Eva Mendes got super candid on Instagram this week, sharing a sobering moment she shared with her daughter. The actress shares two children, Esmeralda, 6, and Amada, 4, with Ryan Gosling, and the couple has protected their children’s privacy by keeping them off social media. Although we don’t expect that to change anytime soon, Mendes did recently open up about her relationship with daughter over Instagram (sans, of course, a picture of her child).
In the text post, the actress admitted that a comment from her child inspired her to take a break from social media, as she recognized that she wasn’t being as “present” as she’d like to be for her children.
Keep reading for what she had to say!
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The 46-year-old shared a quote on her Instagram feed that highlighted the importance of listening to your kids--even when they are offering you constructive criticism.
The quote, lifted from the account @latinxparenting, read: "Let your kids call you out. It's not disrespect. It's healthy."
"Kids can be so fiercely aligned with their value that they will take nothing less than the respect they deserve. They will take take no BS. Not even from you," the quote continued. "Congratulations, you are raising an empowered child."
Although that message sounds pretty clear, Mendes added a caption to explain how she felt the words related to her own role as a parent.
She wrote, "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. They take things personally unless we go out of our way to make it clear to them it’s not personal. So we had good talk, I apologized and I promised her I’d be mindful."
The actress added, "I realized that just because I’m always home with them doesn’t mean I’m always present."
Although Mendes' post might not seem too controversial, some of her followers took offense to it.
One commented, "Yeah, no. They can call me out when they start paying bills."
Mendes answered the critic with a simple "yikes."
On the other hand, some fans were loving the post, and made sure to thank Mendes for the reminder.
One wrote, "This is such a beautiful message that I didn’t know I needed to hear."
Another commented, "Hi Eva, my 6 year old hates when I’m preoccupied with my phone. I’ve been putting it up on a shelf during the day. Thanks for the post."
