Mothering from a distance: Emotions, Gender, and Inter-generational Relations in Filipino Transnational Families by Rhacel Salazar ParreasKey Concepts:

Transnational Mothering(Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo and Ernestine Avila)- the practice of mothering from a distance; ruptures the ideological foundation of the Filipino family.

Structural causes and effects of transnational families to the Filipino ideology and parenting culture. A kind of Globalization that paves way to the denationalization of the economy demands which eventually lead to migrating of our workers for greener pastures to have a sustainable middle-class life. The Reconstitution of mothering led by female migrants from the Philippines is stalled by traditional ideologies of family life.

The family not being a collective unit. The gender division of labor in the Filipino nuclear family.

Responses and sentiments of youth with migrating mothers; answers and sentiments of Filipina workers in Rome and Los Angeles to open-ended questions asked to them.

METHODOLOGY

The researcher utilized the use of purposive sampling thru the inclusion of open-ended interviews with the aid of tape-recording and transcribing. She got samples of female domestic workers in Rome and Los Angeles as a total of 72 interviews were conducted in Tagalog or Taglish and then translated to English for a period of five months in Rome and six months in Los Angeles. There was also a survey conducted for 212 high school and college students with international migrant parents and 90 with internal migrant parents living elsewhere in the Philippines. *Yes, I think the methodology was appropriate to capture the objectives of the study as she was able to analyze the emotional consequences of geographical distances among members of the family, most especially in female-headed transnational families. Although like any other study, Ms. Parreas study can still be improved or supplemented with other would-be studies catering to the need of analyzing the most basic component of a society. I would suggest that a further study needs to be done in other parts of the world since every geographical location of an OFW and every detail that happens there can actually have an impact on these OFWs dealings with their families back home. Moreover, various kinds of sampling (mostly of the qualitative nature) should be applied in such studies since the lives of the families left back home are the ones that are primarily affected by this mode of mothering and/or parenting.Furthermore, there should also be studies that should be conducted that would cater to the analysis and what ought to be done in relation to the well-being and development of the Filipino psyche-his culture, work, ethics, providing for the family, labor traditions, among others.

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