It’s been a year since New Zealand held the elections that swept Jacinda Ardern into top office. At 37, she was the country’s youngest Prime Minister in 150 years, the youngest female leader anywhere in the world and with the arrival of her daughter in June, she became only the second world leader to give birth while in office.
And this week, another milestone.
The Labour Party leader took her three-month-old baby, Neve Te Aroha, to the United Nations; the first female world leader to bring an infant to a meeting of the General Assembly.
Baby Neve watched on from the lap of her father, fishing show host Clarke Gayford, as Prime Minister Ardern delivered a speech at the Nelson Mandela peace summit.
She then had kisses with her mum when the leader returned to her seat.
Gayford later tweeted a photograph of Neve's United Nations ID, which came complete with a photo and the very official title of "First Baby".
He also shared details of a rather awkward nappy change incident.
"I wish I could have captured the startled look on a Japanese delegation inside [the] UN yesterday who walked into a meeting room in the middle of a nappy change," he wrote. "Great yarn for her 21st."
Prime Minister Ardern, who is still breastfeeding, chose to bring Neve on the six-day trip, but has stressed that Gayford is travelling at the family's own expense.
“There is no spousal programme for this, so we just made a judgement call that we would cover his travel for this trip. He will be going to some things, but he’s primarily travelling to care for Neve,” she told The New Zealand Herald.
Whether or not he and Neve will attend any official functions with Prime Minister Ardern in New York depends, she said, on "what the jet lag does to them both".
“She’s a good sleeper and we don’t know whether that will mean she ends up sleeping a lot in the day rather than the night,” she said.
Speaking during a panel discussion at Unicef’s social good summit in New York this week, Prime Minister Ardern noted that she is in a privileged position that allows her to raise a child and maintain a high-level job.
“I have the ability to take my child to work, there’s not many places you can do that. I am not the gold standard for bringing up a child in this current environment because there are things about my circumstances that are not the same,” Ardern said.
“If I can do one thing, and that is change the way we think about these things, then I will pleased we have achieved something."
Top Comments
With the risk of having people jump all over me for asking, why was the baby in the meeting? It doesn't appear that Mum needed to breast feed, so why the need to have the child present? Moves like this can be counterproductive to people wanting to establish more flexible, accommodating workplaces by taking things to extremes. Not everyone is going to be supportive of the notion that babies and kids can be brought into a work environment when there is no practical need for them to be there.
How is it "extreme" to have a baby sit in her father's arms while her mother gives a speech? Who was she bothering? Is there something that Ardern could have done without Neve there that she failed to do because she was there? It doesn't seem like it.
The more we see people bringing their kids into the workplace where possible, the more comfortable our wider society will become with the idea.
Look at the people around her. They're all cooing and looking at the baby. Frankly, I'd hate it if all my work colleagues brought in their babies and children - if I wanted to work in the chaos that is a creche, I would have been a childcare worker, or I could set up a home office in the kitchen of any given friend with a house full of screaming kids. I'm supportive of the idea of having areas for child care and breast feeding in workplaces, but I have no wish to integrate the presence of children into an adult workspace. If they're not feeding, it's not necessary for the children to be there, and they are a potentially disruptive factor. Ardern's child was but one - imagine if all the parents in that meeting had their kids there.
That's what I mean by "extremes". Given the choice between total integration, or none at all, I'd support the latter. A more reasonable approach is to push for dedicated spaces and flexibility for parents, but not the expectation that kids have an all-access pass to work places. Forcing the matter onto people won't make them supportive or comfortable with the idea, but it may well turn them against you.
Incidentally, I also see no reason to have one's partner in attendance, either (am aware this is a convention at such meetings: JBish brought her man bag along in the past too). Is the UN running a "bring your spouse to work" initiative?
There is absolutely no reason for children to be in a workplace. It is just that, a work place, not a creche. Employees are paid to do a job and it is unfair to both the employer and other employees bringing your baby/toddler to work. No doubt, Australia being a 'nanny state', the poor old employer would have to implement a raft of health and safety measure to provide a 'safe' environment for said children.