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Parenting

15th Feb 2020

Duchess of Cambridge credits her ‘amazing granny’ with inspiring the way she parents her three children

Trine Jensen-Burke

Duchess of Cambridge parenting

This week, the Duchess of Cambridge made her very first podcast interview when she appeared on Giovanna Fletcher’s Happy Mum, Happy Baby podcast.

Kate, 38, who has long been a vocal campaigner for children and young people, spoke about her own childhood and reflected on how her own granny has been an instrumental influence in her hands-on and outdoorsy approach to rasing George, Charlotte and Louis.

“I had an amazing granny who devoted a lot of time to us, playing with us, doing arts and crafts and going to the greenhouse to do gardening, and cooking with us,” she explained.

“And I try and incorporate a lot of the experiences that she gave us at the time into the experiences that I give my children now.”

The mother-of-three added that it was important to provide her own young children with the same ‘happy home’ and ‘safe environment’ she enjoyed as a child growing up in Newbury in Berkshire.

The Duchess of Cambridge recently launched her Five Big Questions For The Under Fives survey, which aims to start a debate around early childhood and inspire her work over the next few years. So far, 200,000 people have shared their views in the online poll.

“It’s going to take a long time, I’m talking about a generational change, but hopefully this is the first small step: to start a conversation around the importance of early childhood development,” Kate explained on the podcast, which aired yesterday, February 15th.

“It’s not just about happy, healthy children. This is for lifelong consequences and outcomes.”

Giovanna, who is also a mum-of-three, said it was ‘beyond wonderful’ to chat to the Duchess about motherhood.

She added: ‘It doesn’t matter who you are, what you have, or where you come from – we’re all trying to do our best with our children while continuously doubting our decisions and wondering if we’re getting it completely wrong. Talking helps unite us all.’

The Duchess has been touring the UK in recent weeks to encourage people to take part in the survey, and earlier this week she visited a farm near Belfast, where she chatted to children and their parents.

 

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Today The Duchess of Cambridge has taken her UK-wide #5BigQuestions survey to Northern Ireland and Scotland, starting with a visit to @TheArkOpenFarm in County Down, Northern Ireland. The #5BigQuestions Survey aims to spark a national conversation on the early years that will ultimately help bring about positive, lasting change for generations to come – visit the link in our bio to fill out the survey. At the farm The Duchess spoke with local parents and grandparents about their experiences of raising young children, and their thoughts on the early years. What we experience in our earliest years – from in the womb to the age of five – is instrumental in shaping our future lives. The Duchess has spent time meeting families across the country and hearing about the issues they face, in addition to speaking with academics, experts, organisations and practitioners. The ‘5 Big Questions on the Under 5s’ survey is designed to bring together the thoughts of as many people as possible – recognising that everyone has a role in ensuring strong, healthy foundations for the youngest in our society that will positively affect their lifelong outcomes. Photos © Kensington Palace

Et innlegg delt av Kensington Palace (@kensingtonroyal)