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This is from the MEGA May 2025 Last Word
There’s this funny video content creator Macoy Dubs once made, and he teases mom vloggers who start every review with, “As a mom…” And honestly? He’s not wrong! As a mom myself, I can’t deny it—everything I do, buy, wear, and eat somehow connects back to motherhood.
I have three sons—all of them the joy of my life, even though they also add mess and expense to it. Can’t complain because mess, expense, exhaustion, and the utter giving of oneself are all part and parcel of motherhood. Everything I do for the past 15 years is for my boys—from packing lunchboxes, wiping snot and tears, and teaching manners to working for a salary, which takes me away from them 12 hours a day. These things are necessary for a mother to do, but I also realized mothering isn’t just something I do; it’s something I am.
Mothering is a state of being. It’s not just how I treat my children, but it’s also how I see the world and move in it. Every aspect of my life—not just my family and my home—is influenced by mothering. Yes, I mother my children with all the ferocity and tenderness my heart can hold, but I also mother my friends, my colleagues, and my community. And if you’re a mom, you know this is true!
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Let’s start with friendships. Don’t we all mother our friends with “Kumusta ka na?” We send recipes, cold medicine, and muffins we baked. We pass on maternity and nursing clothes and baby outfits and toys. We show up for our friends from baby showers to cry fests. Yes, this is friendship, but it’s also mothering. I know because when I wasn’t a mom, I wasn’t really this adept at natural extensions of care. Now, as a mom, I make sure to text, “Did you get home safely?” after dinner with friends, whereas before, I would just shower and collapse in bed.
Even at work, I find myself mothering my team. I don’t see them as family (ladies, set boundaries—the office is not your home!), but I do care for them. I don’t compete. I want everyone to succeed! So my motherly care is in the gentle reminders I send when deadlines loom and also when I see them burning out. I mother my colleagues not just by mentoring them in their career but also by noticing when a team member’s smile doesn’t quite reach their eyes and getting up to say, “Hey, are you okay?” and then offering a listening ear. In these moments, I am not a manager. I am a mother.
This kind of care isn’t unique to me or mommies.Anyone can do it. Mothering shows up in unexpected places—like during a meeting when you advocate for the quietest voice in the room. Mothering is when we say, “Good job!” because we celebrate every victory, big and small. It’s in the patience we offer when mistakes are made, knowing their growth will come from grace rather than criticism.
Motherhood also affects everything I do as a member of my community. This was especially brought out during the pandemic when our neighborhood shared resources, medicines, and comfort—a feat considering we were all safely locked in our homes. In every community, mothering means service. It’s the Mama Bear instinct to protect and to nurture. Mothering is in the people—men and women, parent and child-free—who organize neighborhood clean-ups, rally everyone to do Zumba at the barangay hall or clubhouse, and prepare meals for any gathering. They may not call it mothering, but it is because mothering is the act of seeing a need and responding with care.
Mothering isn’t just found in households or barangays, it’s also in the voices that shape culture and fight for a better world. I think about the mothers of movements. It’s in music when Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” pushed people to celebrate their individuality and when Chappell Roan advocated for health care for her fellow artists. It’s when Cory Aquino mothered a nation in transition, leading the country from dictatorship to democracy, and when Leni Robredo didn’t need to become the President to serve her country. There are also women who were never mothers, like Oprah Winfrey who used her platform to give millions of people the tools to heal, grow, and believe in themselves. There’s Mother Teresa who dedicated her life to serving the poor, the sick, and the most vulnerable in society. There’s young Malala Yousafzai, who fights for a world where all children can learn and thrive.
These women mother through activism, leadership, and the unwavering belief that the world can be better, and they are fiercely determined to make it so. They have become icons and earned the title “Mother” even though it’s not their own children they advocate for. They have achieved influence, respect, and power not through violence and manipulation but through love that’s not confined by biology or borders.
And if we all viewed our countrymen as a mom, too, we could transform the Philippines in ways we never imagined. A matriarchal society would prioritize education, healthcare, and the well-being of every citizen. Affordable, nutritious food. Safe, accessible housing. Quality healthcare and world-class museums within reach. Parks, playgrounds, and libraries in every barangay. Just think of it: A nation led by people who govern with care. It’s possible. It’s doable. We just need to choose policies the way a mother would—with compassion, foresight, and an unwavering commitment to a better future.
Mothering, in its truest form, is about showing up in every way. It’s noticing, nurturing, and believing in the potential of people, places, and ideas. It’s an energy that doesn’t diminish when shared. In fact, mothering multiplies, rippling outward in ways we may never fully see, which makes it so important at this time in our history.
We live in a world that values productivity over presence and efficiency over empathy, and it’s really scary when I read the news and see how people are grasping so violently for power and money. As a mom, I don’t understand it. As a mom, I view the world and the people in it with love and care. We should all be moms that way. We don’t have to literally birth people or even be a woman. We just need to choose to care deeply all the time. I admit it’s hard. It drains our energy. It’s exhausting. It’s messy. And it can be costly.
But we’re used to that because it comes with all things mothering, right? We just need to roll up our sleeves and tighten our ponytail and do the work.
Now, more than ever, I believe that mothering is a rebellion. When we are surrounded by hate, we love. When we are surrounded by greed, we share. When we are surrounded by violence, we go gentle. Mothering is choosing strength, compassion, and courage powered by a fierce love and enduring belief that everyone deserves nurturing, even when it’s so damn hard to do.
I should know. I’m a mom. Mothering isn’t just something I do. It’s who I am. It shapes how I move through the world, influencing my choices, my relationships, and my work. Yes, I am many things beyond being a mother, but mothering has made my life so much richer. And if it can transform my life, then surely, it can change the world, too.
That is the legacy I hope to leave—not just in my children but in every life I have the privilege to touch. Because to mother is to believe. To show up. To care. To love, even when it’s hard.
And that? That is power.
Read more on MEGA’s take and homage to mothering in our May 2025 issue now available on Readly, Magzter, Press Reader and Zinio.
Images courtesy of MEGA ARCHIVES.
