I wish to share with you the interview done by Charles Tan of Flipside Digital Content, the leading ebook publisher in the country.

Flipside Spotlight: Rose Fres-Fausto

Rose Fres-Fausto is the author of Raising Pinoy Boys. Her eBook will be part of our Mother’s Day Sale.

Hi! Thanks for agreeing to do the interview. For those unfamliiar with the book, could you tell us what Raising Pinoy Boys is about?
Raising Pinoy Boys is a compilation of my over 2 decades of journey raising my 3 sons Marty, Enrique and Anton. I started writing journals about my experiences as a first time mom – from the time I first conceived to the time we started choosing schools, doing homework together, acting as their referee in their everyday quarrels, teaching them how to prepare their own Balance Sheets, to the time they started getting interested in girls. So what the reader gets is a candid narration of the joys and challenges of parenting.

It also includes stories of the growing up years of successful Filipino men and boys we admire as told by their parents. These are Lance Gokongwei, Tony Tan Caktiong, Tony Meloto, Bo Sanchez, Brothers Nestor, Raul & Lorenzo Tan, Chris Tiu, and three admirable classmates of my sons.

What made you decide to write the book?
Back when the boys were very young, I bid my promising investment banking career goodbye to be able to give my focused and undivided attention to the growing up years of my sons. Before I knew it they were all grown up and I am very happy and proud that they have all turned out to be happy, confident and kind individuals who are enthusiastic about life. I can’t help but feel that I made the right decision. Seeing them grown up, I was faced with a new set of crossroads. I asked myself, “Now that they are not in need of my undivided attention, what else can I do, what is God’s will for me right now?” I found the answer in the words of a great philosopher theologian novelist Frederich Beuchner. He said, “God calls us to a place where our deep gladness meets the world’s deep hunger.” I loved his message so much that I even came up with my paraphrase: God’s will is the intersection of our greatest passion and the world’s greatest need. So what is my passion? It’s raising my sons. Is there a great need in the world that intersects with my passion? I’m sure everyone will agree that there is always a need to raise our children well and raising our sons well is very important because they are the future heads of Filipino families.

I figured that I already had a wealth of materials and I felt that sharing my experiences might help other parents. In my years of learning and experimenting about this great and challenging job, I observed that even if we have different beliefs and styles in raising our kids, hearing another parent’s stories always enriches my own parenting. I also have a lofty dream that all Filipino children will be raised so well that in future we will have an abundance of talented, honest and competent Filipinos who will always do the right thing whether someone is looking or not. They will grow in number and they will be the norm and not the exception. This will be out tipping point to finally become the great nation we are destined to be. I hope that this book will be my humble contribution to this lofty dream.  happy

Why do you think we have books on raising boys from the US, but not from the Philippines?

Maybe because we are not yet a “book reading population. We’re still more of a magazine reading population. When I looked for parenting books specifically for boys, I got to read a few good ones but as you said they’re mostly from the US. This is also one reason why I decided to write one to cater to Filipino parents, even the ones who are already in other countries but would still want to instill good Filipino values in their children. I hope that the Pinoy parents all over the world will find joy and “company” while reading the book as it is really like talking to a mom sharing her stories over coffee. They will hear stories about “tuli,” bisita Iglesia, Noche Buena, etc.

What was the most challenging aspect when it come to writing the book?
The main challenge was the big decision to share our family stories. When I hesitated for a long time, my husband encouraged me to finish the book and just decide in the end whether to publish it or to keep it as a family book. It is also difficult to put an end to an ongoing story. My sons are still living with us (yes Filipino children stay with their parents while in college and even after college) and I continue to parent them so it was not so easy where to end the story.

There’s a section in Raising Pinoy Boys where you interview various parents. How did you select them?
As I mentioned earlier, they are the successful men we (my husband, sons and I) admire. I also asked each son to name one classmate/friend whom they admire so I could interview the parents. When you look at the men and boys we featured the common denominator seems to be their humility despite their success and their integrity. After I did the interviews I found out that there were always great formators (parents, teacher, uncle, elder) who believed in them and supported them while they were growing up.

Thanks.

Link to the article http://flipsidepublishing.wordpress.com/2012/05/07/flipside-spotlight-rose-fres-fausto/