Mother of three Kate Middleton says raising children today is “tough.”
The Princess of Wales — who shares Prince George, 9, Princess Charlotte, 7, and 4-year-old Prince Louis with Prince William — addressed the challenges and difficulties of parenting as part of her new “Shaping Us” campaign.
“Every family is different. The pressures we face are all different, whilst raising the importance of early childhood,” Middleton told UK radio host Roman Kemp in a conversation published Friday. “This isn’t about putting extra pressure on families.”
She continued, “It’s actually saying they need the support and help reprioritizing family life, home life and all that it takes in raising children today because it is tough.”
Middleton, 41, noted that a child is affected by the environment they are brought up in and the emotional support they receive more so than what toys or gifts they have growing up.
“The relationships in a family or that’s surrounding a child is so important,” she explained. “The environment in which you bring up a child is as important, as whereas the experiences you engage them with.
“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.”
Middleton was responding to the mental health advocate’s point that families are struggling.
“All you have to do is look around, especially, you know, at the country, and see people are not just struggling with raising kids, they’re struggling with just putting a roof above their heads, to be able to heat their house,” Kemp said. “So, all of those things can come into play.”
“Yes, absolutely,” Middleton agreed and also shared that “love goes a long way.”
The conversation, which took place in January, is part of Middleton’s new campaign, which launched this week. The initiative was created “increase public understanding of the crucial importance of the first five years of a child’s life,” according to a royal press release.
“The way we develop, through our experiences, relationships, and surroundings during our early childhood, fundamentally shapes our whole lives,” Middleton said in a statement. “It affects everything from our ability to form relationships and thrive at work, to our mental and physical well-being as adults and the way we parent our own children.”
The website states that the long-term campaign comes amid new data that suggests around one in three adults report knowing just a little or nothing about how children develop in their early childhood.
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