I Sing, I Shout... Blame it on Mom!

'If you want to know if you're a success in parenting, look at your kids... they mirror you!'  I've heard about this before.  Everything is not about DNA:  I-N-F-L-U-E-N-C-E make or break a child's character.  A thief's child may or may not be his successor depending on how the kid was raised.

I find it really entertaining how families have the same voices.  My sister, Sarah, and I loved to confuse our callers with our voices on the telephone, 'which one was Penny or Sarah?'.  Of course, almost everyone got fooled. Lol!  And, it's not only the voices but there are certain attitudes and personalities in one sister that you can find in another.  You don't need to be twins to be identical, huh?  And sometimes, these similarities make them hate each other.

Sarah often tells me how I have the same mothering styles with, of course, my mom.  To me, I feel like a hero with a big medal of honor when she says that.  I've seen my mom sacrificing good hours of sleep to attend to our needs until we wave goodbye for school.  And until now, she does that although my siblings have already passed the teenage years a decade ago. Oh, I've got so much treasured memories of my mom's generosity that I could go on for years.  But this post is dedicated to how I see myself in my kids.

'I sing' ... Bea and Me
My sister and I grew up in the music of Sandi Patty and Kid's Praise.  Go ahead and click on her name and you'll understand why it's been difficult for us to sing pop music.  (I always have this operatic voice that I sound so out of place singing songs you hear on the radio, being branded as Sylvia Latore a couple times, or being criticized as having 'not' a versatile voice.  But that's the whole point, this voice doesn't sing earthly songs... sing to the Lord!)  And people go, "Did you have formal voice training?" every time they hear me sing the first time.  Nah... we didn't attend any vocal class... it's just Sandi singing in the background of each Saturday morning cleaning the house.  When my papa led us to Jesus, he also trained our ears to appreciate gospel or christian songs ONLY, without realizing it.  And I don't want to change things a bit!

Now, for my kids... I dunno, but I am always lazy playing christian music in the house.  In fact, I am lazy switching the player/radio on in the house.  I felt guilty about this because I wanted my children to have the same exposure we had to this genre.  But I love to sing... I always sing.  I rehearse choir songs in the house, I sing old choir songs in the house, I sing wedding songs in the house... and, they're listening!  Bea's singing choir songs, old choir songs, and wedding songs in the house WITH vibrato.  Wow!  One Saturday, I was working and she went up to ask in her operatic sound if i had plans of eating.  This morning (the main reason why I am so inspired to write this post), I heard her singing "Be Strong in the Lord" while taking a bath.

Songs She's Singing... blame it on me:
  • Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled - This is her favorite.  We just sung this in the choir last Sunday.
  • Be Strong In the Lord - a very old choir song.
  • Think of Me - only the last part where all the lyrics was 'Ahhh'
  • Favorite Things - This song was taught in school and she's so fond of it along with the other songs like Sixteen Going on Seventeen, So Long, Farewell, Do-Re-Mi.  Needless to say, she fell in love to a classic movie, which I am really happy about.
  • Alin-Alin ang Naiba - A song from Batibot.  One morning, while she was playing, I heard her sing this sooooo beautifully, my heart jumped.
  • Bayan Ko - They sung this at school
  • You Belong With Me - The only pop song in the list.
Hans sings, too, but not as seriously as Bea.  But I find him interested to learn how to play the piano.  I'll teach him as soon as God delivers the piano!



Bea didn't get my facial features ('good thing', I know you'll say!) but she had my attitude, my bad attitude.  She loves arts and crafts, which is so Tita Ruth; loves to draw (which is so Tito Ely).  She loves to dance but her body is not giving her the grace of Ate Micah.  She begs me to bake with her and she wants this for a career in the future.  Listen to her speak to and teach Hans then, you'll say, "She's really Penny's".  Oh I don't like how that sounded... but, nevertheless...

'I shout' ... Hans and Me
Hans always raise his voice a good number of times each day, especially when I begin to put pressure on them.  Was this because I'm always shouting?  Yeah, go ahead and make that 'tsk, tsk, tsk'.  I know, right!  But they won't take me seriously and obey unless I shout.  Everyday I'm pressed by time to do quite a lot of things and finish them before my personal deadline and shouting is my means of releasing the tension.  I tell them one, two, three times of what to do with the ideal sweet mommy voice, and what do I get...they ignore me!  Then I start to shout and they'll take my pace.  But I don't shout all the time, alright!  Although I shout, the hugs and kisses and praises I give them are more than the required dose a parent should give each day.

One day I was working, then Hans went up and suddenly started to kiss and smell my armpit.  Lol!  I know, that was so unexpected.  He's so sweet, yeah, but not the armpit!  I asked him why, and he said, "Ginagaya lang kita, Mommy" (I'm just imitating you, Mommy).  I play with him, always, that I think he thinks we're always on 'play mode'.  Afternoon is our yakapan (hugs) and/or harutan (wrestling is our favorite game) time.

My ultimate prayer is for the rapture to come before everyone of my loved ones passes death.  Next to that, of course, every christian parent's prayer is to see their kids loving Jesus.  When I was still playing the piano on congregational singing, one Sunday we had to miss church because of a very bad weather.  Then Bea said, "Mommy, who's gonna play the piano?".  I was so glad hearing this from her.  That means, I passed this very important value on her... how important it is to go to church every Sunday.

DISCLAIMER:  I don't claim to be a good singer: coz I always struggle hitting high notes with confidence in front of an audience, I don't sing like Sarah in some songs, and I couldn't sing 4 measures in one breath.  Also, I am not an expert in mothering.  There's still quite a lot of things to learn.  I often miss out on some important values but I always ask for God's guidance.




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Comments

  1. I SHOUT this is GREAT! :))

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  2. i love this blog!!Reading it makes my heart jump for joy..I'm happy to see my name and most of all realize every sentence constructed. True to life indeed!! hugs and kisses for a good writer!!

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  3. wish i'll be a great mom like you!! and a good singer too!

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  4. I'm glad you liked it @Anonymous. You'll be a great mom! It's scary at first but once you laid your sight to your offspring... love will be the reason of each action you do!

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  5. @Anonymous #2, whoever you are, thank you for inspiring my kids!

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  6. you're relationship with your children is so cool :)

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  7. I haven't seen the kids yet but it all sounded so real I could see Bea and Hans in here! ;') Welcome to bloggers' world Ate Pen!

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  8. Thanks Anonymous #4. Glory to God.
    @Dai Ning Li. Thanks! In time you'll see them

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