BOTH A DOTING AND A DICIPLINARIAN MOTHER
RUFFA GUTIERREZ is a beauty queen, actress, host and A-list endorser. But on top of it all, she is also a single mother of two beautiful daughters, Lorin, 8, and Venice, 7.
Famous and successful as she is, Gutierrez says that Lorin and Venice are still the best things that ever happened in her life.
“When I became a mother, it changed my entire life. The reason why I’m living [now] is because of my children. I’m working because of their future,” the celebrity mom tells The Manila Times.
She shared this at an event hosted by Progress Pre-school Gold at Top Shelf, Fully Booked in Bonifacio High Street, Taguig City. The gathering presented the most re- cent breakthroughs in children’s learning and development, with discussions from experts in the field of education, as well as insights from Gutierrez based on her personal experiences.
Balance of both
Asked whether she spoils her daughters or disciplines them, Gutierrez replied that she uses both rearing styles.
She explained that unlike a partnership between a husband and wife, where one can be the spoiler and the other the disciplinarian, she, as a single mom, has to balance both.
“I need to be well-balanced in being a mom to them,” she shared. “When they do good things I make sure I shower them with affection. But if they do something wrong, I make sure they know I disapprove.”
She added that her parents, Annabelle Rama and Eddie Gutierrez, who pander to Lorin and Venice. “They are actually more spoiled by their lolo and lola.”
She related that whenever the two are at their grandparents’ house, they eat more sweets like ice cream, lollipop, and cookies. “But they can’t always do that; I try to make the kids eat healthy,” she continued.
Time management
Gutierrez knows that working in show busi- ness could be very demanding, having grown up in the industry. She can be very busy at times but she makes sure that she still watches over her children. The key, she says, is time management.
One of the ways she makes up for lost time is to sleep with Lorin and Venice. “We sleep together and wake up together.” And even if she lacks sleep from taping, she would still wake up early and prepare her daughters for school. When they leave, and if she can, she goes back to bed.
Another bonding for mom and daughters is playing dress up. Gutierrez happily shared that Lorin and Venice love to raid her closet and wear her clothes and shoes.
She also sometimes brings them to the set if they are not in school, and her tapings are early in the day.
New technologies
The Progress Pre-school Gold event noted that the world’s advancement today is very fast-paced, so much so that even children’s learning and development are constantly changing. Alongside groundbreaking research and studies, new learning tools in forms of computer, the Internet, gadgets and other technologies are also being utilized.
Gutierrez confirmed this phenomenon since Lorin and Venice both use computers to help them in their studies. She shared, “They can use the computer as much as they want so long as it’s for school.”
However, these new technologies also have their disadvantages. For Gutierrez, the easy access to technology is in itself a challenge.