Pinoy tiger mom
When people think of Pinoy moms, I’m sure the first examples to come to their minds are the mothers made famous by mainstream or social media—like Jokoy’s mother or Otakoyakisoba’s Mama LuLu. These women are no doubt great examples of what a Pinoy mom is, but there’s one type of mom that undoubtedly every Filipino kid either has or has met: the Pinoy Tiger Mom (PTM).
Every PTM has round glasses to go with their poufy short hair that’s perfectly coiffed daily, and every PTM has an arsenal of lines that they use as frequently as they use their abanikos: “Ano ginagamit mo? Mata mo o bibig mo?” or “Kung ahas ’yan natuklaw ka na (nyan),” and the classic “Bahala ka sa buhay mo!”
These sentences will most likely remind you of the days you sported a bowl cut and ate sticks of hotdogs with marshmallows at some stranger’s birthday party. They might also remind you of the times your mother chastised you for doing something she told you not to do, or the times when you were made to perform in front of your parents’ friends, as those strangers waited patiently to watch you.
I am able to write this because my mother Geraldine was perhaps the epitome of all PTMs. She embodied the image of a Pinoy Tiger Mom because she was raised by one, too!
To this day, my mother is a PTM to the core—she sports perfectly brushed-out hair and a handbag that houses SkyFlakes, a handkerchief, a pamaypay, her wallet, and, of course, some kind of liniment to help ease her headaches. I’m talking about Vicks Inhaler or even White Flower!
She’s been a homemaker ever since I can remember. And she’s always kept a strict schedule and stuck to it. She would always say it’s because every homemaker has a slew of daily tasks she needs to do in order to keep the house running. Of course, back then, I never knew how difficult it was to run a household.
Now, I find it nearly impossible to do all those things because my hours are filled with chores, motherhood and my ever-demanding job. I ask myself, “How did Mama deal with this?”
That’s a typical PTM for you. They scare you, but they also show their care and attention in that warped way. In hindsight, all of the pushy actions my mother did were to make me a better, more capable, and reliable adult who can count on herself to live through life’s ups and downs.
At the end of the day, it’s these little things that truly make me thankful for my mother. As tough as she was, my siblings and I can all agree without a doubt that our mother made sure we were loved, protected, and ready to face the real world. Now that I’m a mother, I can only hope to be as nurturing, loving, and fierce as my mother, as I now see the beauty behind her actions.
Mica Valledor-Leong is an avid reader, adventure seeker, foodie, project manager, business developer, and a new mom to an amazing little demanding human.
