Cough-cough. Look I appreciate the country has baby brain, but what about that housing affordability and inequality eh?

Forget the idea that new Mums have ‘baby brain’, I think the country has baby brain.

I’m not talking about the roars of dinosaurs who don’t comprehend that they are extinct yet brain farting out crude stereotypes of how women shouldn’t wear hemlines above their ankles or be pregnant while in charge of the country, I’m talking about the bizarre cultural gag reflex that has kicked into place with a frightening familiarity of those wishing to maximise the cultural symbolism of the pregnancy of an unwed woman  to a stay at home Dad that has erupted like small pox on social media.

Jacinda has babysat my daughter and I know Clarke from when we worked together on Channel Z as DJs in the late 1990s. I’d say proximity wise I’m far closer to the both of them than the majority of those on Twitter, yet not even I would dare to feel like I have the prerogative, audacity or arrogance to advice them on parenthood or suddenly start knitting booties for them!

The creepy way everyone has suddenly involved themselves in this pregnancy is proof positive of the weird cult of Motherhood which straightjackets so many women and ultimately mutates their own self worth with a hyper harsh judgmental criticism is in full effect and suddenly everyone feels like they have a right to be part of this very private and personal moment.

Ugh.

Fatherhood is in now way worshipped with the same frenzied evangelical gushing that has swamped social media recently and while all this hyper emotional gushing would normally just be a bit of harmless fun, there is a danger.

The danger is that our devotion to the cult of Motherhood blinds us to the far more important and far more pressing issues that we demanded this new Government fix.

• The latest housing affordability stats are a depressing reminder that even while the market ‘cools’ and that it’s a ‘buyers market’ (let me pause writing until I stop laughing uncontrollably at the idea a million dollar trash dump is being described as a ‘buyers market’) more and more NZers are being locked out of home ownership.
• The latest Oxfam report on inequality shows the richest 1% of NZers now own almost 30% of the wealth is a reminder that those on the bottom are once again being left behind by an economic system designed to benefit the wealthy and punish the poor. 
• The fact that Treasury screwed up the actual numbers who of children to be lifted out of poverty.
• The fact that the extra $50 a week to students has simply been handed immediately over to exploitative landlords. 
• Our neoliberal welfare state is broken and causes more damage than it fixes.

National are privately screaming that their New Year attack plan to target Jacinda as incompetent and inexperienced are now in tatters because of her pregnancy, and they must now rely on filibuster tactics inside the legislative process and attacking Unions to gain their political traction, but the cult of Motherhood enthralment also hurts those wishing to push the new Government on issues we voted them into fix.

Growing inequality and housing affordability are more important than a single baby and we’ve already seen policy that was supposed to start fixing these issues have had their numbers overcooked and in the case of the $50 a week student allowance, actually become counter productive!

I’m not negging on babies or new mums, but Jesus Christ folks, let’s put the cult of Motherhood to one side and keep focusing on the things that matter. Knit the booties if you must, but let’s not pretend those booties are anything more than a diversion to far bigger issues.

It’s not about Jacinda and Clarke’s baby, it’s about every baby being born.