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Eva Mendes ended up sparking a much larger conversation by opening up about some of her personal thoughts when it comes to parenting.
The actress--who is the mother of two daughters: Esmeralda, 6, and Amada, 4 with Ryan Gosling --took to Instagram on Monday, April 19 to share her thoughts on spanking.
In the Instagram post, Mendes revealed that she’s always asked similar questions about trivial matters like her favorite red carpet dress—which is the Versace dress she wore to the 2010 Rome International Film Festival. But as a mother, there’s other issues she wants to discuss, even though she’s not often asked to provide things like her favorite parenting quote.
So, she decided to post the quote herself, which reads, “Spanking does for a child’s development what hitting a spouse does for a marriage.”
As with any post about parenting online, this sparked a lot of conversation in her comments section, with some followers agreeing, and others landing on the opposite end of the spectrum.
“I don’t know,” one social media user wrote under Eva’s post. “I was spanked and now I’m a respectful adult. And believe me, I deserved those whoopings. I was a brat.”
In response, the Last Night actress didn’t care that her follower. disagreed, simply appreciating the opportunity to discuss. “Thank you for your comment,” she wrote. “So happy to agree to disagree. Want this page to offer that in a loving way.”
Eva went on to acknowledge that everyone approaches parenting differently, letting her followers know she isn’t judging those who take a different approach.
“We all parent our own way, and I have no idea what I‘m doing most the time,” she wrote. “This didn’t come with a manual. So when there’s something that resonates with me, I pass it on. Lotsa love.”
A follower went on to note that they’re “glad to be growing up at this time that this is being discussed more openly and challenged,” something Mendes agreed with. She also expressed how she was “so happy to be able to talk about alternative discipline now,” noting, “When I was a kid that was not an option.”
While Mendes seems to be warming up to the idea of talking about parenting online, that probably doesn’t mean she’ll show off her kids on Instagram any time soon.
“I have always had a clear boundary when it comes to my man and my kids,” Mendes wrote in a post on Instagram last year. “I‘ll talk about them of course, with limits, but I won’t post pictures of our daily life.”
She continued, “And 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.”