High cost of living is squeezing East Coast whānau, local midwife says

Ngāti Porou Hauora midwife Kaniwa Kupenga-Tamarama. Photo / Whakaata Māori

A parenting survey shows managing the family and household is the greatest source of stress for parents in the current economic climate.

The State of the Nation Parenting Survey by health insurer Nib New Zealand shows how the rising cost of living is shaping parenting.

Some 62 per cent of parents surveyed said the rising cost of living affected their ability to bring up children.

Māori - at 72 per cent - reported they were feeling the crunch to a greater degree and to make ends meet, they were reducing spending and were more often going without essentials, including meals and petrol (23 per cent), compared to 11 per cent for Pākehā.

Ngāti Porou Hauora midwife Kaniwa Kupenga-Tamarama believes the pressure on whānau in Te Tai Rāwhiti is particularly hard.

“With rising costs you will have to get a second job, less time with your tamariki, and [it will be] stressful living at home. I don’t want to say that this is true but it is a reality. Probably going to see more domestic violence too,” she says.

“We probably have to return to the ways of our tūpuna, getting back to our whenua, growing vege gardens, learning how to hunt and fish.”

Kupenga-Tamara points to the fact that rising costs are pushing whānau out of the cities and back to rural areas as well.

“But that’s good, right. We want more people, people with skills. But how do we go about that with the housing shortages or the long wait for houses? It’s all right to live in a tent over summer when it’s not raining. But when winter comes, what then?”

The fourth annual parenting survey by Nib New Zealand and global research company, One Picture, canvassed the views of 1226 parents, step-parents and guardians of children under 18 nationally.

• Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air.