South Island Foster Parent And Business Owner is Named New Zealand’s Busiest Mum
The Coffee Club New Zealand has announced the winner of New Zealand’s busiest and most deserving mum.
Wendy McCarthy from Milton in Otago was nominated by her daughter, Rosie McCarthy who lives two hours away in Winton.
The competition, which ran throughout April and May, was judged by well-known New Zealand parenting and lifestyle
blogger, Jordan Whittaker. Wendy was chosen out of almost 300 entries from around the country.
“My mumma bear Wendy McCarthy is just amazing,” explained Rosie. “She raised four children of her own and now takes on
troubled foster kids to help give them a better life. My parents also run a busy furniture business. They do all the
building, sanding and painting part time as they both have full time jobs elsewhere.
“Mum is also struggling with pain as she was recently in a car accident and it has upset her back and neck. She’s
waiting on MRIs and possibly more surgeries, but still continues to be a Wonder Woman, no matter how much pain she is
in. She puts it aside and carries on with what needs to be done. She is incredible.”
“Wendy was definitely the stand out to me,” said Jordan. “It’s one thing to raise your own children (and four of them!),
but to carry on and take on foster children is just so dedicated. What a wonderful, caring Mum and foster-Mum.”
The search came on the back of a nationwide survey, which showed that 83 per cent of Kiwi mums don’t feel they have
enough time in the day to get everything done. Almost 13 per cent reported that they have no time at all to themselves,
while 28 per cent only have 30 minutes to an hour of me time every week.
The Coffee Club wanted to use the busiest mum initiative to shine a light on hard-working mums throughout the country,
and also to encourage Kiwis to thank their mum and cut her a bit of a break from time to time.
“Mums are superheroes with one of the most important jobs in the world. We wanted to use the search for New Zealand’s
busiest mum to remind everyone that our mums deserve to be celebrated,” said The Coffee Club Co-Director, Andy Lucas.
“Wendy is a very worthy winner and an example of just how incredibly hard our mums work for us.”
“Hopefully, the competition will have encouraged people to step up and help mum out a bit more as well,” he added. “Mums
should have far more time to themselves than has been reported. Everyone needs to recharge and enjoy their own space and
interests from time to time.”
Wendy will receive $200 in The Coffee Club vouchers, a $100 movie gift card, $75 to spend at Whitcoulls, champagne,
chocolate and some other surprise treats.
The prize pack was inspired by a question in the survey that found that when mums do get time to relax, their top six
favourite things to do are enjoying a cup of coffee (71%), catching up on TV or a film (57%), sleeping (45%), meeting
friends (45%), exercising (36%) and reading (35%).
Their favourite place to relax is the living room at home (34%), followed by their bedroom 26%), a favourite café (15%)
and outside/walking (12%).
-End-