When I was younger, I thought the titles “Nanay & Tatay”, “Mama & Papa” and “Daddy& Mommy” are status symbols.
I thought “Nana and Tatay” belonged to poor families, “Mama and Papa” were how you called your parents if your family can afford more than the basics and “Mommy and Daddy” were parents to spoiled children who had frilly clothes and fat, lazy cats.
My parents wanted me to call them “Nanay and Tatay”. I did so without letting my classmates know. We lived in a nipa house and when a storm would pass by we would hide under the table. Hahaha! When it rained and the path walk to the dirt road was muddy, my father would piggyback ride us three one by one until we reached the highway.
It took me years to reveal this to my classmates: that we were poor and life was as simple as can be. After all, my parents did all they can to send us all to a private Catholic school in town. We were luckier than 90% of the children who lived in our barangay.
As I grew older, I began to see the tenderness that were in “Nanay and Tatay” that most children cannot mimic when they ask for new toys. “Mama and Papa” often clashed with “Nanay and Tatay” such that the former were reserved for one’s nuclear parents and the latter, for the grandparents. “Mommy and Daddy” were the ones used when one is asking for one peso coins to buy Stick-O or homemade pastillas.
As I recounted my piggyback ride and under-the-table-during-the-storm days, I smiled at the status symbols that were never meant to be.
