People Have Thoughts On Eva Mendes' Post About Spanking Kids

Eva Mendes posted a quote that was against spanking kids, and the people in her comments section have a lot of thoughts

There’s a lot of debate in parenting circles about the big S-word: Spanking. Some parenting experts are for it, some are against it. Some adults say they got spanked as kids and turned out fine, others say their childhood corporal punishments caused them long-term problems. A post that Eva Mendes just made on Instagram shows which side of the debate she falls on: Against.

Mendes posted two photos together, the first one showing her in a stunning fringe dress on the red carpet. In the caption, she wrote, “I’m often asked what my favorite red carpet dress is. This @versace is definitely up there.”

She continued, “Im not often asked what my favorite parenting quote is, but I’ll post it anyway.”

On the next slide was the quote: “Spanking does for a child’s development what hitting a spouse does for a marriage.”

Naturally, a post like that sparked a lot of debate in the comments section.

There were plenty of people who agreed with Mendes, applauded her honesty, and shared their own desire never to physically punish their children.

“Yes! I agree,” one wrote. Every time I was ‘disciplined’ growing up, I only felt fear and shame. It never ‘corrected’ behavior.”

Others pointed out the discrepancy between different kinds of physical hitting — like how it’s never OK for an adult to hit another adult (and, in fact, can end up with someone receiving assault charges), but society deems it OK for adults to hit kids in this specific context.

Another commenter called out people who say they were spanked as kids and turned out fine, and questioned whether they really are OK.

But there were plenty of commenters on the other side of the issue, too. People came out in support of spanking in a lot of comments, including one who said they “deserved those whoopings” as a child.

Another claimed that spanking is different from hitting, and wrote that it’s “correcting before [kids] can reason behavior out with you.”

Mendes replied to a few dissenting commenters thanking them for being civil in sharing their differing points-of-view, but her feelings on the matter are backed by the American Academy of Pediatrics. In a 2018 policy update the group states: “The purpose of discipline is to teach children good behavior and support normal child development. Effective discipline does so without the use of corporal punishment or verbal shaming.”