Entry
Perspective #1
Hannah is driving back to her house on a lovely Tuesday afternoon and sees a women walking down the street holding hands with a child and pushing another little one in a stroller. Hannah thinks “Oh isn’t that lovely! A mother out with her children spending some quality bonding time together”. Hannah goes about the day as one normally would and goes to bed once again thinking about the mother and her children, appreciating how they were out enjoying the day together.
[This is not an uncommon sight or situation for someone to witness during their everyday lives. What Hannah did not know was that the “mother” was a domestic child care worker from the Philippines hired as a full time nanny for a suburban family.]
Perspective #2
Mahalia is a mother of four from the Philippines who had to move to Canada to get a job as a nanny to support her family. As she is walking down the street with the two children she is caring for, one holding her hand and the other one in the stroller she thinks about how much she wishes she was doing this activity with her own children. She begins to get emotional thinking about it but then reigns in her emotions because she knows this is what she has to do to support her family. After tucking the children in that night she gets into bed and falls asleep knowing that another day has passed not being with family.
Rationale
After watching the documentary Chain of Love and learning about transnational care givers, I felt moved to write a creative perspective piece on the topic. The reason I wrote it this way, in the two perspective model, was because I have always believed it is important to see both sides of the story. This written piece is important within the intersectional, decolonial transnational praxis as it provides an easy to read piece that allows the reader to see how everything is not as it seems.
I found the inspiration for “Mahalia” from the women who were featured in Chain of Love and also other personal narratives I have read about women coming from the Philippines to work as nannies. The reason I used my own name for the first perspective was because I wanted to make it personal, realizing that I have had these thoughts and to allow the reader to put themselves in my shoes as I am almost certain that everyone can relate to it. Not that it is wrong to go about the day appreciating beautiful moments you see between people but as a society we can all expand our knowledge in accepting that everything is not necessarily as we perceive it.
Keywords: transnational, caregiver, motherhood, perspective
Author: H Dimes
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