‘Because she was a Mum’
What did New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern do this week that won hearts around the world once more. A random act of helpfulness to a fellow mum.
When a woman waiting in a queue with her at a supermarket, with two kids in tow, realised she had forgotten her wallet, the New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern who happened to be in the same line, stepped in to pay for her, so that the woman wouldn’t have to leave without her groceries.
Later, when Jacinda Ardern was asked why she did that, she said, “Because she was a Mum”.
According to the local news portal Stuff, the mother had written on Facebook: “Just when you think Jacinda Ardern couldn’t get any more lovely, low key and authentic.... she goes and pays for your groceries at the supermarket, because you’ve got your shopping, have two kids with you and are about to put it all back as you forgot your wallet”. The post has however since been deleted.
It’s not like we needed any more reasons to love the Prime Minister of the faraway island nation, New Zealand. Jacinda Ardern won hearts around the world with her exemplary response to the terror attacks at two mosques in Christchurch on March 15. But she had our attention even before that.
Bringing her infant daughter to the United Nations General Assembly last year, Ardern was one of the few world leaders, who gave birth during her tenure in office. She spoke openly about breastfeeding to normalise conversations about women, motherhood, the workplace and leadership.
Jacinda Ardern reminds women that it is okay to be entirely who they are. World leaders all over the globe were moved by her spontaneous and thoroughly human reaction to a terror attack that was targeted at New Zealand’s Muslim community. Of New Zealand’s Muslim community Ardern had said, “They Are Us’’ as she wore a headscarf as a sign of respect.
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