Nurturing – to allow a ‘free range environment’

By Chris Valli

Ben Glover is the first to admit he’s a private man. He’s also a man in awe of his children including his oldest child.

The father of Marlborough’s George Glover, Ben firmly believes his son is ‘acutely aware that being vulnerable is also a form of strength’.

“George knows the water is his safe place, his bubble. It is a place where he goes to heal, to be alone, to reassess, and to energise – swimming is his bike,” he says.

George is currently swimming 15 loops of Lake Rotoiti at St Arnaud. Indeed, George is doing something rather special for mental health and potentially saving lives.

Along with his support team, George is swimming 20km each day hoping to cover 300km to complete his latest challenge. He hopes to finish Waitangi Weekend and raise $100,000 for Mike King’s I Am Hope charity which ultimately will fund private care and counselling for young people ‘stuck-in-the-mud’ on waiting lists.

Ben says he feels many things as the father of a 20-year-old who has raised the Marlborough profile of mental health advocacy in recent times. He says he is often fascinated and educated, and in awe of his accomplishments.

Yet it is Ben’s reflection and insights which pose the wider context of a society that is often consumed by screens, peer pressure and the social expectation of ‘fitting in’ or saying yes to conform.

“It is an area of fitness (mental health) that I had never really been aware of; or perhaps never had a ‘descriptor for’ growing up,” Ben says. “It is only now as an adult and being involved and seeing the intensity in just being kids today that has created awareness, and that perhaps the model of education, communication, listening, and achieving may have to be re-examined.”

Ben says ultimately George’s profile is his own.

“He is acutely aware of this and is confident in carrying the mental health message with plenty of support from all areas and avenues he is involved with.

“His mental fortitude is only one of the many ‘balanced’ behaviours, mantras I believe George possesses,” he suggests. “The drive, direction, vision, self-belief, ability to connect and above all empathy are all his own doing.

“All Sus and I have tried to do is build an environment where he could be a kid for as long as possible - still playing with Lego at 12 - and then nurture this within a ‘free range’ environment where mistakes and decision making were important. and I might add this was all done on the hop, there is no book.”