Image: aufeminin/Instagram
We have previously seen Canadian and Australian MPs bringing their babies to the parliament chamber and breastfeeding them. Many women politicians have chosen to take their newborn with them to governing bodies such as the New Zealand Labour MP, Willow-Jean Prime; the Australian MP, Ellen Sandell, and the former MP from Iceland, Unnur Bra Konraosdottir. These are just a few among many others. It’s important to know that some of these women were even kicked out of parliament for attempting to breastfeed their babies. Do you see a pattern here? All of them were women who had to fight their own battles with varying repercussions. But this is a first when the New Zealand house speaker, a man, bringing a newborn to the parliament debate made big news. While the Canadian MP Larissa Waters had to change the rule to even allow them to take infants to the parliament chambers, it’s encouraging to see men doing something similar and supporting the move.
Trevor Mallard Rocking The Baby To Sleep
Photos of the house speaker, Trevor Mallard cradling a colleague’s baby and feeding him have gone viral and have drawn praise online. Trevor Mallard, who is a speaker in New Zealand’s House of Representatives shared a photo of him feeding the baby on his social media page. He was babysitting his colleague and MP, Tamati Coffey’s newborn son who had just returned from paternity leave.
Trevor captioned the photo saying that the Speaker’s chair is normally used by presiding officers, but it was taken by a VIP that day. He also congratulated Tamati Coffey and Tim on the addition of the newest member to their family.
Image: Twitter
The picture posted by the house speaker was shared and liked numerous times by many social media users. Many hailed Mr. Trevor on babysitting the little one while also filling in his role as a speaker. It’s amazing to see that even men can perfect the art of multitasking if they put their mind into it. Tamati’s son was born to him and his partner, Tim Smith via surrogacy in July this year. Many MPs rushed to praise the MP for bringing the little one to the parliament and even posted a photo of him holding the baby.
Aww, Papa Tamati Holding His Baby
Here’s what Golriz Ghahraman, the Green Party MP said on her social media page:
Image: Twitter
Here’s what the people on social media had to say about the wonderful act:
One user applauded New Zealand by saying that though it is a small country, there is a huge lesson that the rest of the world needs to learn from them.
Image: Twitter
Image: Twitter
Another said this is how a real man looks like.
Image: Twitter
Many users agreed that people need to see more of such acts in world politics. And such acts also normalizes the family unit while also enabling women to take babies to their office space.
But this isn’t the first time the house speaker had taken over the role of babysitting in Parliament. Previously he had also held Willow-Jean Prime’s baby while a debate of extending paternity leave was going on.
There were a few hilarious responses to Trevor’s Mallard’s photo rocking and feeding the baby.
Image: Twitter
Image: Twitter
Image: Twitter
Though it’s heartwarming to see many countries accepting and changing the rules when it comes to bringing babies to work, not all countries are so relaxed about this policy.
Zulekha Hassan who is a Kenyan Lawmaker was ejected from the Kenyan National Assembly recently as she had to bring her 5-month-old to the Parliament because she couldn’t find a babysitter.
With Trevor’s post garnering many praises and going viral, we hope it sets an example by making the workplace more favorable for women around the globe.
You can watch the video here:
The Speaker of New Zealand’s parliament has become a social media sensation, after images of him cradling a colleague's baby as he presided over a debate went viral. | https://t.co/hQ6KoB9f7h pic.twitter.com/Efkeu7iuza
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) August 22, 2019
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