"Dad, you know what's wrong with the Philippines? The girls aren't allowed to date until they're 18! That's just so not right!" One of my favorite sayings is "familiarity breeds contempt," and now the bloom is somewhat off the rose of the Philippines in the eyes of my youngest son who's lived here since late May. Now he's seeing more and more of the things that could be better about life here. But I have to be careful to maintain his illusion that girls here won't date before a certain age, because the longer he thinks he has to wait, the more likely I won't have to try to save him from a shotgun wedding — and yes, they do call it exactly that here. My family here was surprised to hear that Americans call it the same thing.
As I type this, my driver is eating fried rice and the maid is lying down on the couch watching television — but I'm certainly not going to gripe because she gets up at five in the morning and works till ten at night. The driver is my brother-in-law and the maid is my wife's cousin, and we pay them a whopping 20 bucks a week each. Not only are they happy to have a job, but we also provide a place for them to sleep and pay for their food and transportation and of course for any medical problems that arise. For a little bit of perspective, I've got a sister-in-law working at the Supreme Court who takes home about 15 dollars a week. So our driver and maid aren't complaining, no, not at all.
So I asked my son if he wants to go back to Washington state yet, but he said no. He made the decision based on the fact that we'll be returning here to live (finally!) this coming May. School here starts in June, so if I took him back stateside, he'd go to school there till we return here where he'd be beginning school right away anyway... which means he'd essentially be attending school straight from September 2009 till May 2012. He wasn't thrilled with that prospect.
But he's enjoying himself nonetheless. He knows some Pilipino now. Yesterday he went to a local store down the street and there were some other kids there. They asked him if he knew the Pilipino language and he replied "no." He then heard one of the girls say in Pilipino, "He's got a cute butt." Yeah, he got a thrill out of that...
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Article comments
1 - STM
Yeah, nice one Glenn. Glad to see Oz get a mention too :)
You are right, of course, generally about the right behaviour of most Filipinos. Reason: Catholicism and the importance the latin culture from whence it comes places on family ties.
I wish my kids would just pull back a bit sometimes and think about their behaviour. They have everything here and don't realise how lucky they are to live in a wealthy, developed country like Australia, but to hear them sometimes, you'd think they had nothing. Perhaps it's just a Gen Y thing, but it is a worry and I know from acquaintances and friends in the US and the UK that they are experiencing identical problems with their kids.
Also, the beach holiday. Is it that place north of Manila that Filipinos rave about, which also has surf??
2 - jeannie danna
so bittersweet...I applaud you for moving out of this spoiled brats land...and you son sounds like a real gentleman, Glenn.
In your link, did people actually stay in their cars for nine days? I would have had trouble with ten minutes!