My mother never liked anyone I dated. Mothers are normally hard to please when it comes to the men that their daughters choose to be with. I know my mother is definitely one of the hardest to please in the whole wide world.
Exhibit A:
This boyfriend had a stable job in the same office I was working in. He was very responsible, honest, loyal, smart and good-looking too. He was not that sweet or gentlemanly but I never had problems with his fidelity.
Why did mom not like Exhibit A?
She said that he is like a dog. Yes friends, that is exactly what she compared him to. You see, he always followed me around, literally. And he did exactly what I told him to. That’s not so bad, right? But my mother said that if he just does everything my way all the time, it only means that he does not have a backbone and could be entirely dependent on me in making decisions if we get married.
Exhibit B:
This boyfriend was extremely handsome and was crazy in love with me (that particular time at least). And whenever he looks at me, I felt as if I was Aphrodite in the flesh.
Why did mom not like Exhibit B?
She said that he was illiterate and would never make for a good provider because he did not speak spectacular English. But really, what can you expect from a Greek god mortalized? I really don’t know if I should agree with her analysis. But hey, mothers know best right?
Okay, my mother only knew of two of my past relationships. LOL. So I guess I have nothing further on her disapproval of the men I date. I guess she will always find fault in every male specie that will come along because she thinks no one will ever be good enough for me. I told her I’ll just have a baby then and not have a husband. I think she strangled me in her mind.
My mother does not like alcohol. She believes it is bad practice to drink any kind of alcohol. She frowns at me every time I toast champagne with my cousins during New Year’s Eve. She thinks half a flute will make me smashed. I always tell her that I have high tolerance for alcohol but she would just give me that stare of hers that penetrates into my skin and gives me an extreme comatose-like experience.
My mother is idealistic. I did not graduate on time and she was already employed at the age of nineteen. That was for the longest time a thorn in her heart as an educator. At the time when I had not completed college yet, she felt panicky at the thought of her own children not getting a college diploma. But my mother never gave up on me and my brother. She sent us to the best schools in the country that money can afford and endured paying the tuition of our long overdue educational conclusion. She always instilled in my mind too, a different measure of success. Of course I believed otherwise so until now she still bugs me about that. I can sense that this all comes from the fears she has of leaving her children behind someday without the assurance that everything will be okay.
My mother slave drives herself. She constantly works. As if she is not already exceedingly exhausted at work, she still feels that she can do so much more that her body would allow. I always reprimand her about the repercussions of over fatigue but she just feels restless when she is not doing anything. My mom does not cook but she washes clothes. And she washes clothes well.
My mother has an almost extinct social life. She adamantly refuses to go out and get a life. She feels that it is an awful waste of money to socialize. Lately, she occasionally allows me to push her out of the door at night to go to dinner events with her friends and sometimes even purchase her airline tickets so she can go to her batch reunions in Cebu or Davao. She always surprises me though because whenever she comes home from the trips that I give her allowances for, she ends up spending it to buy things for us and not for her. You will NEVER see my mother inside a casino, a fancy restaurant (except if someone will treat her for the meal), checked in to a 5-star hotel (except if I force her to agree to let me pay for it) or any place that would make her feel that she is compromising the funds that is allotted to the home (which is practically every single penny she, my dad and the business earns). I hope she will eventually learn to embrace even the idea of quality living because she had already missed out on so much. She deserves to reward herself and let others reward her sometimes.
My mother is many things. She is jealous (in a very cute way), hard to comprehend, strict and a bit too uptight but she over the years of her existence remained honest, modest, generous, loyal, straight, uncompromising of her principles and faithful to God. There are a million things she and I disagree about and I have accepted the fact that we are individuals and we will always be different. Although, one thing’s for sure, I love her with the very best of me but I know it will always be incomparable to the way that she loves me. Until I become a mother myself, I will never love like Roxanne.
I think my mother will never be immune to anything I do with my life. Probably because to her, I will always be that little baby girl that she held in her arms and secretly vowed to protect. I would not want her any other way. In fact, I will be forever grateful that she is what she is and she raised me in the way she did. A large margin of people in the world would say that their mother is the best mother in the world. But what would actually qualify them to be the best? My mother would not be the best in the world because she has her own flaws as a mother and as a person but even so, I would forever be indebted to the one who created her and gave her to me for she will forever be the greatest blessing in my life.
***This part of my soul is dedicated to my wonderful mother, written to honor her on her birthday on November 8. There will be no one quite like her in my life. Mommy, you are the wind beneath my wings. Happy birthday.***
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