging everything you say and everything you do and everything you are. And that’s what it is. And you have to kind of just ride the waves. I feel like it’s like surfing. I’m just riding the waves—whoops, just got knocked over. Now, I’m back! I’m back!”

She also described the struggles of being a mother of teenagers.

“I think it’s particularly hard on moms a little bit. Because they always kind of love Dad,” she said. “They are always kind of like, ‘Dad’s the best.’ And I was like that with my dad too. My mom told me—and I’ll say it to you right now on TV in front of everybody—I understand you so much more now.”

[From Yahoo!]

Jen and Ben’s problem is numbers. Once they got five, it became mob rule. I’m kidding. Five teens sounds overwhelming to me and so far, teenagerdom is my favorite phase. Maybe because mine challenged me from the start, the little brats. No! Again, I’m kidding – kind of. I don’t know how to communicate with younger kids. I tend to approach things through discussion and four-year-olds don’t really have many counter arguments I can relate to. So once my kids brought their own viewpoints into the picture, our relationship took on a larger dimension. It’s just different for everyone, I think. But again, I have two and there are two adults. We’re not outnumbered.

I love Jen likening raising kids to surfing and getting knocked over by the waves of challenges. It’s an apt description. I also related to Jen telling her mom how much she understood her own mother now. I call my mom all the time and apologize for stuff I did as a kid as a result of having to deal with my own offspring doing it. What comes around goes around. I so get it now.

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