Thanks to ICTs, The MTT (MulTi-Tasking) Mom Becomes Ubiquitous

This is surreal: I'm finishing my first post in the hospital as I watch over my 7-year-old daughter. She has been confined in the Asian Hospital for dengue fever symptoms, which turned out to be pneumonitis.

While attending to her for the past 3 days, I've brought my little HP laptop to keep me from worrying about her platelet count results and her cough. I brought no yaya as I feel no maid can ably take care of any child of mine who's sick.

From the time I taught my kids their ABCs, I quickly learned how to use mobile ICTs ( information and communication technologies ) to be the MTT Mom I expect myself to be.

What gives me conviction to do 'Mom on Mobile' is to share the real fruits of using today's ubiquitous technologies: letting us manage our multiple roles and tasks, 24 x 7x 365, to give us more time to enjoy the best role a woman could have: to be a mother and be with our kids, face-to-face, spending quality time during the most important and critical phases of their lives.

I am a real estate broker. I resumed life in Manila since June this year, after a 3.5 year stint in Singapore as trailing spouse. I'm finishing my dissertation for my online Masters in E-learning at Sheffield University and am setting up my realty marketing and development corporation. My laptop is my business-in-a-box--my research and business files are all here.

While watching the nurses administer antibiotic in the IV line, I send out my e-mails using the hospital room's phone line and type out the e-newsletters for sending out when we get back home. When my baby says, 'Mommy', I close my notebook and leave it all behind. No office work should ever interfere with mothering.

Bless the gadgets you can carry in your bag or in your car. I take photos w/ my old Nokia phone, beam it to either my Tungsten T2 or my computer. Others take out their wallets when showing the family pics; I prefer to take out 'Palmy', as I affectionately call my handheld organizer.

When I need to transfer files from one computer to another, either I beam it via the IR port, or use a Flash drive shaped like a vitamin to store a cabinet's worth of printouts in the other PC. And yes--I beam virtual business cards via my Palm or my mobile phone. It saves me when i run out of social or business cards.

While my daughter recovers from her virus, I access the internet to look at Yahooligans.com for her science report. I record a voice greeting from her and send the .wav file via e-mail to her best friend, Carren, who is in Singapore. Then as she wakes up, I play the DVD of "Sharkboy and Lava Girl", then out with the PC games. Then, when she's asleep, I fax out property proposals, download my realty updates and files from Ayala Land's broker's portal, then chat wth my friend in Singapore--all while I wait til my daughter needs me again.

When I lose my dial-up connection, I just go to a cafe with WIFI, then presto: instant broadband. I could have had a Voice over IP (VoIP) call w/ my Pinoy friend in Switzerland on the computer while sipping my favourite latte. But, hey, the power to work anytime, anywhere has to be balanced with the knowing your priorities when you gain access to the Net.

And for now, I can say. . .it's not excessive to be typing out your recipes, organizing your market list, or doing your home inventory on your computer, Palm or mobile phone. Then share how to do it on a blog with Moms and Dads around the world. Technology allows us to share what we know, and transform someone else's life with a nugget of shared experience.

My daughter's waking up now. She's ready to do her homework on 'HP', as she fondly calls my laptop.