There’s not a parent on earth who doesn’t blame their child’s more ‘challenging’ traits on the other parent and it turns out that Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is no different.
In an interview with Australian journalist Lisa Wilkinson from The Sunday Project Ardern revealed that one-year-old daughter Neve is not only cheeky, but “very strong willed”.
And in her trademark diplomatic way, while she took some of the ‘responsibility’ for her daughter’s assertiveness, she also made sure dad Clarke Gayford, who is Neve’s main caregiver, was attributed – there’s “quite a lot of Dad” there she made sure to laughingly point out.
It’s not the first time the Prime Minister has mentioned Neve is no pushover.
In an interview earlier this year with Now To Love and NEXT magazine Ardern said that a then eight-month-old Neve was proving to be a “real character”.
“She’s only going on eight months and she already has some real spunk,” Ardern laughed. “She’s a real character… she certainly lets us know her feelings and emotions.”
Watch the video, below, to hear Jacinda Ardern talk about baby Neve.
Glimpses of New Zealand’s First Baby have been reasonably rare since Neve was introduced to “the village” three days after her birth on June 22, 2018.
After Neve’s introduction we didn’t see her again until she attended the United Nations General Assembly at four months old, making global headlines as the first baby to do so.
However, Ardern has delighted the New Zealand public when she has shared family moments.
On Neve”s first birthday Ardern took to social media to proudly show off the birthday cake she’d made for Neve.
“I may be smiling but about an hour earlier I was not enjoying the first birthday cake making experience (like just about every parent I know!),” she captioned the photo.
“I recommend cakes that you can legitimately cover in coconut – it hides almost everything. Happy Birthday wee Neve!”
We were also treated to a pretty cute post before she started making the cake:
“Doing what so many parents have done before me. Waited till baby was in bed before trying to magic up a passable cake for the big first birthday. Wish me luck.”
She thanked the many, many people who have “wished our family well”, sent knitted goods or passed on parenting advice in the past year.
“It truly takes a village (and someone in said village may get a call if I don’t sort this cake!)”
Clarke Gayford cradles a sleeping four-month-old Neve at the United Nations General Assembly in 2018.
Ardern has steadfastly maintained that she is “no superwoman” when it comes to juggling motherhood with her role as Prime Minister.
She told Wilkinson, “No one needs to see anyone pretending it’s easy because it’s not and so I’m not going to go around pretending I do everything. I’m not. It’s hard and women who are both working and raising children deserve to have help and support and so we shouldn’t pretend it can be done alone.”
Ardern willingly opens up about “mother guilt”.
In the video, above, Ardern admits, “Mother guilt – it’s a thing and no matter how good your work excuse is – and mine’s pretty good – it will always exist. But none of us are superhuman and none of us should feel like we’re obliged to be superhuman, we can only do our best.”
She said, “There’s a handful of roles that you’re always going to feel, one day to the next ,that you haven’t got the balance quite right and I think motherhood is one of them… no matter what role [job] you have there will always be that feeling of wanting to have done more or less.
“I just hope though that I at least spend enough time and feel content at the end of Neve’s childhood to have thought that I was around and I was there for the important moments and she felt like I was there.
“I’m no different to anyone else. I get all those same feelings and emotions that all mums feel.”
