Prince William's Absence (Part Two)

[MaggieFS]

Following on from this glorious thread

William just pulled out of event due to personal reasons http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/theroyall_family/5017144-william-just-pulled-out-of-event-due-to-personal-reasons

I’m not sure it’s fair to dream up reasons she might work : if she does, she does.

And I’m not sure why the abandoned children theme got worked in: her children seem fairly grounded and happy.

I just admire the way she does the job without seeming to need to get too uptight about it all.

And she rocked that regalia …

It is pretty arrogant to say I am taking three months off - on your tab - and I don’t need to bother myself with even a mere explanation.

It is a joke. And it’s contempt for the people that pay for them.

Millions of people have difficult childhoods, far more difficult even than William's. And in far less comfortable and privileged circumstances.

It is good to be there for your children, as most parents on here strive to be. But many parents still to do our jobs which we are paid to do, to provide for our children. 'Cutting a ribbon somewhere' is literally his job. Which he is paid to do, handsomely, by the taxpayers.

My thought too. How many of us would want our every foible ripped to shreds by anyone at all?

I believe she did. She had Charles a year after her marriage. She wouldn't have lived in Malta unmarried. She left the children in England with her mother and staff.

Isn't Morgan buried in some little known channel now?

They really don't

I predict there will be an announcement shortly before Easter that her recuperation has gone as planned and she will be resuming duties as expected after Easter (and from that announcement, they'll start putting things in her diary)

Then she'll be seen for the first time on Easter Sunday at church (following which all the chuntering about how she looks will settle down)

Then I think she'll do an early engagement announcing she's taking up a patronage for whichever major charity represents the condition she's had. That will be the time she talks about her illness (one-off - because after that, it'll be about showcasing their work, not talking about herself). That will be when she thanks for cards and the public good wishes, and how she appreciated the undisturbed time to recover.

And in a further couple of months, we'll look back and wonder why so many people got sucked in to a collective folly of needing updates, wanting pix of the DC doing normal things like going to school (which would have to be pap shots, so not a good idea), wanting them to act on the tabloid demands for information.

100%. Face it, they have been known to be lazy for years and with the departure of H&M and their promotion to Prince/Princess of Wales their laziness is much more visible. Their ineptitude is a puzzle to me, I can only presume that they will not take good advice or constructive criticism, surround themselves by 'yes' people and don't have a clue themselves. Or they just don't care.

It is also a puzzle to me how so many people - people with real life worries and pressures! - support them behaving like this.

She lived in Malta from 1949 until 1951 so you are correct she left both the children.

In defence of the late Queen (!) she raised her children similar to a lot of upper class / aristos at that time. The nanny did nearly all of the childminding and the children would see their parents for a short time before bed. Then they'd be shipped off to boarding school.

His comments are being covered in the main red top tabloids.

It doesn't matter how obscure the place was where first you said something, not once it's taken up by the mass-sale mainstream media.

Yes this is well documented.

It’s often listed as the reason she had a closer relationship to Andrew and Edward than she had with Charles annd Anne.

I would describe as more of a royalist than not, but the last few years and certainly recent months is making me think that their time is up.
Whilst I really hope Kate is OK and have no desire to know what is wrong with her, it is starting to grate that her and William are having a 3 month sabbatical at our expense. A luxury that the majority of the British public could not afford.
If they have decided the royal/ public life is not for them then I'd applaud them fo admitting it and standing down.
If they don't sort the Andrew problem out their support will wither away. I for one never want to see his puffed up chest ever again.

I think the thanks will come at the end of her period of recuperation.

Not be something that occurs during it. PW also saying nothing, to buttress that position.

Obviously different for the King, as he's still working on everything that does not require a public appearance, so there is no similar period of private recuperation.

Morgan is a soul sucking ghoul.

I think the Queen did her very best. That’s not to say she necessarily got it all spot on from everybody’s perspective - especially more modern perspectives - but I think she genuinely tried and her decisions were generally what she felt duty dictated. I certainly don’t think she ever dwelt much on herself. That may be an outdated attitude, but I think she believed it was what she owed the role.

I quite enjoy Talk TV; especially James Whale on Saturday night

And yet all we hear about is how awful Andrew is … so maybe that wasn’t the magic baby-raising formula after all 🤷🏻‍♀️

@ExactlySo "W&C are not yet King and Queen. Their time for wall to wall public duties is yet to come.

They have made it clear that they want to be hands on parents and not create another dysfunctional family.

I think they are very sensible indeed."

So how many tax payer funded years do they both get to be "hands on parents"? And "wall to wall public duties?" Seriously?

This is a good point. 3 months recovery at home is such a long time. Fine to take that time off work but other activities? She’s always at the kids sports matches - Charlotte plays hockey against my friend’s daughter and she says Kate is always there. You’d think they would want this normality to continue and if Kate really can’t stand to watch a game of hockey for 3 months then William would.

“Why couldn’t any of us step in tomorrow”.

That is the crux of it. Anyone could be trained up to do it. There isn’t much to do. They are told what to do, say, wear and where to go. Anyone could do it. This nonsense of how it takes years to ‘train’ is from their own garbled PR to make it seem ‘difficult’. Presidents manage to preside over countries without this onerous twenty years plus training.
People can say they wouldn’t like to do it. That is fine but millions would swap in return for the rewards.

Hmmm...

It is also a puzzle to me how so many people - people with real life worries and pressures! - support them behaving like this.

I don't understand this either. Thread after thread of people very earnestly explaining:

They are "hands on" parents and therefore need to both be off for every school holiday

They don't have any live in staff - the poor darlings (setting aside that they live on a royal estate with many many staff)

They have to do hours of preparation for every engagement and it's very hard work - meanwhile they have relatives in their 70s who can apparently do three times this amount of work

They are focussing on long term causes and perhaps in 20 years we may see the output of this dedicated work which takes place for a day a week term time only...

Why are people so keen to defend them?

I agree; most of the mystique has worn off
The RF just seems like a mundane soap opera that fewer of us are invested in
KC had great coverage when he took over, but the passing of the Queen really does seem like the end of an era

Plenty of people with cancer and mental health issues don't just carry on working, who do you think the people on sickness benefits are? Let alone the fact that at 75 most people aren't working with or without cancer.