Nobody asked Eva Mendes to share her opinion about how to appropriately discipline children, yet she wanted to share it anyway.

In an Instagram post, Mendes shared two pictures. In the first one, she is on the red carpet in a stunning gown. Mendes wrote, “I’m often asked what my favorite red carpet dress is.This @versace is definitely up there.”

Then, she took the opportunity to share her thoughts on childhood discipline. She wrote, “Im not often asked what my favorite parenting quote is, but I’ll post it anyway.Please slide if you care.”

If you slide to the next picture, you see a quote that reads, “Spanking does for a child’s development what hitting a spouse does for a marriage.”

Ouch. That is a definitely a very clear answer to how Mendes feels about the idea of spanking children.

 

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A post shared by Eva Mendes (@evamendes)

It seems that many of Mendes’ followers disagree with her feelings about spanking. One comment reads, “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.”

Another follower wrote, “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.”

However, many of her followers do agree with Mendes’ opinion about spanking. One person wrote, “it boggles my mind when someone always tells me ‘oh yeah i got spanked and i turned out alright’ and you just want to look at them like 👀”

Yet another comment reads, “Yes to this quote! I don’t understood how spanking is deemed acceptable for a child when it is frowned upon for adults. I’m so glad to be growing up at this time that this is being discussed more openly and challenged. I appreciate people like @drbeckyatgoodinside that actually help teach us other techniques to build up our little ones. Well done for choosing this quote.”

Besides some of her followers, Mendes also has the American Academy of Pediatrics on her side. The AAP’s official stance on childhood discipline is, “Parents and other adult caregivers should use effective discipline strategies for children that do not involve spanking, other forms of corporal punishment or verbal shaming.”

Do you agree with Mendes that spanking a child is the same as hitting a spouse? Do you think there is ever an appropriate time to spank a child? What type of discipline do you think is most effective for parents to use? Were you spanked as a child?