TOPAZ HORIZON

Probiotics are live microorganisms that benefit the body when we eat them. We have good bacteria and bad bacteria in our bodies, especially in our gut. When the bad bacteria overwhelm our gut, we get diarrhea, gas, bloating, constipation, acid reflux. How does this happen? Oh, bad diet. When we get sick and we have to take antibiotics which kill all the bacteria in our body—good and bad. Probiotic bacteria like Lactobacillus acidophilus, Bifidobacterium lactose, and saccharomyces help maintain the healthy environment in our tummy.

Probiotics is good for everyone. That's you and me, mamas! Kids benefit, too, because a healthy gut means it absorbs more nutrients from the food they eat. More nutrients in the body, better growth and development! So aside from preventing gut problems, probiotics can also help our kids grow better. Probiotics also help manage allergies and infections. If your kids are teens, probiotics may also keep skin clear, improve mood, and prevent bad breath!

However, I strongly encourage you to always ask your child's pediatrician before giving probiotic supplements to your kids. 

Where can I get probiotics?

A diet rich in probiotics is always a good thing. They are naturally found in yogurt, fermented food and drinks (pickles, atsara, kimchi, kefir milk, kombucha), miso soup, and soft cheeses (Gouda, mozzarella, cottage cheese). So serve these generously! In fact, probiotics are so beneficial that many food brands have added probiotics in a lot of food like cereal and milk.

If you don't have enough probiotic-rich food in your diet, then do try supplements. My kids only like yogurt, for example, and find pickles and kimchi too sour or spicy. So we have them take one Erceflora ProbiBear a day. It's a soft and creamy vanilla-flavored supplement made of Lactobacillus acidophilus and Bifidobacterium lactose. It's really like candy. Piero LOVES it. He can't understand why he just has to have one piece haha 

Halabos na Suahe with Kelly Sauce

Soft-shell Crab Negra with Alavar Sauce

It's not always no. But the activities I choose to spend time with them are the important stuff—doing homework, eating every meal together, answering life questions, putting them to bed until they're all asleep every night. But if it's fun stuff, I pass. Yes, I know fun is important, too, but I have to do other things. And if anyone dare tell me to quit work and stop doing the chores to spend more time with my kids, well, I would happily do so if they'd take over those jobs!

In the case of Queen Elizabeth, she turned over the mothering almost entirely to her staff resulting to Charles saying his childhood was unhappy and lonely. Of course, she had a country to run so her situation is a lot different from most mothers. Still, how hard is it to cuddle your kids after a long day of governance? How hard is it to hug them and say you love them even for a minute between seeing your subjects? In "The Crown," there are scenes of Elizabeth being polite with her children. Not gushing, embracing, kissing, laughing. Just hello-how-do-you-do. She wasn't cold or cruel. Just distracted, I guess.

Well, it must be hard for some people to be openly emotional. My own mother was also too busy with work and household chores to be more involved with raising us. In fact, the first time Mama said she loved me was when I was 15 years old and only because I told her first. One afternoon, I said, "I love you, Mama." Mama looked shocked then walked out of the room without a word. I shrugged, not surprised at her reaction at all. Three months later, she looked at me and said out of the blue, "I love you, too."

Three months. It took her three whole months to work up the courage to tell me she loved me back. Imagine that! I'm glad that happened because after that, she was more generous with her "I love you's" like she just needed that one catalyst afternoon of me being so verbal about my feelings to open her own floodgates of emotion. I don't resent her for this. She spent her life so focused on providing for us, it had made her emotionally distant. It's a good thing I was never scared to lay bare my emotions, right? Imagine if I waited for her to say she loved me???

In that sense, I don't feel guilty about working. On one hand, yes, I'm sure my kids would love me to play with them more often. On the other hand, they're never confused about my feelings for them and the reasons I can't play with them because I'm always talking to them about work, duties, time. Plus, I actually am with them all of the time so there's nothing to complain about! 

But, yes, I think about this a lot. When I'm enjoying the smell of my freshly washed laundry and imagining how my boys would smell so nice in them, when I'm packing their baon full of food they love, I'm just really happy and proud of myself. Happy that all the things my sons enjoy, I made it possible. My hands cooked their food. My hands prepared their baon. My hands washed their clothes. My hands changed their bedsheets. My hard work bought them everything. I fetch them from school. I help them do their homework. I personally made everything they eat, watch, use, love and enjoy possible. No one else. No yaya, no maid, no driver, no relative. Me. Just me. And their Papa, of course, but since he's at work a lot unlike before when he was a stay-at-home dad, it's mostly me these days. (I miss you, Vince!)

I do wonder if I'd be a more relaxed mother, a more fun one, if a kasambahay did all the chores. But I don't feel guilty at all. I may be a busy mommy but I always always always tell my kids I love them and I smother them with hugs and cover them with kisses in between chores, just before bed, at the start of every day and after every exhausting day. I may not do everything with them but they know I do everything for them! They're my heart and they know it. So they forgive the times I have to say no because I have chores or I have a deadline. In fact, I know they're proud of me for being so hardworking. Their classmates tell me so.

So, fellow working mamas, don't let guilt rob you of the joy of your career. Quantity of time spent with our kids matters, of course, but as long as we never hold back on our affection, as long as we assure them we love them, as long as we make the hours with them special (and it can be as simple as eating ice cream together or laughing at jokes!), the kids will be fine.


"The Crown" is exclusively streaming on Netflix.

In Incredibles 2, Helen (voice of Holly Hunter) is called on to lead a campaign to bring Supers back, while Bob (voice of Craig T. Nelson) navigates the day-to-day heroics of “normal” life at home with Violet (voice of Sarah Vowell), Dash (voice of Huck Milner) and baby Jack-Jack—whose super powers are about to be discovered. Their mission is derailed, however, when a new villain emerges with a brilliant and dangerous plot that threatens everything. But the Parrs don’t shy away from a challenge, especially with Frozone (voice of Samuel L. Jackson) by their side. That’s what makes this family so Incredible!

Incredibles 2 is still showing! Catch it while you can—with the whole family, of course!