Christmas Day walk in Sandringham

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This is such a strange thing....so the royal family walk along a stretch of path every year and people gather to watch them. These people try to talk to the Wales children and give them presents. They are photographing the children, taking selfies, etc. I think the kids are far too young to do this. It is so odd.

How on earth do William & Catherine think this is okay?!

I'm just going to post something I said on the other thread, but it's more appropriate here:

It's quite bizarre that a couple who very carefully curate photographs of their children, and who are part of a family who have an unofficial agreement with the press to leave the young people alone when they go to school and university, are happy with their own young children talking to strangers and allowing the touching and selfies to happen.

The incident with Louis and the huge Lindt (?) chocolate thing. What happens when they're back in private? Is he allowed to keep it? Does it become not his, something to share? To give away? How confusing for a seven year old.

And the biggie.....what happened to not accepting sweets from people we don't know?!

The closeness of people to the children on that walkabout was startling.

These three children are 7, 10, and 12. They cannot give real consent to people who touch them, want selfies, and give them gifts, because they don't fully understand all the connotations.

Until they're 15, 16, even 18, and can make their own decisions they should not be allowed to be used in this way by, what are quite frankly, weirdos after their latest royal thrill.

Luring children with gifts or shouting their names so they can paw at them and have photographs with them is not the act of any normal person with normal boundaries.

It's fucked up. Can't think what W and C are thinking allowing it. They're setting their children up for having very poor boundaries in the future.

I'm in the six mile exclusion zone.

Well quite! I'm closer than you, it's ridiculous what some people will believe.

I find it weird that people go armed with selection boxes and flowers knowing that the food is binned and the flowers given away. It’s so wasteful. Maybe they need to put a message out that “gifts” will no longer be accepted as they go straight in the bin?

Damn, I thought my house had tripled in value.

The probably think the kids actually eat the chocs

I went once with American family who were visiting us for Christmas. We all got frisked and our bags checked at a security gate sort of thing. We arrived at 8am and it was already busy. American visitors elbowed their way to the front, we changed our minds and walked back to the car. Dh went off and found us a takeaway coffee from somewhere. We were there for hours. I think it was after 11am before the family appeared, so 3 hours sitting in the car. I don't quite know what I thought it would be like, but it was not exciting at all.

But our visitors had an amazing time. They saw the King in real life and were buzzing for days. They're visiting us again next year and talking about staying overnight to get near the front.

It takes all sorts to make an interesting world I guess.

Honestly? In these particular bizarre circumstances, I think the PofW was right not to reprimand the child. He should have just said “Thank you” on his behalf and moved on. And maybe made a mental note never never to let this happen again.

It's not reprimanding to remind a child to say 'Thank you'. It's just so routine to anyone who has ever had young children. Saying 'What do you say, Louis?' is hardly headline grabbing. Having one of the richest children in the country grabbing a giant ball of chocolate rudely is probably worse. Especially as he is already having an image curated for him as being a bit of a handful.

Ah here we go.....

The only place I ever see this mentioned is on here by you now and a previous poster who loved to talk about this.

I might well have said thank you on my child’s behalf if I judged that a strop might happen if I insisted on an over excited child saying it himself. Particularly if I was entirely responsible for the situation in the first place!

I do agree with some of this. Perhaps the Wales children need to be protected a bit more . It's a difficult one as you could say it's a rehearsal for their possibly future roles. There is a valid reason for it but yes perhaps needs to be revised.
It's akin to Harry with his children being fed to the public in partial shots in Meghan's media channels - does this create more desire for a pap to get that one shot further? At least the Wales children have some relevance to the institution. There is no obvious need for Harry's two.

And of course the Express is absolutely known for it's measured, calm reporting of all things Royal.

The "exclusion zone" is just the surrounding approx mile from the property, but in total will cover around about 6 miles (think of it as a circle drawn around the house).

It will have been put in place by the Security team and Police. It will mean ramblers/walkers will have some areas excluded, but there likely won't be residents within it. And when you live within/near an area of Crown Property estates it's part of life that security will be increased when Royals are on site, but this will have been known when you buy/rent within that area. You accept some restrictions for the cachet of the address. It's not as if there isn't plenty of other areas in Windsor Great Park to walk.

Edit - spelling and clarity

The "exclusion zone" is just the surrounding approx mile from the property, but in total will cover around about 6 miles (think of it as a circle drawn around the house).
Yeah right.

Why do you think it isn't? From the reporting that's what it is.

Edit - obviously it won't be exact, but it's not 6 miles out all round the house.

Because that would cover parts of Bracknell, Slough, Staines, and all of Windsor, plus many villages.

I wouldn’t normally give this much thought, but was with family on Christmas Day, who speak about the royals by first name only, as if discussing our actual family. They also have Sky News on permanently.
This, and the King’s speech, were featured at hourly, if not more frequent, intervals.
I guess what I’m saying is that there are people out there who really buy into the whole thing, my family members being an example. Plus, the point of the walk-as they could just wave from a car and be dropped at the church gate- is to show them in a good light on the news, it seems.
I did think they were lucky not to have someone shouting at the royals about Andrew or Fergie.

Hugging or touching the children in any way is completely inappropriate. I don’t really follow the walk. Is this the first year it’s happened?

I think people should be told that they cannot touch the children or ask for a hug or whatever It’s creepy and weird

One of the very many reasons I am glad not to be a royal is not to have my parenting scrutinised by the world. Carrying my tantrumming 2 year old out of waitrose years ago would not have been a good look I fear.

I find the whole thing odd but then if William and Kate stopped doing it - they would be heavily criticised for their laziness etc etc - they can't win really. Yet another reason I am glad not to be royal.

I actually think people should realise asking for a selfie with anyone they don't know is weird and not acceptable - be it royals or celebs and you definitely shouldn't hug other people's children. One of my children in particular would have hated this.

Presumably, it's a six-mile perimeter.

The Express are scraping the barrel to create some furore over this.

I'm familiar with Windsor Great Park & the “exclusion zone” is a very small part of it. There's a huge area still left for the public & for dog walking. And as Forest Lodge is close to a busy road it must be obvious that strong security is necessary.

That article is simply tabloid mischief making.

I agree with @MrsGusset .

I don’t know why Harry puts pictures of his children out to the world and I strongly disagree with it, but letting strangers hug your children is on a whole different level. That has the potential to go very wrong.