When did you last need help?

Rosie | Akaroa

When Rosie’s son broke his arm, she found a new appreciation for her relationship with her ex.

“Like I said to my boys, we’re just not compatible. We were always fighting. We have very different opinions on how to do things and stuff. But at the end of the day, if it had happened to him as well, I would have actually helped him, if you know what I mean? And I really appreciated that he helped me. And I said, “Oh, can I give you a hug?” even, and I gave him a hug. So yeah.

My two older boys are from another father than my youngest son, and he lives in Otago, Lake Hāwea. So they live quite far away. And my middle son, he got a broken arm, and he had to go to Dunedin Hospital and have an operation to have pins put in. So I drove down, and they drove across, obviously, and we met up there and all was fine.

Until my car battery decided to die, completely die, and I could not get my car going. I had to drive back to Christchurch. So it was like, “oh, what do I do?” And when I rang my ex, he was really, really helpful and he helped me get the AA and get my new battery. And I was able to drive home. So, yeah, it was really good. It meant a lot.

“But if we’d broken up at all the stages we probably could have broken up, we wouldn’t have these two amazing boys. And in some ways they’ve probably learned a lot from our relationship breaking up as well. We all have this idea that relationships should be perfect and you should be together forever and stuff, but I think it’s better for them to see that we’re both happy with our new partners.

You know, relationships are so complicated.”

Our question for kaikōrero this month was “when did you last need help?” We learned about the diverse demands on the lives of New Zealanders and the incredible support networks they rely on.