A proud ‘Swimming Mom’

Mothers, they say, are the worst companions children could possibly have when they are still at the age of innocence. Before they reach the age of 15, these kids are guarded by their moms who make certain nothing would go wrong. We have very many examples but the most famous are the stage moms of Sarah Geronimo and Lea Salonga who kept track of their daughters’ every activity until they reached the so-called age of reason.

All these come to mind upon receiving an article from Rina Batungbacal who calls herself a “Swimming Mom” for the manner by which she would proudly guard her sons Robie and Aldo, and daughter Bea, especially now that they have been winning trophies right and left in swimming competitions. 

“I have been a ‘swimming mom’ since my eldest son, Robie, learned to swim at age 3 1/2.  He is now 21, a college senior and a graduating member of the Ateneo Men’s Swimming Team. What started out as a learn-to-swim summer activity has become a sports career for my three children particularly the youngest Bea who looks to her brothers as her inspiration. Statistics show that the crucial time for adolescents is between 4 and 7 p.m. because this is the time they get home from school. If they come home to an empty house because both parents are still at work, that can lead to dangerous activities,” says Rina. “But if parents get them involved in sports, there will never be idle time for our children.” Coaches who have mentored the Batungbacal children were Angelo Lozada and Cyrus Alcantara.   

“For four days every year for the past eight years, my life stops,” continues Rina. “As crazy as my husband Vic’s schedule is, he, too, takes off from work to be at the UAAP competition. When our second son, Aldo, joined the Ateneo Men’s team in June this year, the two boys started training twice a day, leaving the house at 5:30 a.m. to be at the pool and would return only after a second round of training in the afternoon. It was not easy watching all this go on for four months especially during circuit training. But more than the training, I saw my two boys and their teammates grow closer. They forged a bond that I have never seen in any of their previous teams. I think it is because they shared the same hardships and the same goal and learned to like the company of one another.

“When Aldo finished his last event last Sunday and had confirmed he would be Rookie of the Year, I saw him striding over the wooden planks from the lower level to the bleachers, his eyes searching for me. From the look on his face, he was in a hurry because he knew his emotion was about to burst. And burst it did, because when he finally got a hold of me, he gave me a long hard embrace and sobbed like a baby.”

Rina grew up with four legendary Narvasa brothers at the Ateneo who were all into basketball. This more than adequately prepared her for the kind of emotional tumbling and somersaulting she is now experiencing.

“I did not witness what transpired right after Robie swam the last event of his UAAP the 200-meter butterfly. To me, it was honor enough that Robie made it to the finals and that he was in the same heat as their Olympian teammate, Jessie Lacuna. But it was what I saw on Facebook the next morning that touched me to the core,” Rina shares. “It was a photo of the two boys Robie and Aldo locked in an embrace as if they totally knew and understood each other, no words needed to be spoken,” shares Rina.

In the end, and I have seen this in my late parents, what will matter the most for us mothers is first, the choice that our children will make for their life partner and second, how they will take care of us in our twilight years. What we will really want from them is not a new car, a trip abroad, a signature watch, but only their love, their time and the idea that they are always thinking of us, too, that in their heart and mind they know that their mom has loved them the best and the most, because in truth, we have and always will, no matter what.

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