Eva Mendes Says Working Motherhood Is 'So Hard': I 'Struggle Like Every Other' Mom

Just like any working mom, Eva Mendes is still learning the balance.

In a chat with ABC News surrounding her fall Eva Mendes Collection for New York & Co. launch, the 44-year-old mother of two admitted finding time for fashion while parenting daughters Amada Lee, 2, and Esmeralda Amada, 4, inspired her to add tees for her new collection because “sometimes it’s just a challenge to get dressed.”

“I just struggle like every other working mother. It’s so hard, and I haven’t figured out the balance at all,” Mendes said, adding of her children, “Leaving them is hard.”

“Our older one … she knows I’m coming back,” said the star, joking that Esmeralda “has mamitis” — which is exactly what it sounds like.

“Cubans say … like, it’s ‘momitis,’ like, when she wants to just be with mama,” Mendes explained.

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In an interview with E! News last week at the launch and fashion show to celebrate her new collection, Mendes said there “hasn’t been anything that has felt worthwhile” in terms of roles that have caught her eye enough for her to take time away from her two kids with longtime beau Ryan Gosling.

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“I’m just so obsessed with my kids — I just don’t want to leave them,” she said, laughing. “But I realize that I need to work. They’re just still so little. But certainly I would do something if it felt right.”

Notably, Mendes took on her first acting gig in three years for Thursday’s event, starring in a short video that opened the show as a dog owner mourning the passing of her pup. Mendes even walked the red carpet with the film’s costar: a Husky rescue from Cesar Millan’s PACK Project.

RELATED: Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes: Inside Their Very Private Relationship

Mendes may be focused on fashion (her latest New York & Co. collection is her fifth year running of designing for the brand), but when asked if her daughters are into clothes yet, the star replied to E! News, “Oh God, no!” and cited their casual everyday wear.

“They live in jammies, you know. They’re still in diapers — well, one of them’s still in diapers, so they’re just being babies, as they should be,” she said.

Esmeralda does have her own style already, though. As Mendes told ABC News, “She dresses herself and comes up with some pretty interesting things, like she’ll just do the one sleeve. And we’re like, ‘Amazing.’ It’s a one-sleeve jammie. … Just to see what they do naturally is really exciting because I’m just Mom when I’m with them.”

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