Why Eva Mendes Is Glad She's an Older Mom: 'In My 20s, I Shouldn't Have Even Been Around a Child' (Exclusive)

Eva Mendes does everything in her own time.

Speaking to PEOPLE for this week's Beautiful issue, on newsstands Friday, the Ghost Rider actress opened up about her decision to have children later in life.

Looking back on her life, Mendes, 50, says the one thing she has the courage to do now — which she didn't at 25 — was raise kids.

"When I was 40, it was a big deal for people when I was pregnant, and it wasn't for me. And then I was 42 and I was pregnant with my second one and people were like, 'Oh my God, you're going to be so tired. That's why people have kids in their 20s.' I was like, that's the most sorry, asinine thing I've ever heard," Mendes, who shares Esmeralda Amada, 9, and Amada Lee, 8. with Ryan Gosling says.

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She continues, "It takes more patience. In my 20s, I shouldn't have even been around a child. I was just foul-mouthed and smoking. I could not have raised kids in any other era of my life but now, for sure."

Now, their kids are everything to Mendes — and her decision to take a step back from acting to raise them was a no-brainer.

"It was the easiest decision I've ever made," she says. "I was older and I knew that my kids are going to be little once, and whatever I do or don't do right now is going to affect them the rest of their life."

When she made the call, she "didn't feel that as pressure" and instead "felt it as clarity."

"Your career comes and goes but kids, yeah, that was easy for me," she says. "They're just formative years. I wanted to be there for all of it."

Since becoming a mother, Mendes learned that her words are powerful — and her daughters inspire her to make good decisions every day.

"It all matters when you have two little people watching you all day long. It's frightening but it's good because it makes me try to be a better person every day," she says.

Mendes met Gosling, 43, while filming The Place Beyond the Pines and the two have been together since 2011.

Since then, Mendes has kept their personal lives relatively private — especially when it comes to their daughters.

"I have always had a clear boundary when it comes to my man and my kids. I'll talk about them of course, with limits, but I won't post pictures of our daily life," Mendes wrote on Instagram in 2020. "Since my children are still so little and don't understand what posting their image really means, I don't have their consent. And I won't post their image until they're old enough to give me consent."

For more from PEOPLE's Beautiful edition, check out our digital issue or get a copy on newsstands Friday.