Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern reveals Easter plans with Neve, gives toilet training update

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has shared her family's plans for Easter weekend during the lockdown, revealing that toddler Neve won't be waking up to an Easter egg hunt this year. 

After reassuring children of the nation that the Easter Bunny would still be operational this coming weekend, Ardern told the Breeze morning show that one-year-old Neve was still a little too young to understand the fuss. 

"She's thankfully still at that stage where she's aware of what's going on around her but not that to that degree," Ardern told hosts Robert Rakete and Jeanette Thomas.

"I suggested she draw an Easter egg that vaguely resembles... some lines? No, she's not really aware of those things." 

Ardern said she had received many concerned letters from children regarding the operations of the Tooth Fairy and Easter Bunny during the COBVID-19 alert level 4 lockdown, so clarified they were "essential services" in her now-viral address to the nation. 

But Ardern says there's one thing that her household won't be worrying about over the long weekend - toilet training. 

"We don't speak about that," she laughed. "We might have gotten a little ahead of ourselves there. But we're taking advice from [psychologist] Nigel Latta that during this period - nobody should be too hard on themselves." 

Last month, Ardern replied to an Instagram comment from Magic Talk presenter Carly Flynn asking how toilet training was going, saying " we are having ZERO success!".

Ardern's partner and Neve's dad Clarke Gayford replied to the comment with a very telling "we" and a confused emoji - suggesting the majority of the toilet training was being done by him.