Summary

In Chapter 2, “Mothering as Valuable Labor,” Garbes imagines her parents coming to the United States young and alone, “pursuing someone else’s plan for their lives” (47). When they left the Philippines, Garbes’s paternal grandmother, Ima, offered to send “a domestic worker” with them to help with the home and family (47). Garbes’s mother “declined the offer” (47). In the Philippines, it is normal to have hired help. However, Garbes’s mother “‘didn’t want to be responsible for another person’” (48).

Garbes’s maternal grandmother, Lola Lily, raised a big family and pursued several jobs. Because Lola Lily worked, Garbes’s mother was “raised by women named Inga and Nata (49). Such women were fundamental parts of her life. It was difficult for Garbes to adjust to domestic help when she visited the Philippines. She considers now the...