Original post date: March 19, 2023
by Rachelle
I am probably biased, but I feel like Filipino mothers are a different breed of mothers. Let me start with sharing with you the women in my family. My grandmother has 12 children, my mother being the youngest. TWELVE children! Can you imagine? I know having many children was common for that generation, but it takes a lot of strength, stamina and energy to be pregnant, let alone raise twelve children! Additionally, my lola (and lolo) helped raise my brother and I.
Happy Mother’s Day to all the nanays (mothers), titas (aunts), ninangs (godmothers), and lolas (grandmothers) out there! Today’s post is dedicated to all of you.
My name is Rachelle. I am Filipina. I have a fairly large family, with many titas, titos, and cousins. If there is one thing I can say about my cousins and our generation of the family, is that we are all strong and resilient. We work, and we work hard. And I think that has a lot to do with who raised us, the mothers who raised us.
All the women in my family have always put their children and family first. Whether that’s through working abroad to support their children and eventually bringing them over, to working multiple jobs, to taking care of their nieces and nephews, in addition to their own children. They have always had to work twice as hard, as a parent and in their career. There is a special kind of strength and ferocity that I see in Filipino mothers and women. But no matter how busy and tired they were, they always made time for their children. They always showed their love and care through food. People often talk about what their love language is, but for us Filipino mothers, our love language was food. We love to feed others.
I can only hope to be as great, kind, loving and caring as my mother, my titas and my lola.