Vaughan Gunson: PM's baby news muddies the column-writing waters

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern with partner Clarke Gayford after announcing they are expecting a baby.

Jacinda Ardern's and Clarke Gayford's baby announcement has had me feeling very conflicted, as I've had to weigh up so many different columns I could write this week.

There's the tinge-of-national-pride column, because it's pretty cool to have a prime minister who'll be only the second woman to have a baby while in office. There must be an element of collective good karma in this; giving us some claim to living in an enlightened nation.

Then there's Ardern as the anti-Trump, which is bit like how the force works in Star Wars: when a power on the dark side emerges, a corresponding force on the side of the light also arises.

The global media are clearly looking for the anti-Trump, the political leader who embodies all the values Trump lacks. Cue images of Ardern as Rey with a baby on her hip battling Trump as Kylo Ren. Though perhaps this column would have gone too far into mythic gobbledygook.

There might have been the column which contrasted the stories of male sexual predation coming out of Hollywood with the story of Gayford's willingness to embrace the role of stay-at-home dad, providing us men with some welcome evidence that we're not all bad.

And I could have used my column space to offer handy tips to Gayford and other stay-at-home dads, given that I have some experience of this.

The main point would probably have been to not get down on yourself when society, subtlety and not so subtlety, gives you the message that working and earning money has more status than being a stay-at-home parent.

Be prepared for the little jokes and patronising comments from men who work, which might strain friendships. Not working for money is still generally frowned upon. Women who stay at home with their children will understand this as well.

I could have written at length about how the media is dominated by the voices of the middle class. It's middle-class women with six-figure salaries who've been prominent in the media congratulating the Prime Minister and claiming the baby announcement as a breakthrough.

And so it is, but there's a yawning gap between the experience of women on big salaries and most other working women. Don't let's pretend that parenting when one spouse earns $470,000 - as the Prime Minister does - is the same as doing it when money's tight, and you're worried about meeting your next rent or mortgage payment.

The Prime Minister would be wise to not make too much of this working mum thing, and keep her focus on leading a Government that reduces inequality and makes housing affordable again.

And finally, I quite fancied a column about what some people who've been publicly congratulating Ardern and Gayford were really thinking.

Like, for instance, National Party MPs, who'll be collectively crying on the inside knowing that Ardern as superwoman and international feminist icon will be worth at least a few more percentage points in the polls for Labour.

And then, of course, there's Winston Peters, who's thinking, "Yippee, I get to be Prime Minister!"