Warrior Mums

If You Find Yourself Asking What You’ve Learned From Your Mother, We Bet That Your Answers Can Be Multiple Pages Long, So in Line With Mother’s Day, We Made a List of Our Own. Here Are the 45 Things We Picked Up From Our #femalecoolmums From Different Walks of Life.

- Vasenta Selvanayagam

THE SECOND-TIME MUM-TO-BE SITI HARIYANTI SARBINI, 34

While most women might feel uncomfortable about revealing why their past relationships didn’t work out, Siti tells me her story openly because she believes that it has moulded her into who she is today. “It was because my ex-husband and I had a 29-year age gap; he wanted to relax but I was at the peak of my career and wanted to achieve my goals,” she shares. “I left my daughter, Maryam Ridhwani, behind with my ex-husband when she was four and decided to pursue my career as a flight attendant with Qatar Airways for four years but in 2016, I quit my job. I came back to Kuala Lumpur, got married to my best friend and am now expecting my second child.”

Lessons we learnt from Siti:

1. Let go and let things happen naturally “Even though Maryam is only nine years old, I’ve never forced her to call her stepdad ‘dad’. I believe that by giving her this freedom, she’ll have the confidence to make her own decisions when she grows up.”

2. Take the effort to make time for things that spark joy “Since young, I’ve loved makeup and today, I’m proud to pursue my interest as a part-time makeup artist. I mastered this skill by watching professionals work it on YouTube. The joy lies in seeing how a blank ‘canvas’ gets transformed into something beautiful.”

3. Never take things for granted “Motherhood taught me to separate my money into long and short-term investments. I have friends who can’t leave their jobs because they don’t have enough savings or can’t let go of the high life.”