I’m happy and very proud to let you know that I am a mother of two lovely, super energetic and over inquisitive kids… My eldest, David Alexander, the independent “kuya”, is 6 years old and is now in Preparatory level. My youngest, the family’s little princess, is a lovely 3-year old girl, Mikaela Abigail.
I gave birth to Dave at a young age… I was turning 23 when I had him… I was at the prime of my youth and while others, who were the same age as I am, were enjoying their lives as a young professional in a big corporate world, there I was slowly building a career as a mother… My office was our home and my job was to be a doting mom to Dave.
I would admit, at first I enjoyed the experience. Seeing his first smile, teaching him his first step and hearing the first time he called me “Mama”, those small stuff brought me to tears as I saw my young one develop and grow right in front of my eyes…
But, like any mother, I also came to a point where I felt lost… Especially, when I get in touch with my friends who are having fun outside of the country, achieving their dreams and getting to do all of the adventures I thought I would have at that time… But, being me, I let it pass and before you know it, here I am, taking care of two kids… At some point, I thought that I would end up like one of those women who chose to be a stay-at-home moms, some living a life of routines, while others live a life of regret and thinking of their “what ifs”… (Now now… Before you condemn me and tell me of my unfair judgment towards stay-at-home mothers, mind you, I was one also, and there is NOTHING wrong with being a mom who stays at home… My mother was a career woman who chose to let go of her dreams and decided to take care of her 4 children. I am proud of her and envious of other mothers' courage to let themselves go and build a career out of motherhood. The only reason why I mentioned the phrases “routine life” and “life filled with regrets” is because these were what I felt when I was a “just” a mother, and nothing else…)
But I realized that out of the cycles and the daily routines, out of the trips to their pedia, out of the numerous times that I had to break up a fight between them two, and how heartbreaking it is when you have to tell them to “go face the wall” and hear them sob and cry and sometimes despise me because of the punishment they get, I learned to appreciate every bits and pieces of experiences that I was able to gather when I became a parent… Each lesson that I learned from my mother, every advice that she taught me, every small reminder that she used to tell me, I am now parting to my own little ones… The discipline and strict character of my dad, I am now able to use it to my kids as well. It is true they say that you would never learn to genuinely appreciate your parents, unless you become a parent yourself.
I learned that it’s not the gifts that I receive during Mother’s Day nor on my own birthday that brings joy to me as a parent… It is when my kids call out to me and ask for my help, when they give me a bear hug in public, when they play with me and have a great laugh with me, when they give me a butterfly kiss as I am about to go to work or when they tell me “I love you Mama” over the phone, these are my simple joys as a mother and I would continue to enjoy them as long as they need me because I know time will come, these small stuff would be gone and I would miss them once my own kids have a life of their own… But for now, I am their mom and I would be here for them, until the last day of my life…
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