Pauline | Hokitika, West Coast

“I am grateful every day, every time I wake up, because my daughter and my son are healthy, and happy, and my daughter had quite a difficult start when she was born, and it’s quite a gift for me that she’s still alive, and she’s still laughing and playing with me every day.

I’m grateful to be with them, to see them eating properly, sleeping properly. It’s just a joy for me. I’m grateful for the sun, as well, when I wake up in the morning, because on the West Coast sometimes it can be like a week without sun. It’s raining a lot. So, when I see the sun, it’s the very motivation for me to start my day.

I learned so much being a parent. I would say my kids teach me as much as I teach them. They teach me mainly resilience. Oh, my God, a lot of resilience, sacrifice and patience, but it’s worth it at the end, because, as I told you previously, I really feel like they are growing up in front of me, so any effort I put in, it’s a lot of consequences, beautiful consequences for my children. It’s worth it to try, to always try and to go deeper, even if it’s hard. Also a thing I really learned with my children, is as a parent, I make a lot of mistakes, and it is part of my life. I actually learned to deal with mistakes. It’s a big issue for me, because I like to do things right, but with children you do make mistakes but you have to be soft with yourself, nice with yourself, because mistakes happen, and then eventually you learn, and you do better. 

What happened to my daughter is when she was born she didn’t have enough blood sugar, so her blood sugar dropped dramatically after 24 hours. So, they threw us in intensive care in Wellington, and it was really hard for me, because my family was far away, and my friends as well. Everybody lives in France, and it was the first time I gave birth and I felt quite guilty. I thought it was my fault. It was really hard. This situation was really hard for both of us. So, again it’s the first step for my daughter that I learned to be patient and to embrace the situation, because you can’t control everything, but you can embrace what happened in your life, and I just breastfed her and I supported her. I gave her beautiful words and beautiful energy, and eventually she came back on track. The doctor never knew how she did, but she did it. I’m so grateful.

Honestly, I hope they’re going to be happy. This is my main goal for my children, and I want them to grow up in New Zealand, because it’s a happy place for me, and I want them to do what they want to do. I want them to embrace life with the same philosophy as me, that nothing happens for no reason and you have the potential, you have the tools to deal with it. Just be brave, and go for it, and I think it’s quite easy in New Zealand, so yay for us to have children in this country, because they are eventually going to find a nice way to go. 

I grew up on the West Coast in France. I did my study in a very big city, Nantes and then I started to be a teacher, and I didn’t really like how it went, because the system was very competitive, and I didn’t enjoy what the society wanted to teach to me, to the children. So I decided to do one year off, to just take time for myself, reflect after all my studies, and travel a little bit, and when I ended up in New Zealand, I just thought, ‘wow’, I just fell in love with the country, and I got pregnant, as well. So, I decided to stay here and now I’m working in the library, and I’m prospecting a little bit to be a teacher, as well, because I miss my career. It was great to be a teacher. It’s just I need to find the right place to share good good vibes and good knowledge.”