A model, television host, and entrepreneur, Tricia Centenera is a woman who wears many hats. However, her most valuable one is easily the role of being a mother.
It became clear as soon as our team was welcomed into their beautiful abode. Coffee table books mixed with those of fairy tales, and marble paperweights sit next to a box of crayons. Paintings and sculptures decorate their space, but the most striking pieces are the ones taped to their glass windows. The artists? Little four-year-old Arabella, fondly called ‘Arrow’, and 2-year-old Zuri. Entering the Centenera-Santos residence doesn’t merely feel like a house, but rather, a home.
After moving to Manila from Australia back in 2010 to pursue her career in modeling and hosting, Tricia shares how she always knew she was going to be a mother, but was never really in a rush to get there. “Duane and I, when we had Arabella, I think I was 37/38 years old. And I mean, I can’t imagine having daughters with anybody else. I think about my past partners and I just think to myself, there was never a time where I thought that I would have babies with any of them,” she shares.
Now a mother of two, Tricia’s greatest priority nowadays is being present for her kids, a virtue she learned from them early on, explaining: “Things done slower are really done best,”. “It doesn’t matter how many trips or dinners or parties you go to, or how many handbags you have. Now I’m so comfortable saying no, thank you. I want to stay home with my children. And there’s nothing wrong with that. So they’ve actually helped me be somebody who can slow down and take things slower.”
The challenges of bringing up young girls in today’s society
When asked about the difficulties she has faced with raising young girls in today’s climate, Tricia shares: “I think the biggest challenge for me at the moment is just teaching my girls to believe in themselves. To trust their intuition and to trust their heart.”
With the rise of social media, multiple studies have shown its negative effects on children’s development, often leading to increased anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem when used on a regular basis.
“Once they’ve mastered that, believing and trusting themselves, I feel like that’s such a good foundation.” Tricia explains.
However, despite Tricia sharing these challenges, it’s quite plain to see how self-assured and confident her children are.
Before sitting down and speaking to the Aussie-native, her firstborn confidently sits down with us, seemingly ready to answer a few interview questions herself. When asked what her favourite thing is about being a girl, Arrow happily shares: “I like tying up my hair” and gestures to pulling her locks up into a ponytail. Before I’m able to proceed with my next question, she stops me to say: “I like your bracelet! I also like your ring!” I take a minute to collect myself before thanking her. I move on to my question with a bit more confidence than a few minutes before because after all, children are the most honest human beings.
Reflections on pregnancy
“I wish that I would have taken things slower.” Tricia tells LIFESTYLE.INQ when asked about what she would tell herself when she found out that she was pregnant. Pausing once in a while seemingly replaying memories in her head, Tricia shares how her children have taught her so much. She emphasizes how those moments are so fleeting, and how mothers should really take that time to relish every experience they encounter during the early stages of motherhood.
“The advice I always give my girlfriends who are expecting, and that’s to not stress out. I know it’s hard to tell a pregnant woman in the last few weeks of her pregnancy not to stress out with all the hormones raging through their body, but once the baby comes, I always say that something in you just clicks. I call it our “Mama Superpowers”. They just turn on. It’s interesting, but we are animals at the end of the day.”
A hands-on mother, it’s no surprise how Tricia’s circle of friends now religiously look to her for advice or guidance when it comes to raising their young kids. She continues: “Do what your instinct tells you to do. At the end of the day, your baby only needs you. That’s what I noticed. It didn’t matter if I was showered, it didn’t matter if I had brushed my teeth or anything like that. Arabella and Zuri just needed me to be there for them. So don’t worry about all these moms who bounce back and look so great. Because it doesn’t matter. When all the lights are turned off, it doesn’t matter.”
Raising multicultural children
Growing up in Australia with five siblings, Tricia fondly looked back on her upbringing, sharing how this has affected the way she and her partner raise Arabella and Zuri. Known for being an incredibly laid-back culture, another virtue rooted in her Aussie upbringing that she hopes to instill in them is independence. Using their daily routine of getting ready for the day as an example, she emphasizes how this is an integral part in helping their kids form their own identities.
“I travel a lot with them, especially during the pandemic, I would travel alone with them for three, four months at a time, and stay in Australia with no nannies. It would just be the three of us because Duane would stay here for work. They would do things like get their water bottles or put their plates in the sink and those kinds of things,” she notes.
Tricia continues: “As much as they have a nanny, I always remind them that she is there to help me. The nanny isn’t there to do everything. So I think that trying to get them to do those things from both worlds is what I’m really striving for.”
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On gentle and respectful parenting
When asked about how she found herself veering towards the gentle parenting style, Tricia grounds their decision on the fact that it’s the kind that works for them. Emphasizing how every child is different, she did plenty of research and sought advice from many of her friends with children before she even gave birth for the first time. “In this house, respectful and gentle parenting works well,” she explains. Further elaborating, Tricia says: “It just means putting yourself on their level. You’re not the boss of them, they’re not the boss of you. You figure things out together.”
A parenting style that is often considered wildly different from generations past, it is a road less traveled that Tricia believes has made a world of a difference. It is evident in the way her kids spoke to our team, and how they politely behaved around others. “I just want my kids to know that their parents did their best,” she tells us as we begin to wrap-up our interview.
As for what potentially lies ahead, Tricia shares with us how much she enjoys giving advice and bouncing ideas off her fellow mothers. Would the former host consider a comeback? We’ll have to wait and see. However, when it comes to the present, Tricia has learned a thing or two about relishing the moments right in front of you.
