Jacinda Ardern on life after politics and her new book Mum’s Busy Work

Jacinda Ardern became a mum in the most extraordinary of circumstances. Photo / NZ Woman's Weekly

Once upon a time, it was a briefcase that travelled everywhere with Dame Jacinda Ardern. Packed with papers and letters that would shape New Zealand, it also dictated how she spent her weekends. Now, almost three years since stepping back as Prime Minister, her life allows more time for what matters most to her: being a mum to Neve.

Propped up against a bedhead from an Airbnb in London, earpods in and with a big – if not slightly weary – smile, Ardern beams into the Weekly’s office via Zoom, here to talk about her latest book, Mum’s Busy Work.

“I’m good – it’s been a busy day,” she says, laughing and apologising for where the interview is taking place. “I’ve been doing work for the Earthshot prize, and we did a virtual press conference, a webinar and I spent a little time with the Prime Minister of Barbados. So it’s been a busy but a great day.”

Known the world over for her leadership response that spanned a volcanic eruption, a devastating terrorist attack and a global pandemic, Ardern is well-placed to appreciate the sleepless nights, the daily juggle and the emotional highs and lows of parenting – and to write a book about it.

Its pages take a small family through the days of the week and the moments that shape them – leaving for work early, dirty laundry, daycare and a weekend picnic. But it is perhaps the Sunday that most reflects the reality of running a country while raising a small child because that’s the day the very large briefcase comes out and mum begins her “busy work”. Her job? To look after other people, just like her daughter.

Ardern needed to be prepared for Monday’s briefing, sign correspondence and read through a raft of papers. She saved the best for last – a purple folder filled with letters from children. She answered each and every one.

“It was always my joyful folder,” she says, adding that she often needed to start ploughing through the briefcase on a Friday night to get through it all.

Ultimately, Mum’s Busy Work is an aspirational book with a key message. “It doesn’t matter what we go and do in those days, the most important thing for us will always be our kids,” Ardern explains.

And while the book’s pages, illustrated by Ruby Jones, are aimed at children, they’re not its only target audience. “I hope parents feel reassured in just reading the story, that time is not the best measure of what matters the most,” she says, adding this is something she struggled with.

Jacinda Ardern with Clarke Gayford and their daughter Neve Te Aroha Ardern Gayford. Photo / Getty Images

“So much of my time went into a role that was incredibly important and it will forever be the privilege of my lifetime, but it was a large chunk of time in my day and I didn’t want to diminish how important my daughter was to me as well. Time is not the best measure, nor is it the only measure.”

While Ardern has much in common with everyday mums and dads – including those Instagram-famous birthday cakes that she alternates making with Clarke each year for Neve’s birthday – the reality is that she became a mum in the most extraordinary of circumstances. As the world’s youngest woman elected to office and only the second woman in office to give birth, she was very much in the spotlight.

While heavily pregnant, Ardern graced the halls of Buckingham Palace for the opening session of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. During that visit and hoping for some wise words about being a mum when all eyes are on you and with an intense workload, she turned to the late Queen Elizabeth for advice.

Jacinda Ardern turned to the late Queen Elizabeth for motherhood advice. Photo / Getty Images

“She said, ‘You just get on with it’,” says Ardern. “She just happened to get on with it in a very graceful way.”

Days after baby Neve’s arrival, her proud parents presented her to the country with a press conference.

“I had to make sure I was presentable enough, pull myself together a little, that I looked normal enough when I walked, which is something I hadn’t really tested, particularly as I’d stayed in a 15sq m space for the three days prior. I was a little nervous about that,” Ardern explains. “Neve was also a little unsettled, so we needed to manage that. So actually, the big moments became the small moments.”

And in sharing these moments, Ardern took the country along with her – and she very much felt the love in return.

“Neve is called Neve Te Aroha, the love, the love, because there was a dual meaning. Both my parents were born there [Te Aroha], it’s our maunga, but it felt like the best representation of how we felt,” she says of introducing her to the country.

On their shelves now is a large book filled with messages from people all around New Zealand. She wants her now 7-year-old daughter to “know, understand and appreciate the care and love that was there”, Ardern says. “We also desperately want for her to be her own person, too. It’s been hard trying to figure out how to do both of these things.”

The former Prime Minister says she couldn’t have returned to work six weeks after having Neve without the "village" around her. Photo / NZ Woman's Weekly

She says she has never lost those feelings of love she experienced from the country in the early days of motherhood, but insists she couldn’t have returned to work six weeks after having Neve without the “village” around her.

“For the most part, Clarke was the primary caregiver, but he still had a [TV] show and he would have to film,” Ardern, 45, says. “So when he was doing that, it was either my mother, his mother or Neve’s godmother who would care for her. And from time to time, it would be my cousin or my sister. We were very lucky to have those people consistent in our lives – but there’s a special appreciation of our mothers.

“People often ask me, ‘When you became a mother, did it change the way you did your job, or the kinds of policies you focused on?’ And in some ways, no, because I had always been interested in children’s policies, and I’d always tried to prioritise it. But one thing it did make me focus on a lot more was our solo mothers, because I had a greater appreciation, because I wasn’t doing it alone.

“Support and a sense of security come from knowing there are people you can call on.”

But for now, since stepping away from politics in January 2023, Ardern is filling her days with projects important to her.

She works with Prince William, who shares a birthday with Neve and to whom he sent a Buzzy Bee on her first birthday, on the global environmental Earthshot Prize.

Since stepping away from politics in January 2023, Jacinda Ardern has been filling her days with projects important to her. Photo / NZ Woman's Weekly

“I wanted to be around that kind of innovation and optimism and to be a part of a platform for that because there’s a lot to be disheartened by, especially in the climate space,” Ardern says.

Her other work includes a fellowship with Conservation International, which she recently finished, and a fellowship in empathetic leadership and politics. She is still the patron for the Christchurch Call To Action as well as other roles supporting women’s health and wellbeing.

It seems Ardern is still incredibly busy – but those Sunday nights?

“It’s completely different,” she smiles. “Then, things just had to be done. You couldn’t say, ‘I’m tired tonight’, or ‘I’ll do that another time’. It was part of the schedule and you’d work around it. Now, I prioritise in a different way, like having dinner with my family, or making dinner for my family.”

Sometimes, they’ll watch a movie together.

“We’re going through a phase of being like, ‘Oh, why don’t we watch that film we used to like when we were younger?’ But some of them you can’t go too early with,” Ardern laughs. “Like The Princess Bride – I forgot about the swamp rats!”

She also, fittingly for a children’s book author, reads to Neve each night.

It’s an activity close to Ardern’s heart. She grew up loving choose-your-own adventure books as well as Nancy Drew and The Babysitter’s Club, and says the gift of reading, “opens up the world for children. You see it in a way you forget about or take for granted, but it’s also the ability to escape that it provides”.

These days, while she still needs to read serious books such as those about violent online extremism, there’s also room for novels. On her nightstand right now are Gabrielle Zevin’s Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, and before that, A Beautiful Family by New Zealand author Jennifer Trevelyan.

But despite the massive life changes as she traverses new adventures and achievements, with Clarke and Neve by her side – and without that all-important briefcase – Ardern can’t help but admit with a twinkle in her eye, “I still tend to work in the evenings…”

Mum’s Busy Work by Jacinda Ardern. Photo / NZ Woman's Weekly

Mum’s Busy Work by Jacinda Ardern, (PenguinRandom House, $30).