CIARA SOTTO:  MOTHERHOOD  CAN  WAIT


[PHOTO AT LEFT - Ciara Sotto: Better to enjoy your partner’s company first]

MANILA, JANUARY 17, 2010 (STAR) By Maridol Rañoa-Bismark - Ciara Sotto and Joe Oconer will refrain from splurging on “unnecessary expenses” after they tie the knot today at Manila Polo Club.

Interviewed at the premiere showing of her upcoming film, SpEd Hearts a week before her wedding, Ciara said she and Joe are planning to postpone their grand honeymoon and save for the condominium unit they will stay in instead.

“We can just do that after the (May) elections,” says Ciara, whose father Tito, is seeking re-election as a senator.

Motherhood can also wait for Ciara until a year after their wedding.

“It’s better to enjoy your partner’s company first,” she explains. “Your focus will become different once you have kids.”

Once she becomes a mom, Ciara wants to be just like her mother, Helen Gamboa, who is hands-on when it comes to her children.

Until motherhood comes along, Ciara is content enjoying the company of children, whom she says she loves being around with.

“Even if I’m older than they are, children feel they’re my age when I’m with them,” says Ciara.

She enjoyed working with her kiddie co-stars in SpED Hearts, where she plays a special education teacher in a small Montessori school in Manila.

“My role helps bring across the message that you should be patient with (special) children, you should understand them, treat them the way you would normal kids,” relates Ciara.

She adds that the experience of being around children will also serve her well as a future mother. As it is, the children she is taking care of are nieces and nephews in their growing household.

Besides the kiddie factor, Ciara said she accepted the role in SpED Hearts because, “I was working with old teachers from my alma mater, OB Montessori.”

The director, Felbert Go, wrote the story based on his experience as a special education teacher in OB Montessori. He hopes that the film will raise awareness about special children and make people realize that “if they can cope with their problems, how much more us, who don’t have their condition?”

The film will not be Ciara’s last. She has her future husband’s blessings to continue her showbiz career after marriage.

“He knows that this is what I love to do, in the same way that I know that he loves his job. That’s why we support each other. We won’t change our respective jobs just because we’re married,” states Ciara.

Neither will marriage change her relationship with her mom, who seems to be having a hard time parting with her youngest daughter. Helen always becomes tearful when interviewed about the wedding.

“I don’t think my mom’s crying will stop anytime soon,” observes Ciara. “So I keep telling her I’ll love her even more because I will go through the pain and hardships she endured for us. I will also be a wife and mother. The only difference is I don’t live with her anymore.”

As Ciara told her Ate Sharon, Joe is the man is sure she can’t live without. He has passed the test with flying colors, and Ciara is sure she’s not committing a mistake.

Her sparkling eyes and wide, wide smile tell the rest of the story.