But when my mother left to work in Canada for 5 years to support our family while we were in the Philippines; she was no longer as persistent in instilling the traditional Filipino traditions to my sister and I when we arrived with our father in Canada years later.
She started becoming more involved in modern traditions and letting Eileen and I have more freedom and independence. At the same time, we were both getting used to the Canadian culture that we did not mind the new traditions, celebrations and language that we were learning. I have found that over the years, it has helped shaped the person that I have become today. Because of where I came from and the different cultures that I had experienced over the years, I have learned how to balance the two main ones in my life; “mainstream” Canadian culture and “traditional” Filipino …show more content…
In the “mainstream” Canadian culture, parents typically do not support their children once they are eighteen. At this age, they are expected to be graduated from high school, applying for universities, and living on their own for they are now adults. In contrast, Filipino parents normally would not let their children move out of the house until they are married and financially stable. Because of this, Filipino adolescences do not have as much freedom and independence as Canadians would.
Though my mother has slightly departed from the ‘traditional’ Filipino culture, she still continues to have the same values, because she was brought up with those values growing up. Because of this, both of my parents did not allow me to go out of the house as often as my other friend’s parents would. This is where I started to rebel against my parents in my teenage years.
I did not fully understand the differences between the different cultures and beliefs when I was younger, so I resented toward my parent’s tough and strict rules. This caused tension towards my own family, seeing that I was not behaving as a well behaved Filipino teenage girl would. My parents believed in relying on together as a family, following the traditional Catholic traditions and rituals such as praying before meals and attending mass at Church on Sundays. But as my teenage rebellion progressed, I no longer followed the spoken and unspoken rules of my