Eva Longoria Opens Up About the 'Hard' Balance of Work and Motherhood: 'You Just Do It'

Having returned to work weeks after giving birth to her first child in June 2018, Eva Longoria arguably makes balancing motherhood and a career look easy.

But the Dora and the Lost City of Gold actress, 44, admits it’s anything but in a new cover story for Parents magazine’s August issue, where she and her 1-year-old son Santiago Enrique pose for an adorable photo shoot and Longoria opens up about how life has changed in all aspects since she became a mom.

“Going back to work was hard. Breastfeeding while working was hard, just for the timing of the pumping and the feedings and the sleeping and the not sleeping,” she said — but, “You just do it and get it done.”

Longoria admits her baby boy makes parenting “easy” for her and husband José “Pepe” Bastón, primarily thanks to little Santi’s sunny disposition and easygoing nature: “He’s healthy, he’s funny, he’s sweet, he sleeps, he eats.”

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Santi may only have just turned 1 year old, but Longoria — who was one of the founders of the Time’s Up movement — is wasting no time in showing him the importance behind it.

And to that end, the star is focused on leading by example. “I feel there’s more pressure to raise a good man today in this world and to make sure he understands equality and feminism,” she says. “But it’s not about telling him, it’s about showing him in his everyday life.”

One example? The fact that Longoria has hired a majority female production staff for her new ABC drama series Grand Hotel, on which she stars and serves as an executive producer.

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“The stakes are higher now that I have a child,” she adds elsewhere in the interview. “I need to make sure I’m doing my part to leave the world a better place — for him and for all the children of our future.”

And while her on-set vs. at-home methods work for her family, Longoria realizes and respects the fact that every parent-child dynamic is different and has its own unique set of parameters.

“I aim to be a good mom to Santi, but as far as having opinions and really planting my flag in the ground and saying, ‘This is the system I use and everybody should use it,’ I’m definitely not doing that,” she insists.

Dora and the Lost City of Gold opens in theaters on Aug. 9.

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