Opinion: Jacinda Ardern represents the new generation

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and her partner Clarke Gayford at home in Auckland after announcing that they are having a baby. Photo/File

I used to get exhausted just watching this young mother. I was doing a short term contract in Wellington staying at my cousin's house. She was a house guest too with her 18-month-old son.

She worked as a management consultant, juggling fulltime work commitments and looking after her beautiful little boy. They would leave the house before me in the morning at 6.45am returning at night around 7pm. After dinner, bathing and putting her son to bed she would spend another three or four hours doing work she brought home from the office. The next day the same routine. I doubt whether I could have kept up her busy schedule for more than a couple of days.

I know the international group she was working for at the time. They have the reputation for delivering high quality work but are known to be very demanding of their staff. They expect total commitment and loyalty from their workforce. They probably didn't even know one of their team was a mother. Over the years this organisation has often been brought in to assist in developing business cases and projects I have been involved with. Their specialist work teams are made up of young high achievers. Those who are prepared to do the crazy hours because they want the work experience, want to be able to say "I work for this international company". Know they can travel the world, and secure a position, because of its reputation and standing in the international business community. Making partner is the ultimate lifetime work achievement for some.

I remember we would finish our meetings in the evening and at 8 o'clock the next morning the young analysts would have prepared a summary of the previous day's discussions for us to review. Options would have been explored and developed including financials. We would have a set of recommendations to consider. I presume they went home to sleep. But it wouldn't have been for long.

This young mother just got on with it and did her job. There would have been no work slippage on her part. She now owns her own consultancy, has cornered the market in her speciality area and is a sought-after key note speaker at international business conferences. I spent a few days over the holidays with her "little boy". He is now a charming young man who leaves next week to spend 12 months at a public school in the United Kingdom.

Our Prime Minister is right. It's been done before. Women juggling work and child care commitments. The only difference is this time it's our Prime Minister who is pregnant while holding the top job. You just have to be super organised. And I suspect Jacinda Ardern is. By the time the baby arrives, she and her partner will have all bases covered. She has the resources, a loving partner, committed family and supportive friends who will be there to help if needed. What she doesn't need is the negative claptrap starting to emerge.

"If she knew before the election she should have told the voters. She's not married, how's that going to look on the international stage? The job's too important to do part-time. The baby won't have the benefit of a stay at home mother. She should step down and take advantage of paid parental leave. Not another baby in the House. It's all Winston's fault."

Our Prime Minister represents another generation. This is their world too. This is their time. And guess what? They'll do us proud. They think differently to their parents' and their grandparents' generation. But they are no less caring. I believe they want the best for themselves, their children, other families and their country. It's hard when you're used to another way, the old ways. We knew what was expected and conformed. Often taking the path of least resistance.

I marvel at young people today. They don't see things strictly as black and white and they are not prepared to let others instruct them on how they should live their lives. They want to work things out for themselves, shunning negative thinkers. They know they will cope and like everyone before them they will do the best they can. They are a generation moving towards the light.

Merepeka Raukawa-Tait is a Rotorua district councillor, Lakes District Health Board member and chairs the North Island Whanau Ora Commissioning Agency. She writes, speaks and broadcasts to thwart political correctness.