Matt Porteous
The Cambridge family’s trip to the Chelsea Flower Show last week gave us all a rare glimpse into the family’s private life away from the pomp and protocol of public royal life.
Running through the shrubs, dangling their feet in the stream and climbing waterfalls, from afar it would be easy to think they were just three normal, adorable kids, and not heirs to the British throne – and that’s the way the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge want it to be.
Last week we got a rare glimpse of the Cambridge children looking right at home in nature. (Image: Matt Porteous /@KensingtonRoyal)
According to royal insiders, Kate and William want to give their children – Prince George, 5, Princess Charlotte, 4, and Prince Louis, 1 – a balanced childhood, with the couple giving “good parenting an equal footing to royal duty”.
“As much as possible, they’ll make sure one of them is at home for teatime, bedtime, story-telling and bath time,” says author of Kate: The Future Queen Katie Nicholl.
“So, on Prince Louis’ birthday, William made a point of ensuring his flight was timed so that he could have breakfast with his son before flying off to New Zealand.”
As the future King, growing up and losing his mother so publicly, deeply affected Prince William, which has made him even more determined to try and give his children a life that is as normal as possible.
Growing up in the public eye deeply affected Prince William, so he’s even more determined to try and give his children a normal life. (Image: Matt Porteous /@KensingtonRoyal)
Author of Charles: The Heart of a King Catherine Mayer previously told E! News that the royal couple are delaying telling Prince George that he will one day be King.
“With George they are trying to delay that moment of realisation and give him normality before they thrust this on him,” she told the news outlet.
However Kate and William are not blind to the fact that now in school, George’s interactions will perhaps give him a clue of what his future holds.
“It will be, nevertheless, part of his upbringing both in terms of what he sees his parents and grandparents doing and probably quite soon a beginning of an understanding that he is in public life and what that means,” Catherine adds.
Prince George reportedly has no idea that he’ll be the future King. (Image: Getty)
In the meantime however, the royal parents are ensuring their children are enjoying as ordinary lives as possible, attending after-school and sports clubs and having school friends over for play dates.
“The children are remarkably ordinary despite being royal,” Katie reveals.
“I’ve seen Kate play with her children in the sandpit at Holland Park, and take them for walks around the gardens.
“It’s important for them to raise their children with an understanding of their HRH status but also have a child hood.”
WATCH: Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis play in a garden designed by Kate Middleton. Story continues below…
Kate is reportedly teaching her children responsibility and creativity through gardening, so it’s no surprise they looked completely at home exploring the garden at the flower show.
“When it comes to their downtime, it’s outdoors come rain or shine,” Katie says.
“Even if it’s raining, they’ll have their macs on and they will be out in the garden.
“They’ve got their own vegetable and herb plot at Anmer in Norfolk. The children have their own little plots to tend to, so she’s really creating them as gardeners.”
Kate touched on this recently in an interview with Monty Don saying, “I learned recently that 90 per cent of our adult brains are developed before the age of five.
“That’s why I think it’s so important that all of us, whether we’re parents or carers or family members, really engage in quality time with children and babies from a really, really young age.”
According to Grazia Kate is also mindful about how much screen time the children have.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have talked a lot about their experiences with parenting over the years, the couple are patrons for many charities and organisations which support parents and children particularly surrounding mental health support.
And it seems their parenting style is admired by many, even Hollywood celebrities have admitted to taking parenting tips from the royal couple.
Earlier this year actress Anne Hathaway revealed to The Sunday Times that she once read about a parenting technique that the couple use that she thought was “really cool”.
The technique in question is the way in which Kate and William interact with children, kneeling down to the child’s level to speak with them, in order to make them feel more equal.
“They get down on the child’s level and speak to them eye to eye to make their child feel empowered,” Anne explained to the publication.
“I thought it was really cool. I started doing that with [my son] Jonathan.”
While the three Cambridge children may never have as normal of a life as perhaps the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s son, Archie, will have – they even chose to forego giving him a royal title – from the carefree nature displayed by the children last week, it’s evident that Kate and William are clearly doing a commendable job.
