Like many parents, The Duchess of Cambridge is feeling the burden of home schooling her children during lockdown, and admits she has had to practice her hairdressing skills on Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis.
Catherine, 39, took part in a call on Tuesday with three parents, whose children attend Roe Green Junior School in Kingsbury, north-west London, with headteacher Melissa Loosemore.
The Duchess visited the school back in 2018, to launch the Mentally Healthy campaign.
The Duchess of Cambridge chats to other parents about the experience of lockdown with children, rating her maths abilities as ‘-5’ (@KensingtonRoyal)
One part of the call saw the group run a ‘show and tell’ exercise during the video call Ms Loosemore asked the group to write down answers to a number of questions; the first? “One word that describes parenting during this pandemic.”
Kate chose the word ‘exhausting’, while others opted for ‘hectic’, ‘challenging’ and ‘patience’.
The Royal explained her answer: “I think as parents you’ve the day-to-day elements of being a parent, but I suppose during lockdown we have had to take on additional roles that perhaps others in our communities, or in our lives, would have perhaps supported us and helped us with.”
Schools closed in March 2020, opening again in September for the new academic year.
Prince William and Kate, The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, with their children Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, as they watch a special pantomime performance hosted by The National Lottery at the London Palladium, to thank key workers and their families for their efforts throughout the pandemic; December 2020
She added with a giggle: “I’ve become a hairdresser this lockdown, much to my children’s horror, seeing mum cutting hair.
“We’ve had to become a teacher – and I think, personally, I feel pulled in so many different directions and you try your best with everything, but at the end of the day I do feel exhausted.”
“Absolutely, absolutely. I think that is probably something we can all share,” the headteacher commented.
The Cambridge family have spent much of the pandemic at Anmer Hall in Norfolk. It is unclear if the live-in nanny, Maria Borallo, has been with them during that time to assist.
Nicole Seidemann, who has four children aged between four and 11, said she was ‘definitely a full-time teacher right now and struggling to do much else’.
In another exercise, the parents were asked to write down who had been their support during the pandemic. Some wrote ‘children’, ‘wife and children’ and ‘husband’, the Duchess chose her own partner, writing ‘William’.
Duchess Kate said Prince William had been her support during the pandemic, and that her children were horrified when she cut their hair (@KensingtonRoyal)
The couple have been married for 10 years in April.
A third question asked the group to rate their maths skills, having been involved in home schooling for a number of months.
One word that describes parenting during this pandemic?
We spoke with parents about the challenges that many families are facing during the third lockdown here in the UK.
Comment with your one word below ? pic.twitter.com/zLINFmlkIX
— The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (@KensingtonRoyal) January 28, 2021
Kate scored herself a ‘minus 5’ while the others all gave themselves an eight. “That’s pretty good! I am obviously right at the bottom of the class,” commented the Duchess, with the other parents explaining they had all improved a lot during lockdown.
