Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, is known as a figure of poise, grace and class, but in Giovanna Fletcher’s ‘Happy mom, happy baby’ podcast, Britain’s future queen showed a different side to herself and revealed personal details about the factors that formed her parenting style.
In the podcast, Kate and host Giovanna discussed the origins of the Duchess’s parenting beliefs, which she traces back to her first missions: “right in the early days, meeting lots of people who are struggling with addiction, homelessness, abuse and things like that, you really get moved by some of the challenges the people are facing.”
She continues that through these experiences she realised one important factor that formed her perspective on parenting: “the more you look into everybody’s experiences, actually so much of those, the hardest social challenges, really get traced back to the early first years in somebody’s life.”
Kate emphasises this statement further: “you hear that time and time again, across the nation, across the world, you hear the really sad reality that what we experience in our childhood really has an impact on our future health and happiness.”
Kate also draws inspiration from her own childhood: “I had a very happy childhood. It was great fun and I'm very lucky I come from a very strong family. My parents were hugely dedicated,” she said, adding that the love instilled in her for the simple things in life then, is something she strives to impart to her children now.
“I see that now with my own children. Life now is so busy and distracting and sometimes simple things like watching a fire on a really rainy day provides such enjoyment, she said, “It totally strips away complications and pressures. I think those experiences mean so much to children and the world they’re in which is a real adventure at that age.”
Kate illustrated this in a recent Instagram post, where she shared an adorable snap of Princess Charlotte crouching down in the middle of a field: “I’ve got this one photo of Charlotte smelling a bluebell, and really for me it’s moments like that which mean so much to me as a parent… I try every day to put moments like that in, even if they’re small or even if I don’t have time.”
Listen to the full podcast below:
The podcast assists The Duchess of Cambridge’s ongoing work [insert: https://5bigquestions.org.uk/] with The Royal Foundation, which aims to give children the healthiest start in life. What an inspiration!