Jennie Garth likes to be lazy. She describes herself as a "homebody" who lucked into her 20-year acting career, calling it a "right place, right time" kind of thing. And when she reads a profile of a fellow celebrity mom, she feels largely inadequate: "I think, This lady has all of this time to do amazing stuff. She has this amazing marriage. Everything in her life sounds perfect. My life is not like that." For starters, her memory is shot. "It's almost like I have some kind of disorder—I don't remember the good things ... or the bad," she laughs.
And if the 37-year-old mother of three—Luca, 12; Lola, 6; and Fiona, 3—has a moment to herself, she spends it scrubbing. "I really enjoy taking something, digging in, and cleaning it," she says. "It's weird, but it gives me sanity." Given all this information, it's possible to come to only one conclusion: Jennie Garth is awesome.
You've got to hand it to her. Her insistence that she's as average-slash-nuts as the rest of us is impressive, even if it's not entirely believable. But a mom who's this comfortable admitting her flaws—who's also famous? That's as rare as a rainy day in Beverly Hills.
Of course, that's where Garth first made her mark as Kelly Taylor, the sweetheart of the zip code on Fox's '90s hit teen drama Beverly Hills 90210. Fans of the show (yes, you) may remember that Kelly didn't start out so lovable. At first her character was shallow, fashion-obsessed, and a bit mean. Only someone as inherently likable as Garth, who grew up riding horses and a banana-seat bike around in the "middle of nowhere" in rural Illinois, could have made anyone care about a spoiled blonde in L.A.
Now, after a 10-year turn on the original show, a stint on the WB sitcom What I Like About You, a string of TV movies (many of which she produced), and an impressive fourth-place showing on Dancing with the Stars (she competed when Fiona was still an infant), she's reprising the role that made her famous. On the CW's 90210 sequel, Kelly Taylor is now a guidance counselor at her high school alma mater. There's a new crew of actors on the spinoff, all hot young things struggling with the too-thin-too-famous-too-soon trials of stardom. The under-30 set may not see it this way, but by comparison, Garth appears all the more serene and appealing.
"I had my share of screwups, but they weren't memorialized for all to see," she says. "I got off lucky. I see the girls on the show now, and I think, Enjoy it while you can, because this time is very fleeting. I had maybe three years to be free, completely oblivious, and self-indulgent. Then I had a child really young and a lot of responsibility."
Twelve years ago, when Garth, then 25, had Luca (with her then-boyfriend, actor Peter Facinelli, who is now her husband), no breathless "bump watchers" tracked the reproductive lives of young Hollywood, and there were no star-baby bloggers to gurgle and coo. The only people paying attention had a different agenda.
"There weren't many actresses willing to have kids, because they thought it would jeopardize their career or their desirability," Garth says. "There was an actress on an Aaron Spelling soap opera who got sued for getting pregnant. I got pregnant right after her, while I was on an Aaron Spelling show. But I knew he'd be supportive; [90210 was such a hit] he couldn't be anything but."
 "When you're a full-time mom and you work a few days here and there, it's hard to pace yourself," she says. "I want to know what my kids are eating for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I want to know how much activity they've had in a day. It's difficult to keep it all in order."
It's also difficult to discipline three girls who span 12 years in age. "I had to give my 6-year-old four time-outs two days ago," Garth recalls. "She kept hitting. I don't spank, though sometimes I think, These time-outs aren't working! What's next?" For now, she's sticking with "consistency, and not making idle threats. They have to know there are consequences for violence, name-calling, and not doing household chores. They're all in such different places, but all those places require boundaries."
Somehow Garth manages to be in three mind-sets (and, seemingly, places) at once. This year, the girls are in three different schools, and she's playing chauffeur. "We're always together, maybe to a fault!" she laughs. "We like to be together, I think more than most child psychologists or even my mother would say is healthy. But there will come a time when they don't want to be with me, so I'm reveling in it now."
Garth's biggest challenge these days is finding time to be with Facinelli, 35, who's busy with roles in the Twilight movies (creepy vampire-surgeon Carlisle Cullen) and the Showtime series Nurse Jackie (creepy ER doctor Fitch Cooper). During his downtime, Facinelli is an active dad, shuttling his girls to bowling alleys and ballgames. "He works like crazy," says Garth. "But when he's home and present, it's great." And as rough as his schedule has been on the family, "it's good for him, because it's what he's always wanted," she says. "[Early on,] all I wanted to do was work. Now all I want to do is not work. I've passed that stage of my life. I have to respect that we're at different places. Hopefully it'll balance out."
Until then, it appears that the Garth-Facinelli women are content to revel in their girl time, creating memories together that are impossible—even given Mom's shot memory—to forget.