Lara Quigaman reflected recently on the sacrifices motherhood entails, both physically and emotionally.
Lara Quigaman with her two kids. Image: Instagram/@laraquigaman
The Miss International 2005 shared on Instagram last Friday, May 10, a picture of her stomach with stretch marks, and her two sons by her side.
She wrote, “When I had children, it wasn’t just my body that changed, my whole life did. Most of the time I am exhausted, I am tired, sometimes I cry (parang ngayon, parang tanga, umiiyak habang nagtatype (like now, like a fool, crying while I type)).”
She discussed how her body had transformed not only after giving birth but also as she prioritized her kids over herself. She joked about her stretch marks, comparing them to the traditional Filipino game sungka, which is played by putting seashells on a wooden board with holes.
“There are times when I feel like I can’t do it anymore… I look in the mirror and I see messy hair, walang ligo (haven’t showered), my tummy covered in stretch marks so deep you can play ‘sungka’, skin so loose, you can probably make a bag out of it,” she quipped.
“My breasts — well you, my fellow moms know what these two looks like now — and then I look at my sons and they look back, one smiles back and the older one tells me ‘your tummy is so squishy mom, i love it…’ and even though I feel insecure about my body, I am not going to complain.”
“Kung ang kapalit naman ng lahat ng sakripisyong ito eh ang mga ngiti ng mga anak ko, okay na okay na ako,” she said. (If in exchange of all these sacrifices are the smiles of my children, then I’m OK.)
“I will be grateful to God every day for the gifts He has entrusted to me.”
She told fellow mothers that “it’s all worth it” and that when their kids grow up, their bodies “will remind us that we once carried them and nurtured them.”
Quigaman welcomed her second child Tobias with husband Marco Alcaraz last September 2018. She had her first child, Noah, in 2012. JB
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