Eva Mendes has been open about how she prefers to spend time at home with her kids rather than attend red carpet events, but that doesn't mean the 43-year-old actress is free from mom guilt.
At the launch of her fall fashion line with New York & Company, Mendes revealed the challenge of juggling her career with her two young kids — Esmeralda, 3, and Amada, 1 — who she had with Ryan Gosling.
"Oh my God, nobody warns you about the guilt that you feel when you do work!" she told E! News at the event. "I don't know how I find balance, because I think it is like a day to day kind of struggle, you know?"
Mendes also revealed that no matter how much effort she puts into her children, she knows the mom guilt won't ever go away. "I'm all for obviously taking care of myself — that's how I can take care of them of course—but that guilt that is just kind of always there," she said. "It's like, 'Ugh, this is gonna be there forever now.'"
The mom of two's comments on guilt are so relatable considering every parent has experienced these feelings at one point or another. But while Mendes says the guilt is never-ending, parenting expert Alyson Schafer insists that parents can overcome it.
We are not slaves to our emotions. We are their masters.
"We are not slaves to our emotions. We are their masters. The aim is to take ownership of our goals, thoughts, and emotions," Schafer previously told HuffPost Canada, noting that "blocking negative self-talk and creating replacement thoughts" are the keys to achieving this.
Mendes isn't alone in feeling the guilt. Plenty of other famous moms have also opened up about how it has affected them, including Drew Barrymore, Kristen Bell and Hilary Duff.
While these feelings are perfectly normal, Mendes should be sure to recognize what a great job she's doing as a mom. After all, even her partner Gosling recognizes this and has publicly praised her for it.
After winning an award for "La La Land" at the Golden Globes this year, he said: "While I was singing and dancing and playing piano and having one of the best experiences I've ever had on a film, my lady was raising our daughter, pregnant with our second, and trying to help her brother fight his battle with cancer. If she hadn't have taken all that on so I could have this experience, there would surely be somebody up here other than me."
If she hadn't have taken all that on so I could have this experience, there would surely be somebody up here other than me.
Additionally, in her interview with E! News, Mendes revealed that she lets her kids be kids. "You want to wear jammies all day? Wear jammies all day," she said about her daughters. "Like, to me, it is such a beautiful time to be a kid and not have, you know, no pressure."
If that's not a great mom, then we don't know what is!