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New York & Company Celebrates Store Opening With Eva Mendes© GettyImages

Eva Mendes and her most inspiring parenting quotes

Since the day they were born, Esmeralda and Amada became Mendes’s top priority.


Shirley Gomez
Senior Writer
MARCH 5, 2021 4:21 PM EST

Eva de la Caridad Méndez, best known as  Eva Mendes , retired in 2014 from acting to dedicate all her time to raise the two daughters she shares with actor Ryan Gosling. Since the day they were born, Esmeralda and Amada became Mendes’s top priority.

Although it is so little what the world knows about the little girls, during apparitions on tv shows and social media, the star shares enlightening quotes and advice that other parents can also relate to or take notes from.

Find below the eight times Eva Mendes shared the most inspiring parenting quotes ever

Eva Mendes and Ryan Gosling© GrosbyGroup
Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes are pictured with their two daughters in a rare family sighting.

Embracing motherhood

“We’re getting the hang of it, the sleeping thing, but I’m exhausted, and it’s the best,” she said on The Ellen Show. “Really, I’m so incredibly tired. I thought I was tired before at times, but no, nothing like this. But I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Her new gig

“Nobody told me it was really going to be a job, and a job I would need an incredible amount of skill for,” she told Kelly Clarkson in October 2019.

“[I’m] a chauffeur, a cook, a personal assistant to an abusive boss,” Eva continued. “They’re not grateful. Any other profession, you would need to pass a test, but the only test I had to pass was a pregnancy test. That doesn’t seem fair,” she joked.

Eva Mendes, Kelly Clarkson© GettyImages
Eva Mendes, Kelly Clarkson.

Seeking advice from other parents

“Yes. I try not to Google too many things because it is frightening, but I do go to babycenter.com and read the comment sections from other mothers because I find so much solace in that,” she told Violet Grey. “Just knowing that I’m not alone out there and that other moms have gone through the same thing can at least get me through the night.”

Keeping her daughters close to their roots

“We’re constantly playing Cuban music. I speak to them in Spanish, and my mom speaks to Esmeralda in Spanish. Well, now she speaks to both of them in Spanish,” the actress told Latina Magazine. “Any time I have an opportunity to introduce her or them — I have to say ‘them’ now, though my newborn just sleeps all the time — to my culture, whether it’s through music or through food, I do. That is a main priority, for sure.”

Eva Mendes junto a su madre© @evamendes
Eva Mendes and her mom Eva Pérez Suárez.

Letting them use their power and grabbing inspiration from it

“My two little girls are already these two little self-empowered little women … I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, I need to get out of the way, and you guys lead,’” Eva Mendes said during an event in February 2020. “Obviously [I] protect them, but I just want to get out of their way because they’re already these amazing creative beings. I take great inspiration from them as well.”

Setting and respecting boundaries

“I have always had a clear boundary when it comes to my man and my kids. I’ll talk about them, of course, with limits, but I won’t post pictures of our daily life,” she wrote on Instagram in April 2020. “Since my children are still so little and don’t understand what posting their image really means, I don’t have their consent. And I won’t post their image until they’re old enough to give me consent.”

Cutting social media

“I haven’t posted lately because my little one told me I was on the phone too much. I could tell she was taking it personally. And she’s a kid; of course, she’d take it personally,” Eva wrote on Instagram in January 2021. “They take things personally unless we go out of our way to make it clear to them it’s not personal. So we had [a] good talk, I apologized, and I promised her I’d be mindful. I realized that just because I’m always home with them doesn’t mean I’m always present.”