Agreeing to disagree! Eva Mendes discussed her decision not to spank her daughters with her Instagram followers on Monday, April 19.
“I’m often asked what my favorite red carpet dress is,” the actress, 47, captioned a slideshow. “This @versace is definitely up there. I’m not often asked what my favorite parenting quote is, but I’ll post it anyway. Please slide if you care.”
The following slide read, “Spanking does to a child’s development what hitting a spouse does for a marriage.”
While some of the Florida native’s followers commented on their agreement, many wrote that they “completely” disagreed with her and Ryan Gosling’s parenting tactic for Esmeralda, 6, and Amada, 4.
“I was spanked and now I’m a respectful adult. And believe me, I deserved those whoopings. I was a brat,” one Instagram user wrote, while another added, “The goal in raising kids is not to have to spank, but it’s correcting before they can reason behavior out with you. Completely different than hitting someone. That’s not correcting behavior. We raised five respectful, loving, kind kids that were a joy to be around. Good fruit shows from loving correction.”
Mendes replied that she “respects” everyone’s opinion, writing, “We all parent our own way and I have no idea what I’m doing most the time. This didn’t come with a manual. So when there’s something that resonates with me, I pass it on. Lotsa love.”
Other celebrity parents have sparked debates about spanking over the years, including Scott Disick and Kourtney Kardashian. Corey Gamble advised them to spank their daughter, Penelope, 8, in a September 2019 Keeping Up With the Kardashians episode, calling “whipping … discipline.”
The Flip It Like Disick star, 37, replied at the time: “Don’t ever talk about a child like that! Get the f–k out of here.”
As for the Poosh creator, 42, she tweeted, “In my opinion, beating children is not [how] to ‘get your kids in check.’ When children are hurting or frustrated, the answer is not to physically hurt them. … They’re children and she was clearly hurting inside so hurting her physically is not going to make anything better. How do we not know better by now?!”
The University of Arizona grad encouraged “consequences that don’t involve physical harm,” concluding, “I am very proud of my kids and being a parent isn’t always easy.”
