Actress and mom Eva Mendes is sparking debate after posting a controversial quote about spanking. As someone who keeps their children off of social media and keeps her private life private it was refreshing to see Eva’s take on a controversial parenting topic.
TW: This article contains depictions or discussions of domestic abuse and violence and may be triggering to some readers.
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Spanking as a parenting technique has been criticized by various health professionals for years now.
Recently, The American Academy of Pediatrics released a statementt confirming their opposing stance on any form of physical punishment, including spanking, by saying it’s harmful and ineffective.
Now, actress Eva Mendes is continuing the conversation and sparking debate with her recent Instagram post.
As fans may know, Eva has been dating Ryan Gosling since 2011. The super-private pair have welcomed two children together — six-year-old Esmerelda Amanda Gosling and four-year-old Amada Lee Gosling.
Back in 2016, Eva explained the significance behind her daughter’s names, and the inclusion of the name “Amanda” in both.
“My grandmother’s name is Amada, and Esmeralda Amada is the name of our oldest,” she revealed to Vanity Fair at the time.
“We had a few names picked out for our new baby, and when she was born, we didn’t feel like those names were her,” she continued.
“We came up with a few more, even that morning, and tried them out. We were like, ‘What about Viviana?’ But we just kept going back to Amada.”
Now, Eva is sharing her thoughts about spanking children as a parenting technique, and it’s sparking debate in her comments.
Posting a photo of herself wearing a stunning Versace dress, Eva captioned the post saying she is “often asked what my favorite red carpet dress is,” but “not often asked what my favorite parenting quote is, but I’ll post it anyway.”
The quote, posted as the second picture, came from Racheous.com, and reads:
“Spanking does for a child’s development what hitting a spouse does for a marriage.”
The comments quickly began rolling in for the actress and mom.
“Yes! I agree. Every time I was “disciplined” growing up, I only felt fear and shame. IT never “corrected” behavior. I would never hit my child to teach them a lesson and inflict psychological and physical pain,” commented one fan.
“So true…just treat all hard situations with love, and it’ll all be OK…” agreed another.
“I know!!! The spanking has got to stop. Respect above all else,” commented a different fan.
“That quote is so true. I love how you are so protective of your family and so thoughtful about what you post. It’s refreshing,” agreed another.
Some people, however, disagreed with the actress.
“I don’t know. I was spanked and now I’m a respectful adult. And believe me, I deserved those whoopings. I was a brat,” argued one fan.
“Love you but completely disagree. 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 5 respectful loving kind kids that were a joy to be around. Good fruit shows from loving correction,” echoed another.
Eva took to the comments to engage in meaningful discourse with fellow parents.
“So happy to agree to disagree,” she wrote to one opposing follower. “We all parent our own way and I have no idea what I’m doing most of the time.”
“This didn’t come with a manual, so when there’s something that resonates with me, I pass it on. Lotsa love,” she concluded.
What do you think of Eva’s post? Let us know in the comments below!
