To be a bit disappointed in Kate Middleton?

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When visiting Fortnums, apparently she talked about what a struggle it is to make tea properly with "dried tea leaves". For someone who has not ever worked full time, had dependents or any particular constraints apart from media interest, I thought she might be a bit more interesting and competent. She still seems to spend her time giggline and hair flicking and being generally self conscious.

Exploting not exploring!

Ah, like Princess Beatrice you mean ?

Yes whatever she does It will never be right

do you also want daughters to emulate other v rich girls?or just ones who marry princes?

is being rich by birth a thing to be desired for sake if it?

frankly anyone who had professional blow dry and trip to salon would look cmposed and polished. spending money and time in salon is not an achievement.profligate spending,it is an activity some people undertake.not necessarily one to be emulated or admired

Well as I said Jordan is rich and I certainly don't want to aspire to be like her.

Of course being born into a well off family is desirable why even ask that?!

And lastly Scottish mummy why do you only value people based on the sum their employer puts on their head

Try learning people are worth more than their bank balance. What a sad outlook you have.

Children don't need a role model, they need role models.

For example, I do think Kate is a good example of how to behave with dignity in the public eye - far better than the vast majority of "famous" people plastered all over the popular press.

Other people provide different examples.

Making inoffensive bland small talk and looking nice etc is exactly what is expected from the royals.

while i agree girls really should look beyond hair make up and small talk sometimes thats what girls like , scottishmummy do you have girls what sort of things should they be aspiring too ,? i have girls and they dont really look up to the likes or katie price or any celeb/reality star for which im grateful . BUt if DD wanted to go into beauty therapy or something like that i wouldnt be sad or angry about it , Id be pleased she was interested in something ,

DD1 is training to be an engineer i wonder if thats ont he approved list of female aspirations ,

What I don't understand is that everybody today aspires to be like a 'celebrity', whether they are trashy gob shites like Jordan (although give her credit, she did earn her money!), or a stick thin 'lady' who managed to snare a Prince, who apparently is 'normal' even though she attended Marlborough College and her m and d are millionaires!

My role model is my Grandma, she was an amazing strong woman, wasn't stick thin, but liked a pint of stout!

Celebrities stink...

At risk of sounding a bit, well, vacuous (sp? oh the irony..) myself, can you imagine what it would feel like to know that when/if pg, you are quite possibly carrying the future King or Queen .....

My H fancies her. He kept it quiet for a while then blurted out he thought she was 'nice'.

The last woman he admitted having a soft spot for was Rachel from S Club 7

Really? At the age 13 when most girls start looking for a role model your granny was your role model?
Really?

Dunno about 13, but at 17 I yearned (below my Laura Ashley frock ) to be a dashing cross between Simone de Beauvoir and Astrid Proll. I cannot say that Lady Di - the queen of that day - fried my adolescent onion at all.

Simons and astrid? Before my day I think?!

Kate's parents might be millionaires now - but they struck lucky after lots of hard work. Her grandfather (or maybe great grandfather) was a miner.

The miner stuff is a load of bollocks. Yes one of her great-great grandfathers was a miner, but you have 8 great-great grandfathers and there are solicitors and bank managers in her background. One of her great-great grandfathers set up a trust that paid her school fees by investing in properties. He was a Victorian industrialist. I'm not saying it wasn't hard work, but her parents, particularly her father, didn't leave a mining town in the early seventies with all their belongings tied in hankies on sticks over their shoulder and "make good".

You can get misty eyed about it if you like, but I don't think it is a magical story.

I'm not sure about the whole enigma thing either. There are plenty of people out there who are more or less what you see. Why should we imagine that she has hidden depths? What is the enigma?

I can not make tea. I just can't. Coffee yes, tea, no... I don't see the problem with what she said?

It was her GF on her father's side who left the money which paid the school fees. The mining side of the family was on her mother's side.

I don't think it was a magical story at all - and I'm certainly not misty eyed (that's just the wine!) - but I can't understand why people try to diss her, when she's just a girl who fell in love with guy who has huge responsibilities, and she is trying to play her part.

And credit due to her parents. They have built up a hugely successful business from nothing.

She's fine. Just like everyone else she will have challenges in life and bits of her life that are great. The challenges and easy bits will be different to those most people face. And like many people her parents have worked hard and been successful. But the media turn it into some sort of Mills & Boon romance novel because the media is lazy and there just aren't enough pregnant celebrities to fill their pages.

Well, she is working and I'd defy anyone who suggests royals at that level aren't. It might not be a career achieved on merit and experience, but it is nonetheless work. And bloody hard work at that I imagine.

As for making her a role model? I am not sure about her specifically, but certainly I'd want my DCs to grow up to do the best job they can, to support their partners and family with discretion and loyalty, to do what they can to make people around them feel comfortable, to have an awareness of the world outside of their own sphere - all things that people like Kate seem to have nailed. I don't feel particularly that my DC need to have hectic careers either - they could choose to be stay at home parents (as DH is currently) or to work in the City (as I do). Or perhaps they'll work for themselves as beauticians, earning just enough to get by and live their lives? If your DDs decide to be SAHMs will you be disappointed? If you educate them with degrees in maths and science and they decide to run a restaurant instead will that be a problem?

Simone de Beauvoir and Astrid Proll are a bit before my time too, even though I am an "old woman". But history does tend to have happened a while ago!

Aww seeker you love me really. Use your humour more, it's good.