Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis are learning habits that will serve them for life as they grow up. Prince William and Princess Kate have reportedly been making sure their little ones, 11, 9, and 6 respectively, incorporate positive habits into their interactions with others.
“William and Kate have developed this brilliant knack of letting as much as they can seem spontaneous and that’s how the children see it,” a source once told The Sun. “Table manners, thank you letters, little courtesies are being drilled into the children so they become automatic. If George has been naughty, and he has been on occasion, Kate and William are good at explaining to him the rights and wrongs of what’s happened.”
We know Kate and William are very keen to be hands-on parents as much as they can be, and their instilling good manners in their children is far from the only trick they have up their sleeves to raise kind, well-rounded children. For example, their use of a “chat sofa” to explain boundaries to the kids has become famous over the years.
“There’s no ‘naughty step’ [in the Wales home] but there is a ‘chat sofa,'” a source once explained. “The naughty child is taken away from the scene of the row or disruption and talked to calmly by either Kate or William. Things are explained and consequences outlined and they never shout at them. Shouting is absolutely ‘off limits’ for the children and any hint of shouting at each other is dealt with by removal.”
William and Kate are parenting their three children in a way that works best for their family, but that doesn’t mean they haven’t drawn inspiration from some pretty reliable sources. Indeed, it’s believed that their more informal parenting style is inspired both by Kate’s own family and upbringing, and by how the late Princess Diana parented Prince William and Prince Harry.
Right now, the Waleses are on their summer holidays, and will soon be at Balmoral to spend time with the King and other members of the Royal Family.
