'Stage Mom'

Stage Mom. That's what my son's friends (and a few teachers, wink-wink) call me. My son has this passion for the theater and a member of their school theater guild, Teatro Lousiano. Every chance I have to watch him in some of the productions, I jump on. Complete with the hugs backstage after the performance. I had a rooster made by hand as props, asked the help of my assistant one time, because we could not find one from toy stores. 

My son was sent as one of the many delegates to a competition somewhere in Tuguegarao, and I had a list of all the stuff he needed to bring. I bought a first-aid kit, had medicines for fever, tummy ache, allergies and the like, complete with a small note with the names of the meds and when to take them.  Not satisfied with that, I got his teacher's number and monitored where they were at points during their 12-hour trip. I gave him my pocket wifi, loaded it with a weeklong surfing credits, so that if and when there is no signal where he would be, he can still get in touch. 

Every sniffle, sneeze and cough I overhear on the phone when I speak to him, I get antsy about. He says I worry too much. That is an understatement; my son is 16. I cannot adjust to the fact that he is now grown-up and has a world of his own. 

 My daughter, too, is not spared of this 'mother-earth-incarnate' way of mine. A couple of months back I gave her a first-aid kit I bought, and she promptly told me it was the third set I gave her. I bought them ID tags with whistles on them, so that in case an earthquake strikes, they can be found (God forbid.) Last weekend, I insisted that my daughter take these vitamins with C and Zinc what with the flu virus all over the place now. She said, 'Mom, my tummy gets acidic when I take vitamin C.' I had an answer right away: 'That's sodium ascorbate form of vitamin C, it will not make your tummy acidic.' She is 23 now and I still send her emergency stuff like canned goods and noodles, you know, just in case she cannot leave the house during a typhoon and unable to buy food. I would not want her starving, right?

I know they find that annoying at times, but both of them just laugh it off. Every once in a while they still ask me to scratch their heads or their backs so they can be lulled to sleep. They send me a text or so to ask what they need to take when they do not feel well. They both ask for food as 'pasalubong' from my travels, gone are the days when they would ask for Zoids (those terribly expensive robots that was a fad before and made my nose bleed with the prices) or these nice pair of boots seen somewhere that the daughter just had to wear. They rarely ask for anything from me anymore, especially my daughter who scolded me for buying too many stuff on-line. She told me to use the money for a massage or a manicure instead. My son gets irritated by the money I waste on shoes that he never really actually asked me to buy but I did, to surprise him. Which did not fit him. (Ok, it was supposed to be a surprise so I did not ask for his shoe size, all right?) 

These days, my daughter treats me to a facial, my son comes home with something from McDonalds. All from their savings. Truth be told, I miss the days when Ana was five, and she would shriek at the sight of those small-cup multicolored gelatins and run all over the grocery to look for me so that she could ask if my money was enough to buy just this one pack pleeeeaaasssse? Or when Aidan would be breathless and confused at the sight of Toy Kingdom. But even so, I am proud of how my kids have grown to be smart. They're 'good people' as they say. Sometimes I wonder how on earth do I deserve them?