Eva Mendes makes emotional parenting revelation —’This really hits home’

Eva Mendes keeps it real when it comes to parenting her two daughters with Ryan Gosling, Esmeralda, nine, and Amada, seven. While she keeps their lives private, and that of her longtime partner, the actress is honest about how she finds motherhood – and her latest parenting revelation is no different.

The former actress reshared a parenting clip to her story that “really hits home” from Doctor Shefali, aka the Conscious Parent, in which she says: “You were dominating her when she was a child, you were controlling her because your own sense of perfectionism was ruling the dynamic.” 

© @evamendes Instagram

As the parenting expert delved into the consequences of this behavior, Eva commented below the reshared clip: “This really hits me. I once read that we’re our children’s ‘first bullies.'”

She added that: “Something about that resonated with me and I think about it often. When I share these posts please know I share them because I get excited to learn and share. And as a complicated and emotional person, I’m always trying to go back to the drawing board and keep on working on myself.”

© @evamendes Instagram

Eva has been open about her style of parenting, and how being a mom aged 50 has benefited her as opposed to having children earlier in life. “I could not have raised kids in any other era of my life but now,” she said, reflecting on how in her 20s she was just “foul-mouthed and smoking.”

“It takes more patience. In my 20s, I shouldn’t have even been around a child,” she confessed to People.

Continuing about her life as a role model to her daughters, she added: “It all matters when you have two little people watching you all day long. It’s frightening but it’s good because it makes me try to be a better person every day.”

In fact, the Hitch star has taken her dedication to her kids to another level as she recently wrote a children’s book – Desi, Mami, and the Never-Ending Worries – a picture book about a “little girl facing endless scary worries”. The picture book, illustrated by Abbey Bryant, is set for release on September 17, 2024, according to Barnes & Noble.

Eva recently promoted her new book in the most typical mom way, on a swing set as her daughters could be heard laughing in the background. She told her audience: “I hope you love it as much as I do!”