'Familia Blondina’s' half-Filipino stars recall funny moments with Pinoy moms 

MANILA, Philippines — The road to growing up is always bumpy. Parents try their best to make a decent person out of you when you are at your most emotional, most vulnerable stage.

The journey is different and especially challenging if yours is a Filipino mom. This much, half-blooded Pinoys Marco Gallo and Kira Balinger, stars of the soon-to-be-shown film “Familia Blondina” (playdate is Feb. 27) admitted.

Half-Italian Marco used to compare the way his friends in Italy were disciplined to how his Pinay mom put him in his place. Marco confessed he found it odd at first.  Italian moms, he said, would deprive their erring children of certain privileges, like watching television, using the cellphone and playing with gadgets.

His mom is different. When Marco woke up from a nightmare, his mom did not say, “It’s okay, baby,” the way many Italian mothers would.

“She dipped her fingers into a (jar) of Vicks (Vaporub), and rubbed them on my eyelids!” recalled Marco. 

To this day, he cannot forget how that burning feeling on his eyelids kept him up for the rest of the night.

Case number two happened when he was playing football too much, Marco’s appetite kept up by making him gobble more food. His mom’s solution: lock the refrigerator at home. Marco went bonkers.

He asked, “Mama, do you want me to die of hunger?”

Her answer doused cold water on Marco’s fiery temper.

“If you want to eat,” she told her only child, “improve the way you deal with me; you have to raise your grades as well.”

At another time, father and son did something that did not sit well with mom.  Her decision dates back to the traditional Filipino way of punishing children: Marco and his dad knelt on grains of sand while they held up books with both hands.

Odd as it seemed to him then, Marco eventually understood what his mom was telling him through her words and actions.

“She was showing her love. She wanted me to learn so I won’t make the same mistake again.”

Kira, with her British dad and Filipina mom, also has her share of anecdotes.

“My mom would pinch me when I said something wrong in public,” she shared, minus the British twang.

When they get home, Kira’s mom would explain why she had to correct her daughter. And Kira, like Marco, would understand.

One hundred percent Pinoy Awra Briguela has no such issues. Marco and Kira’s co-star was born and raised in a typical Pinoy household, where a parent’s word is law.  Getting chastised with a hanger when he and his siblings fight is so painful, it brings tears to his eyes. 

But Awra had no complaints. He knows it was his mom’s way of showing tough love.

“She tells us we’re so lucky we have siblings who can help us when we’re in trouble,” Awra said.

The bottom line is, these celebrity teens love their mom even if their ways take some getting used to. Moms, after all, are family. That’s what matters most.