Hi, Bagong Nanay!
We’re about to end 2025, and welcome another year. It’s been a season full of highs and lows, of trying and enduring. Give yourself a pat on the back, mama!
Yung pagiging Bagong Nanay natin is no joke. Mahirap siya because mahirap talaga siya. Whether you have one child or multiple, ibang level ng endurance and patience ang kailangan natin to not just survive, but thrive. It’s important that we know that in motherhood, we cannot and we must not do everything on our own because if we do, we’ll burn out. More than having a village, we need to nurture our faith.
Kaya naman, to inspire us in our daily routines as moms, I’m very honored to share the Kuwentong Bagong Nanay of Tina Santiago Rodriguez, a mom of six children (plus one in Heaven) from Bulacan. She shares how and her husband Anthony are able do it, one day at a time, and how they incorporate prayer and faith in their routine.
While she may not be a “Bagong Nanay” 100% because she’s probably one of the more experienced moms in the Bagong Nanay community, Tina believes (and I agree) that with each pregnancy and birth journey, we go back to being a Bagong Nanay again.
This is how Tina describes herself as a mother: Dependent-on-God, Imperfect, Intentional, Open-minded, Connector, and Community-builder.
Read on, mama.
Kuwentong Bagong Nanay of Tina Santiago Rodriguez, mom of six (plus one in Heaven)
To be brutally honest, life as a mom of six (plus one in heaven!) can be crazy beautiful most days. Sometimes, I find myself “on the go” from the time I wake up because it’s only then that I have more “quiet time” to do stuff. (I usually wake up before everyone else at home).
Faith and parenting
So I try to incorporate prayer and Scripture time during this period, then do my tasks related to work and ministry. (Our family serves at The Feast in Robinsons Galleria, and I also lead our women’s ministry.) Try being the operative word because sometimes I’m not as consistent as I’d like to be! Praise God for being so patient with me!
I’m privileged to be working from home (or wherever there is internet, haha!) and it’s a blessing also to be able to unschool / homeschool our kids. I do my best to integrate my/our Catholic Christian faith in our daily rhythm. Besides my personal prayer time, I usually pray with the three youngest kids after they wake up. The three older ones say their morning prayers on their own.
“We believe that our faith is better “caught than taught,” so we strive to be good examples to our kids.”
-Mommy Tina Santiago-Rodriguez
After morning chores (and some work tasks for me), we usually gather together again at noontime for the Angelus and Protection Prayer (this was taught to us by a Catholic exorcist priest—very powerful!). After lunch, we usually have our own set of chores / work / individual lessons then we gather again at 3pm for the Divine Mercy Chaplet. Afterwards, the goal is to do some sit-down homeschool lessons with the younger kids (except our toddler, who is just saling pusa for now!)
The evening is for dinner, chores (again! Ha, ha! Never-ending!), then we pray together as a family, with my husband leading the prayers. He works from home some days so when he’s home, he usually joins us in our daytime prayers when he’s not in a meeting.
We believe that our faith is better “caught than taught,” so we strive to be good examples to our kids. We fail (a lot!) but by His mercy and grace, we get up and keep going. I think it’s good for us to model how God’s forgiveness looks to our kids as well—that when we struggle in living out our faith, He helps us to move forward and persevere.
Intentional parenting and what it means for Tina
I usually try to define intentional parenting in the parenting talks that we give in this way: “The core of intentional parenting is intentional discipleship. We believe that God has a plan for each of us, and that includes our children. So to be an intentional parent, we want to do our best to live according to that plan, and hope to influence our kids to do the same, too.”
Essentially, intentional parenting is all about:
- Having a plan for how you want to raise your kids
- Beginning with the end in mind: prioritizing character and virtues in your parenting
- Prioritizing where you and your kids put your time and energy, because your priorities will guide your daily decisions and commitments
- Being mindful of what you’re doing while raising your children: this includes everything, even what they’re exposed to at home and outside the home, like media, etc.
You could say that gentle parenting can be considered part of intentional parenting, since one of its definitions goes like this: “Gentle parenting, also known as collaborative parenting, is a style of parenting where parents do not compel children to behave by means of punishment or control, but rather use connection, communication, and other democratic methods to make decisions together as a family.” (Source: parents.com)
“We need to allow God to heal our inner childhood wounds so that we can be better parents.”
-Mommy Tina Santiago Rodriguez
So, should parents go for this parenting style? My husband and I advocate it, for sure, but we also believe that parents should pray and discern well about how they want to raise their kids. We believe that intentional parenting can be one tool to help them build stronger families.
Top 3 advice for Bagong Nanays on faith and parenting
We need to remember that our children are not ours—
They are just gifts from God, lent to us here on earth. Ultimately, they are His children, and He alone knows how they will turn out to be. We just need to do our best in raising them and let Him do the rest.
There are no perfect parents, there are no perfect families.
But there is one perfect God who loves each of us perfectly. By His mercy and grace, we can be purposeful and present parents. We just need to take the first steps in being so.
Our children need to feel safe, seen, and loved when they are with us.
When we fail to do this, we must take the steps to repair our relationships with them. We also need to acknowledge that oftentimes, we need to allow God to heal our inner childhood wounds so that we can be better parents.
I am Tina Rodriguez from Malolos, Bulacan.
I am the Bagong Nanay of six kids ages 19, 16, 12, 9, 7, and 2 yrs 9 months (plus 1 in heaven!)
Outside motherhood, I’m a writer, editor, content manager, resource speaker, self-professed “media missionary,” servant, co-author of two books published during the pandemic. I used to be active in the mommy blogging world (some would say I’m one of the “OGs”) but God has led me to a different path now.
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