A Filipina Mom Blogger

The other night, my husband and I slept at 2:00 AM because we enjoyed watching Happy Slip’s YouTube videos. You know, we needed our endorphin fix. The Peelings video hits close to my heart for many reasons because of my dad. The quirky characters played by Happy Slip as the “aunt” and “mom” display so many similarities to my dad’s Filipino personality. Is it old-school now?

(gasp), I see myself in them too.

1. When Christine corrects her aunt for saying “don’t beat the bush”.

Whenever I correct some of dad’s idiomatic expressions, he gets offended and retorts back “I teach MBA and my students love me”.

2. Christine has a headache, then the aunt suggest Vicks.

Dad’s number one medication whenever colds hit us, was to hand over the Vicks vaporub. He swears it is effective. After a while, he would ask “How are you Peeling now?”

3. The mom who refers to “feelings” as Peelings

I guess I can understand why dad often says Peelings instead of “Feelings”. There is no letter “F” in the Tagalog dialect. It gets bad when he says “E-BEN IP” for “even if”. Then again, Tagalog does not have the letter “V”. Dad never learned to speak English till he went to college.

4. The aunt convinces Minnie, her daughter to play the piano for the mom.

I remember how my dad (particularly) required us to play the piano after dinner. As he watched all seven siblings play from the living room couch, I could see his wide grin as if beaming with pride. When I got married and noticed I had no piano in the living room, he bought one. He said “Your girls should play the piano”.

5. You have to take your vitamins, says the mom.

After my mom died of breast cancer, my dad became obsessive about our health. He’d buy Clusivol vitamins, often reminding us that we can’t afford to get sick since we lived far away from home. At the time of my mom’s death, I was studying in Manila far from my hometown Cebu province.

Now that I am mother, I believe I am a bit more “globalized” than my father but no. Based on the above scenarios, I see myself acting like them in some ways:

1. My kids occasionally correct me for the wrong idiomatic expression only because I cannot keep up with the youth’s latest lingo. For instance, I was impressed at my nephew’s uber-smart roommate that I innocently remarked Oh you’re such a nerd. Marielle said, “Mom you don’t say nerd”. Eek.

2. I offer Vicks to my daughters when they have ant bites, or suffer from aching muscles. Just like dad.

3. I find my daughters correcting me for mispronounced words such as the word, “Poem” which I used to pronounce as poh-wem. Mom, it’s poh-uhm. My Speech Teachers must have taught us the wrong pronunciation because poh-wem is how I recalled it to be. Definitely, I don’t mistake “F” for “P” though.

4. When the kids were in their teens, I’d often say “play the piano for your lolo”. The girls were “obedient” then and complied with much hesitation but not anymore. Since they turned 14 years old, they can’t be cajoled to play for us.

5. Funny how I nag my kids to take their daily vitamins and to sleep early. Just like dad did.

I still am my dad’s daughter after all. His words never really left me especially now that I am a parent. Even if he died five years ago, I feel his presence in the way I act towards my daughter. The Peelings video brought so much memories. Dad is still in my heart.

Do you see some similarities in your upbringing with the Peelings Video?