Eva Mendes runs a tight ship at her home.
The “Hitch” star — who shares daughters Esmeralda, 10, and Amada, 8, with Ryan Gosling — discussed her parenting style and household rules in an interview with the Sunday Times published Thursday.
Mendes, 50, revealed she doesn’t allow her children, who are home-schooled, to use smartphones or social media.
“Putting my kid on the internet and being like, ‘Oh, search something,’ that to me is equivalent to telling her, ‘Oh, just go down the street in the middle of the night. You’ll be fine,’” she said.
“I know that sounds extreme, but that’s what I feel,” she added.
The “Desi, Mami, and the Never-Ending Worries” author also shared how she tries to give her kids perspective on their privileged upbringing.
“I explain to them what I didn’t have, what Ryan didn’t have when he was little, how hard we had to fight, the dark days of being paycheck to paycheck, and this and that, but they’ll never really know unless they experience that,” Mendes explained.
The actress said she also tries to help her girls with self-esteem by having them do things around the house.
But Mendes admitted she’s worried about what they may be learning from her unintentionally.
“I still have all this anxiety and I see myself passing it on to my children,” Mendes said. “Subconsciously I can’t imagine what they’re inheriting from me that I don’t want them to inherit from me.”
As for herself, Mendes said she was “good kid” growing up, thanks to her late brother, Juan Carlos, who died in 2016.
“He’d say, ‘If I ever see you out there with a guy or smoking, I’ll f–king kick his ass and take you to school every day,’” she recalled. “By sheer fear I was a good kid.”
Mendes met Gosling while working on “The Place Beyond the Pines” in 2011 and the two have been romantically linked ever since.
During the interview, Mendes credited Gosling with making her feel “sexy” in her 50s.
“I feel really f–king sexy at times,” she gushed. “The way my man looks at me is just … at times I’m like, oh my God. That might not sit well with people, but so much of how I feel is a reflection of what he’s giving me.”
The mother of two has taken a step back from acting to focus on raising their children — which she previously called the “easiest decision” she’s made.
In August, the family of four stepped out for a rare outing at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
