Actress Eva Mendes has admitted her parenting style is ‘not fair’ to her children as she opened up about the difficulties of raising her children with husband Ryan Gosling.
The A-lister, 50, shares daughters Esmeralda, 10, and Amada, eight, with 43-year-old Ryan.
While Hollywood heavyweights are known for being extremely tight-lipped when it comes to their family, the Hitch star is now letting fans in on her challenges as a mother.
Eva – who has been involved in a romance with Ryan since 2011 – has revealed the ‘hardest part’ of parenthood and the one thing she would like to stop doing as she spoke to a host of them. Parenting and you podcast, Dr. Shefali.
The actress fought back tears as she confessed that she “dislikes” herself “yelling” at her children – adding that she doesn’t want them to grow up in “fear”.
Actress Eva Mendes has admitted her parenting style is ‘not fair’ to her children as she opened up about the difficulties of raising her children with husband Ryan Gosling
Eva revealed that she likes to work while being in the same room as her children so she can feel “connected to them.”
However, she admitted that the overwhelming amount of emails and her children’s constant need for attention sometimes tested her patience.
She revealed that although she tries to practice gentle parenting, she finds herself returning to the way her parents raised her, which is by yelling.
‘I don’t shout when they need me. I’m never one for ‘shut up’. It’s not like a ‘mean’ scream, but that doesn’t matter. I scream. And it is this screaming that I find so cultural.
‘It’s hard for me to get through it and not scream. The rushing and the shouting, that’s what I find most difficult,’ the actress admitted.
Eva admitted that she tries her best not to raise her voice to her children.
When she’s having trouble keeping her cool, the mother of two revealed that she often thinks about the things she could do better and what kind of mother she is.
‘I don’t like myself. I act like a baby,” she said, recalling times when she would yell at her children.
The A-lister, 50, shares daughters Esmeralda, 10, and Amada, eight, with 43-year-old Ryan (seen in 2013)
The actress held back tears as she confessed she ‘dislikes’ herself ‘screaming’ at her children – adding she doesn’t want them to grow up in ‘fear’
Her confession caused her to look back on the way she was raised.
‘I hope that in twenty years I don’t look back and think ‘oh shoot’, because I really don’t want to parent through fear. That’s the only thing – sorry, it makes me emotional – because it’s not fair to the children.
“I hope I’m not unconsciously putting any pressure on them out of fear, the way I was raised,” she noted.
Eva was raised by Cuban parents Eva Pérez Suárez and Juan Carlos Méndez.
Although she grew up with an overwhelming amount of love, the actress admitted that she also felt a sense of fear.
She noted that before she became a parent, she never wanted to look like her mother.
‘I’m shocked [by] how much I look like my mother. I adore her. She’s on a pedestal… but yeah, my household when I was little was very chaotic, a lot of yelling, a lot of fear, a lot of unrest, even though I had a loving family,” the actress said.
Eva admitted that she had a “very difficult childhood full of trauma,” before noting that “a lot of shame came over me because I thought, ‘I have it so good. My mother, she fought to get here. the only one born in the United States. How dare I even complain?”
Despite struggling with certain aspects of parenting, Eva noted that she is grateful that she had children when she was older.
Despite struggling with certain aspects of parenting, Eva noted that she is grateful that she had children when she was older
The star and partner of 13 years Ryan fell in love while working on the 2012 film, The Place Beyond The Pines (seen in 2012)
‘I shouldn’t have even been around a child in my twenties. I just had a big mouth and smoked. “I wouldn’t have been able to raise children at any other time in my life, but certainly now,” she said.
As the clip ended, Eva reflected on her decision to step out of the spotlight and focus on her family.
‘The easiest decision I’ve ever made. “I was older and I knew that one day my children will grow up and what I do or don’t do now will affect them for the rest of their lives,” she said.
The star and partner of 13 years Ryan fell in love while working on the 2012 film, The Place Beyond The Pines.
Eva has since focused on other business ventures after the couple became parents, and it appears she has no plans to appear on film sets again anytime soon.
Earlier this year, the Ghost Rider star revealed that she and Ryan have something of a “non-verbal agreement” when it comes to giving up acting and being a “full-time mom” to their two young daughters.
The Canadian actor has continued to make films since welcoming his children, while Eva has taken a backseat.