Raising Kids in Ateneoville

When Ateneoville was being built, I was excited when Joel, my then-boyfriend, told me about it. We had been a couple for four years and with the prospect of getting a house, it now seemed a good time for us to get married. The houses were neatly built but more than that, when I saw the neighborhood and learned who were living there, I felt that my vision of my future family life could be fulfilled.

 Some of my favorite books when I was growing up were Beverly Cleary’s books about the kids Henry, Beezus, and Ramona living on Klickitat Street. They ran back and forth between each other’s houses to play and have delightful domestic adventures with little adult supervision. It was quite a contrast to my own childhood in an old neighborhood close to a busy main road in Quezon City. We grew up within closed walls. Even if I had been allowed out, I would have had no friends to run to. Our neighbors were all old and had grown children.

 
As for my second, once he started grade school, he ran around with a bunch of boys a couple of years older than himself, brandishing plastic weapons when they weren’t playing video games at each other’s houses. We charged his barkada with his care, since our son was the youngest among them. Despite their rowdiness, they did look after him, and wouldn’t let him play games that we thought he wasn’t yet ready for.
 
My youngest, shyer than the others, is fortunate to have two boys close to his age living on our street, especially since he often felt left out when his kuya was off with the older boys. On the playground, he met other kids and with gentle prodding grew at ease playing with them.
 
Even during the quarantine, they have other company besides each other, calling over the neighboring wall or from the windows of their houses or passing them on the street when they’re out for exercise. Not even a pandemic can change the warm character of our neighborhood. My vision of a blissful childhood for them has been fulfilled here.
 
(Note: Ateneoville Subdivision in Nangka, Marikina City is a faculty housing project of Ateneo de Manila University.  It was in 2004 that the first batch of homeowners moved in.  The Ateneoville Homeowners Association, Inc. welcomed the latest batch in January 2021.)

Ateneoville Multipurpose Hall

Ateneoville Guard House

Raissa is a Palanca award winning author of children's and young adult works. Her novel Woman in a Frame was nominated for the National Book Award and her most recent book is "Virtual Centre and Other Science Fiction Stories" published by Penguin SEA. Joel is an English teacher in the Ateneo JHS and a Psychology graduate student. He and Raissa have been married for 15 years and have lived in Ateneoville for 14 of those years. Their children are now twelve, eight, and five years old.