Prince George at Eton

[squashyhat]

Can anyone explain why Prince George is boarding at Eton when the family home is just minutes away across the river?

If you feel such benevolent concern for him , why exactly did you call him a brat? , to quote the usual….you don’t know him.🤷‍♀️

Do you even really care? Where’s @CoffeeCantata

I don’t think someone being horrible is an automatic sign of jealousy, no. I think that’s lazy thinking.
There are many more likely and obvious reasons.

i also think people who run to jealously as an automatic reason for unkindness must be default be quite jealous personalities themselves, because they haven’t realised that jealousy is just a personality trait, and not everyone feels it.

Where did I call him a brat?

Uuummmmm . . . . they're not sending him to the Falkland Islands. He's literally minutes away from Windsor. It's very well known that Prince William used to go to tea at Windsor Castle with HMQEll each week and I can't imagine the Princess of Wales (who was removed by her parents from the first boarding school she attended due to her unhappiness) won't be in close contact to ensure that he settles in OK and is happy

Do you mean the hypothetical "opportunities"? Yeah. I realise they're hypothetical. I imagine it's hypothetical for you to say you'd never murder anyone, or never hijack a car, or whatever, but also that you're fairly sure you wouldn't? Likewise, I haven't been offered a place at Eton for my son, but I'm as sure as it's possible to be, in the hypothetical, that I'd turn it down.

I get the sense from your post you think speaking in hypotheticals means what I'm saying isn't worth listening to. Do you never read fiction? Seems like a related thing to me: using the imagination to explore possibilities we haven't experienced...?

'Poor wee boy'? He's a strapping 13-yr old who will have had some say in it and it's not for weeks at a time as they have regular home visits. I couldn't have held a child of mine back from something they wanted to do (that I knew would be an amazing opportunity) just because they wouldn't see their parents for a while.

I agree. I think it’s fair to say that H wasn’t best-fitted for Eton but in the circumstances and having lost a parent, the priority was for him to be with his brother and to be near Granny at Windsor.

Speaking personally, though, how any child could fail to be captivated by history as a subject baffles me! You can be a scientist, a mathematician, a doctor- whatever - but to have no interest in the past…to me, that IS weird!😲

Jealousy means fearful someone will take what is their own.

Envy is wishing they had something another person possesses.

If you think no one here wishes they could give their own children the kind of education that George will have at Eton, then I have a bridge to sell you.

If you think that feeling doesn’t cause people to say stupid shit about a child then I say you’re wrong.

He can’t “go outside”? Have you seen where they live? All the places they get to go and things they get to experience. You don’t think anyone here feels envious of that?

He may be just at the age where he’s desperate to get away from family life and Eton will embrace him. I bet he’ll love it.

He’s not going to sea for 6 months!

I understood from @SwanUpmanship "The ethos is for the boys to immerse themselves fully in the life of the school, including activities outside the classroom, clubs, sports etc. They're only allowed a limited number of 'exeats' - days/afternoons away - during any given term."
that he wouldn't be able to go home and have dinner with his parents and siblings in the evening, talk about his day, reconnect with them. And if he is, great, but I suppose that's not really boarding? And wouldn't boys that age be likely to put a brave face on it, so you'd want to be seeing them daily to know they were ok, rather than just taking it from what they said?

I don’t think it’s not worth listening to but when someone starts out with “poor wee boy” I think they are being probably trying to get under someone’s skin and not exactly worth taking much they write to heart.

I don't but I would like her to put her money where her mouth is 😉 She won't...

No, you said they are jealous of george.

Now you seem to be saying they’re jealous of his parents due to the opportunities they can offer him which a) then doesn’t explain them calling him a brat and b) it’s quite a rare person that’s jealous of them, let’s be honest.

I’m sorry, I’ve lost interest.

13 is still only a young boy, and I feel really sad for him. One of the dads at my kids school went to boarding school and said he cried every single night for the first term and his mum never knew.

But on the main point of my post - the amazing opportunity thing - & this is a genuine question from me - what age is ok to let your kid go for an opportunity that costs them time with you? Does it depend on the opportunity? I really can't think of anything that I'd let my kids leave home & not see me for weeks for before they were late teens. 16, or even older actually. 18. I'm genuinely asking - I'm not trying to criticise or be judgy at all.

Oh. I wish I hadn't said that then. I wasn't trying to get under anyone's skin. I feel sad for him, and I don't understand the reasons for it (and I disliked the mean comments about him and his family). That's all.

My friend turned down the possibility of Eton for her son.
He never actually applied so he might not have got in, but his father went there and his father in law offered to pay for him to go too.
The fil wouldn’t give my friend any money for her daughter (his granddaughter) to have private education though - so she and her husband told him they couldn’t accept.

Hi folks

Can we keep things civil, please?
Further posts that derail the discussion and attack other posters will likely result in suspensions.

Yeah definitely, I think lots of 13 year olds are desperate to get away from family life. But they're completely wrong about that (unless the family is awful), as 13 year olds are about a lot of things. As Gabor Mate says, hold on to your kids.

There is always someone prettier, richer, smarter, more privileged than you. Simple fact of life. The sooner you accept it, the better for your own mental health and sense of self worth. There is always someone worse as well, even for some of the more malicious posters on this thread. Worse exists.

Maybe be happy that a young boy has started secondary school with a smile on his face. Most people are.

Can you do us a favour and actually review the posters contributions before you do anything like that, I’ve already been accused of calling George a brat when I did nothing of the sort. I’ll be furious if those trouble
makers get genuine posters suspended because they run to teacher and make things up.

I can answer this because before last year I would never have let my DC go to boarding school because I would have missed them too much not to have dinner together every night.

However our family went through a serious medical emergency and it meant both parents being out of the house for hours at a time, then many medical professionals coming in and out of the house, home became very stressful and upsetting. We also live very in a very rural place and while before we'd been able to facilitate car rides to DC's friends houses, activities, hobbies etc, that started to become much more difficult.

Boarding school had been talked about before this as DH's family all went, but it started to feel like a really good option. DD16 was really open to it and it's ended up being amazing. She's only 25 minutes away in the car, comes home nearly every weekend, we text every day, she's got a fantastic group of friends she can hang out with every day and access to amazing facilities for sports and hobbies. Class sizes are an unexpected bonus too - our state school had 25-30 kids in a class - now they range from 6-10 students per class.

Knowing what I know now and how she's responded to the school it would have been the best choice for her without our medical emergency being the catalyst.