To be a bit in awe of Carole Middleton?

[Swashbucklers]

For having gone from East London air stewardess, to successfully setting up and running a multi million pound business while raising 3 children, maintaining a very 'family' based life, and still looking after herself and looking great?

His the hell did she do that? I want to be her.

composhat Especially you. You sound very embittered.

And something else composhat - You have absolutely no idea of the prep involved for a public engagement or indeed any of the charitable work that goes on behind the scenes. Judging from your description of what you think goes into it, you're not well placed to evaluate the workload.

What would you like us to be waving? A skull and crossbones?

Very well said fabergeegg

You have absolutely no idea of the prep involved for a public engagement or indeed any of the charitable work that goes on behind the scenes

It sounds like the Middleton children have little idea of the prep that goes into the need to have to work for a living, independently from the family nest.

Hence my lack of awe at their "achievements". I'm not saying they're bad people, I'm just not in awe of them. They can bake all the cakes they want, marry all the princes they like and wear as many twee twinsets whilst smiling cutely. I always preferred Tess Durbeyfield to Emma.

yes it must be very hard to do a little reading that someone else would have researched for you, read a speech that someone else has written and typed up for you, a dress fitting from a selection of clothes that you do not even have to buy, having someone make your breakfast, have someone clear breakfast plates/cups away, iron your clothes, style your hair, clean your shoes, make sure you have what you need for the day, your car arrives on time, takes you to where you are expected to be, you wave a little, collect some flowers and smile for the press

all sounds terribly hard and i pay for this

yes but they more or less have to go, for the next 60 years.
Not a life, I , or apparently 90% of the population would personally want.

not unless we become a republic i am for one hoping

many of the rest of us have to work plus pay all our own bills, keep on top of everyday chores and look after family

the reason i would not want to live their life is because i do not feel the royals are part of our society. i do not want others pandering to me because i have been born or married into this family

Many, many people have help in the home. And a PA. That's ok. We don't all have to be skint and superwoman to boot. I'm not personally rolling in it but I probably wouldn't do everything myself if I was. It seems likely that Kate does a lot of things herself, to an extent that is considered unusual. But if you think about it, somebody would be bound to label her an eccentric control freak if she insisted on doing everything.

I'm personally inclined to think that she probably does throw herself into things and have a lot of input.

It isn't fair to speak in a contemptuous way about someone who has not done anything wrong, other than marry into a way of life that you despise.

Lessmissabs
But how on earth do you come to this belief that Kate wanted to upgrade socially or that the more intelligent girls in that circle could get a ' more' eligible batchelor? I don,t think Kate,s intelligence is any of our business. Reports suggest she was very athletic and did well enough at school to get into university, a very good one.
The simplest explanation is she fell in love witha man who happens to be heir to the throne and she will pay a high price for this interms of loss of privacy.
I actually think there may be a lot if people who consider themselves above Kate who have a massive chip on their shoulders that he picked her rather than one of them, and that somehow because her mother is from a non upper class background, Kate is not oneof them?
Pure tribalism and very unintelligent interpretation.

I think a lot of women still hope to marry an eligible man for want of a better expression and as Stella Mcartney said...the husband you choose will be the most important decision of your career. I think it is a smaller minority that disregard the aspects that have always been considered when choosing a partner through history even if this is the 21 st century.

I only wish this young couple well in their family life to come and they have given me no reason to think negatively of them. A lot of women seem to like a lot of critiquing it would seem.

I see any negativity towards the Middleton's as nothing other than complete and utter jealousy. They have got everything; wealth, security, brains, looks, style. They are not lazy, they run their own (very successful) business.
Above all else, they seem a very close and happy family who apper to have coped amazingly with a big change in their lives. Some people need to get past their own disappointments and stop being negative towards seemingly decent folk.

Me and my family have all those things as do many families and I still don't admire them. The jealousy thing is laughable

There is not admiring them and then there's being spiteful and negative, the latter of which is uncalled for.

We need to move away from this jealousy thing It seems very british that if someone criticises or doesn't agree with someones lifestyle/views etc it must be jealousy if they are wealthy and look a certain way.

It's odd though, isn't it? How people can have such negative views on them when we don't know them personally. All we have to go on is what we see in the media and what we know of their working life, owning their own business etc. They come across as thoroughly decent people so I am really perplexed as to how people can have negative views on them. That's why I attribute it to jealousy.

But you don't know them and assume they are throughly decent? I don't know them but think anyone who uses kids earning a pittance to make things for their business is not decent.

You have a positive view of them from the same media coverage as those who have a negative view. It sin't jealousy its a different interpretation of what they represent.

That's what I'm saying. From what we do see and know of them, I honestly don't see how you could have a negative opinion. They seem down to earth, don't seem surly or arrogant, appear very hardworking. I just honestly find the negative opinions very weird.

But I see the same as you and I don't think much of them.

How do we know their kids earned a pittance?

It's an awful lot easier to work if your DC are at boarding school!

Nevertheless, I am full of admiration for Carole Middleton and what she and her family have achieved.

A pittance? What kids? Evidence, please!

I'm not "in awe" no. Not at all. If her daughter hadn't married Wills, we wouldn't even know she existed!

Noddy I can understand where you're coming from to a point. It's nice to be able to make our own minds up about whether we respect and admire people, rather than being told it's our place to do so. But adopting an attitude of general dislike/churlishness towards people that we're not particularly drawn to can be another kind of trap. Who was that poet who says 'he wasn't good or bad; sometimes he did this, sometimes he did that'. Couldn't that be said about most of us?

I have no real interest in them but there are just so many awe-worthy women that she is probably the last I would think of

Hugamoo, I can assure you I am not remotely 'jealous'.

And the idea that who you marry is your most important career decision is utter bollocks. Got nothing to do with career. You do, clearly, have to pick a partner (whether or not you marry her/him) who does their share of childcare and domestic labour, but the rest is up to you. My partner has bugger-all to do with my career, and I have nothing to do with his.