Ardern: I chose a political life, she didn’t
Jacinda Ardern is used to the spotlight. She had a baby in the full glare of the world’s media, after all. But as she takes back the prime ministerial reins after six weeks of maternity leave, the spotlight is getting brighter.
She spent her first day back at work yesterday speaking to an endless parade of media at the Auckland bungalow she shares with partner Clarke Gayford – a different team on the half hour, every half hour, from 10am until after 4pm.
In one of the first interviews she’s given since she left for maternity leave, the Prime Minister admits it’s also the second time in six weeks she’s worn makeup.
Apart from a few trips to the nearby Sandringham shops, they’ve not left the house much.
A bearded Gayford says he’s been doing the nights with baby Neve, but he looks pretty good for it. I tell him about my colleague at Stuff whose son was born in the same hospital three days after Neve and whose face lights up with joy every time I ask him about it. Gayford admits to being similarly besotted.
Ardern is absent while we set up cameras and lights, and then suddenly appears with Neve in her arms. This is a bit of a surprise. We didn’t expect Gayford or Neve to be present. There’s a flurry of excitement as a result – even the hardest of hearts in the room are melting and a couple of us (not saying who) are a bit teary. Neve is not to be filmed, but we’re allowed to meet her and admire.
You should never, ever turn up to visit a breastfeeding mother without bringing food, so I hand over the energy balls I made after Googling ‘‘snacks for nursing mothers’’ and Ardern is politely enthusiastic.
She talks about the lactation cookies her mum’s been making for her, which she’s sure are ‘‘actually just chocolate chip with a teaspoon of yeast’’. While we’re on the subject of breastfeeding, which the Prime Minister describes, laughing, with a loud ‘‘ouch’’, I ask whether she’ll breastfeed at Parliament.
‘‘The difference for me is that unlike a lot of other Members of Parliament who spend a number of hours in the debating chamber, I tend to be down there for question time. It means it’s actually much more manageable for me to not be in a position of having to do that in the House.’’
She agrees that, of course, a picture of a prime minister nursing her baby in the parliamentary chamber would make the international front pages. Would she do it if she had to?
‘‘If I had to, absolutely, in the same way that other women have.’’
Going back to work for real means going back to Wellington and leaving the warm little bubble the three have enjoyed in their first weeks together. Ardern tells me Premier House has a baby room set up, but that she didn’t have a hand in the decorating.
‘‘I’ve just called on friends and the parent community and we’ve got second-hand stuff in both places because it’s easily done, there’re a lot of people who want to palm off their furniture and change-tables to the lucky recipients.’’
The family will be moving to Wellington as a unit and Ardern is looking forward to having the company. Premier House is a big place for just one person, she says, and she’s spent a lot of time since the Government was formed closed away in a small corner of it with official papers on midweek nights.
They will be travelling together as a family, too, starting with New York in September. Baby Neve will be three months old when she makes her first appearance at the United Nations, where her mother is due to speak.
‘‘Perhaps fittingly, very much the programme for that is focused on things like women, children and climate change – very strong themes in those areas.’’
Ardern is keen to reassure that the roles of mother and prime minister can be handled with equal focus. She returns to this point several times in the few minutes we’ve been allocated.
‘‘Through all of this, it’s been about how do we meet Neve’s interests, but make sure that I’m not compromising in the way that I’m doing my job as well.’’
Like any new family, they want to stay together as much as possible. That means Neve will be with her mum as the Prime Minister goes about official duties. Until now, apart from a couple of photo calls and social media posts, the baby has been kept away from the spotlight. How will those competing interests be managed?
‘‘We’re both very conscious of her privacy. I chose a political life, she didn’t. But at the same time, I recognise there’s an interest.
‘‘But I’m a mum, and I want to be a mum who has my family around me, so when I’m going to local events, I’ll have my family with me. When I’m down at Parliament, you’ll see me doing my job, by myself, the same way I have before and at the same time trying to make sure she’s not caught in the limelight too much.’’
Ardern thinks – hopes – the respect shown the past six weeks by the public and media will continue.
‘‘I accept that when I’m out and about and my family is with me, that we are in a public environment . . . but I also hope there will be that acknowledgment that we are a family trying to live a Kiwi life.’’
Is she ready for the inevitable public judging of her parenting?
‘‘Every parent talks about that. They talk about the guilt, the judgment, worrying about whether everyone’s seen their child has a pacifier in their mouth. That’s completely normal.
‘‘I think every parent feels judged, or worries about feeling judged. I just happen to be in a much more public position where perhaps that might be a little more open for people to see.
‘‘I’m not actually particularly worried about it. I think we just have to do the best we can, feel like we’re doing the best we can, and just shake off the judgment in the same way I do the political judgment.’’
‘‘Through all of this it’s been about how do we meet Neve’s interests, but make sure that I’m not compromising in the way that I’m doing my job as well.’’
Jacinda Ardern