Prince George turns 12

[My2cents1975]

It seems like Prince George was born yesterday...time has flown and he is almost a teenager!

Prince George photo released for his 12th birthday

Are you seriously saying that being born into the most extraordinary position, wealth and privilege in a country where 31% of children are in relative poverty, is *not an easy life" because they can't fly together?
Bizarre.

Equally bonkers, though!🤣

😁"George! Put those back!"

That’s amazing! I remember when his father was born. I feel ancient now.

Oh that made me laugh!

The travelling separately- it’s suggested but William hasn’t confirmed they will do it. He and Catherine do seem to be parenting differently.

He looks a lot like Catherine’s dad, I think.

Charlotte is the image of Sarah Chatto.

Surely they won’t travel separately? It’s very odd to behave as though the biggest risk in life is flying. I don’t think his parents are fools.

As for the silly behaviour around the idea of ‘a Sussex’ being the heir…..,aside from the revolting idea of imagining an entire family being killed, surely you understand this is how monarchy works? It doesn’t go to the best person, the nicest person, the most intelligent person……it goes to the next person. That’s the whole point. Don’t like the idea of having to accept the next person? Then you don’t like monarchy. There’s no problem at all if 100 of them drop off the perch……there’s still someone who will fill the role.

The previous queen wasn’t born to people who thought she’d be queen.

@MrsEverestyou are so right - don’t like next in line? You don’t like the idea of the head of state being an inherited role.

I guess the Wales’ have to weigh up the slight chance of death by air travel vs the greater chance of their child being upset on a flight without a parent there to look after them. Plus the convenience of travelling together.

theres a much bigger risk of dying in a road accident (something William is bound to be aware of), not being allowed to travel by car together would be more sensible but also very disruptive to family life.

No, I think there are many ways in which it's not an easy life, and this is another one.

I'm glad I don't have to think of the good of the country when I travel with my family.

When the Queen disliked them all travelling together, she may have been thinking of Prince Philip's sister, Princess Cecilie. She, her husband, three of her four children and her mother in law all died together in a plane crash.

The other child, who wasn't with them on the plane, died of an illness a couple of years later.

In my family that would be called “humouring mum’s paranoia”. For example-there are two routes to my house-one is 5 minutes longer but involves an ungated but perfectly safe level crossing. The idea of it was so upsetting to my mother that I never used it. Now she’s dead I always save the 5 minutes! They should, of course, all fly together.

I don't think it's sad for the children to travel separately. When mine were younger we didn't have a car and often we ended up splitting up travelling for various reasons.

They found it great fun. Who would get there first, talking about different experiences, did we stop at the same places, did the others see that weird windmill? etc.
And it was often more relaxing for us (although tbf dh almost always took most of the luggage so maybe he found it less relaxing) because we could tailor what we did to the children we had. I remember one particular journey with dd2 where we made an spy story together using the people getting on and off the train (we even got off at one stop and changed transport in case we were followed!) and another one where we took a detour for ds so we could eat in a café by an airport so he could watch planes and dd1 used to love to plan the journeys and decide where to stop beforehand etc.

Now they're pretty much adults, but we were all going on holiday last Easter, and had to take two cars because ds had to get back a day early, and they were remembering about going separately and how much fun they'd found it.

So it isn't something to feel sad for the children. I suspect it's sad for the adults; but perhaps more in a "they aren't little any more. Aw!" sort of way.

The papers made it sound like they were going to make George travel all on his own! They've got two parents and a long term nanny to split between the three kids and they'll all have good relationships with their protection officers.

Well whoever he looks like he’s got Catherine’s dimples!

Lovely to see him looking happy and relaxed. He often gets caught with a serious expression but I’m sure that doesn’t reflect what’s he’s really like.

Btw, you’re all blind, Charlotte is the living image of William, she doesn’t look at all like Sarah Chatto who is her father’s
daughter to a tee. (Although I always thought Margaret and AAJ looked rather alike so maybe the Windsor genes were breaking through, as they’re inclined to do!)

I think it was a very specific period of time where Charlotte looked very like Sarah at a similar age. As she gets older I think the resemblance is fading a little.

I think some of Charlottes expressions look very like Diana, you can really see the resemblance, particularly some of the photos from Wimbledon.

Lots of organizations don’t allow their senior executives travel together, it’s not so strange for Royal families to do similar.

We go away with dhs family a lot. BIL refuses to travel with us all together on flights or coaches. Can be a pain at times. But he worries about who’d look after MIL if anything happens to us all.

Dh wasn’t allowed to fly with his team, the rule was one always stayed behind unless a conference where they’d fly at different times and airlines (tbf this was after 9/11).

I agree with PPs: really can't see the big difficulty with not travelling together.
Tbh I'd be happy to travel in luxury with everything smoothed out for us. I certainly wouldn't be bothered that DH was travelling separately with one of the children. It's a few hours out of the whole holiday.
It reminds me of "shock horror" headlines you see saying things like "Strict royal rules Kate must obey!" and it's something like remembering to put your fork with its tines down on your plate if you haven't finished your meal so the waiting staff don't think you've finished and whisk your plate away.
Must feel like such an imposition on her that she can't fling her cutlery down anyhow, belch and announce "I'm stuffed!" to hint delicately that she's reached the end of that course.

I think it’s entirely different-ridiculous for them not to travel together! And apparently it was just a preference of the TLQ-not official protocol.

I think it’s entirely different-ridiculous for them not to travel together!

Thanks for letting me know what you think.
I was just making the point that some conventions may exist but aren't particularly onerous to follow.
This one wouldn't bother me one way or the other. Certainly air travel is very safe these days.

Given who is next in line after the W,G,C and L I think it is very sensible to be cautious!

I actually think it is quite onerous. I think they should avoid any extra “not like other kids” that’s not strictly necesessary. There’s plenty already without adding something that was just TLQ’s whim.

But air travel is significantly safer than car travel. It’s easy to say “travel separately” and just assume “flight”, not that this should cover all travel to be effective. So no family days out with all three kids and dad in the same car. No going to activities driven by dad. No going to a play or meal out as a family together without two cars home.

William doesn’t work though the school holidays because he wants to be a more hands on dad than his own. The rule of never travelling together would be fine for a father that doesn’t spend much time with his kids anyway, not so much for an involved father.