10 SIGNS YOU WERE RAISED BY A FILIPINO MOTHER

1 - They love cooking. Whenever they have spare time or when they are bored, they will be cooking something, even if it ends up in the freezer for a while. Which is a great thing cause all your friends will come over and enjoy home cooked food. Or sometimes you’d have friends coming over, just for the food ! And the leftovers when they leave your home. They would always leave with a tupperware of food...

2 - You’d have rice at every meal. Rice all day every day. For breakfast, for lunch and for dinner. Rice is like... the most important ingredient in Filipino cuisine. But don’t worry. It’s not always that bland white rice. They have glutinous rice and black rice and all types of rice. They would cook it with coconut milk, or fried with garlic, eggs, proteins, veggies... It’s never boring and always delicious. Oooh and white rice with all the different dishes... now I’m hungry...

3 - You’re used to some “weird” combos of food. Fish for breakfast is not surprising. As well as garlic fried rice and eggs and sausages (ps: Those sweet sausages, called Longanisa are just the best!). Or hotdog sausages with marshmallows. Or anything with banana ketchup (still think that is better than regular ketchup, don’t judge me)!!

4 - Having spaghettis for your birthday is a must as it means you'll have a long life (whether it was pancit canton, bihon, sotanghon or spaghetti with the sweet tomato sauce and hot dog)

5 - However with all that food, she will be the first one to tell you about your waistline and how you need to loose some weight. (Filipino people are quite direct and won’t be worried about saying that you look a bit big or you have too many imperfections on your skin)

6 - She is very demanding. You always need to be the best in class, and she will compare you to the others of your classmates. “18/20, not good enough, what about John, what did he get?”. And you need to become a lawyer, a nurse, a doctor or a teacher.

7 - She doesn't like you when you have a sleepover at some friends. You have a home, why would you stay at someone else’s? But then your friends could come and stay at yours anytime!

8 - She has some intresting Filipino believes. I mentionned the spaghettis earlier, but there are others such as "you shouldn't pass ginger hand to hand" or "the more rice you have at home and the more money you are going to receive". Things like that! And also, when you’re in the Philippines, there is always that tree that you shouldn’t get close to because of some spirits !?

9 - You would call everybody "uncle" (tito) or "aunte" (tita) without knowing if they were related to you. And you would have to “bless” the elderly people (as a halfie, I would never really know what to do exactly when I had to do that tbh). And you call the young ones “toto” or “inday” cause that’s how you should call them. And you can’t remember their names anyway. Which makes it easier in the end!

10 - But you also know that your mom has sacrificed so much for you and she just wants the best for you. Thus your mom is the most wonderful person in your life. Thank you mom!

Bonus - You were raised with some of the weirdest cover songs and 70/80’s music and you might enjoy karaoke more than your 100% western friends.