Prince William is following his late mother Princess Diana’s footsteps by ensuring that his three young kids, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, have as normal a childhood as possible despite growing up in the public eye.
The Prince of Wales’s mother worked hard to ensure her sons weren’t spoiled, even going so far as to refuse or pass on the gifts sent to them from fans or well-wishers, a philosophy William has also adopted.
“Diana was the first person to make sure her boys had some sort of normal lifestyle, and that is continuing with the Wales children,” Simon Vigar, author of the book The Four Wives of Windsor, shared with HELLO! “George, Charlotte and Louis have a more normal childhood than William and Harry did.”
© Getty ImagesProviding a normal childhood
Princess Kate opened up about their family’s stance when it comes to material possessions like toys and gifts in a video for the Shaping Us campaign.
“The relationships in a family or that’s surrounding a child [are] so important. The environment in which you bring up a child is as important as the experiences you engage them with,” she explained.
© Getty Images“It’s not about the number of toys they’ve got or the number of sort of trips that you go on with them. It’s just making sure that they’ve got the right emotional support around them and that comes from the adults in their lives.”
Pillars of emotional support
The Waleses aim to provide a soft landing spot for their three children emotionally and mentally, especially as they take on more responsibilities as young royals.
“Catherine and I are clear that we want [our children] to grow up feeling able to talk about their emotions and feelings,” William told CALMZine. “Sometimes, emotions have to be put to one side to get the job done, but if you have been through an especially traumatic or stressful situation it is essential to talk it through after the event.”
“If you don’t acknowledge how you feel, it will only bottle up, and could reassert itself later as illness,” he added. “It really is as simple as that – if you are feeling overwhelmed, having a conversation with someone can really help.”
The decision about mobile phones
© Getty ImagesWilliam and Kate are just as strict with George, Charlotte and Louis as any parent, and have long grappled with the decision of whether to provide their kids with mobile phones and internet access or not.
“It’s really hard,” the prince told broadcaster Luciano Huck. “I think when George moves on to secondary school, then maybe he might have a phone that has no internet access.”
© WireImage“To be honest, it’s getting to the point where it’s becoming a little bit of a tense issue,” he admitted. “But I think he understands why; we communicate why we don’t think it’s right.”
The royal added that it was the internet access aspect that worried him the most about giving George a phone. “I think children can access too much stuff they don’t need to see online,” William said, adding that he would give his an “old sort of brick phone” to restrict internet access if he could.
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