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| Filitheyo Island beach in the Maldives |
Such that it is a heated issue, I have held off from addressing it for a couple of days so that I could get my head around the controversy. From much reading and thought, my observations are these:
1. William and Kate are not bad parents for leaving Prince George behind...
In the last week, the royal couple were criticized for not taking their nearly eight-month old child with them, and this has led to charges about them being bad parents and not setting a good example for other parents.
Upon hearing or reading such criticism, one may conclude that Prince George was left behind with nobody to care for him. However, most media outlets have been reporting that he is being looked after by his grandparents - Michael and Carole Middleton - who have had experience raising children three times over, so it should be acknowledged that he is in good hands while his parents are away. Furthermore, while there are honest questions with regard to when parents can leave their children for protracted periods of time, this does not make the Duke and Duchess bad parents. There are many parents who decide to take a vacation without their children (including my own when I was a baby), and this does not lend to a sign of uncaring or neglect.
Of course, the parents being talked about here are no ordinary couple. They are the future King and Queen of the United Kingdom and members of arguably the most famous family in the world, so their every move and action are scrutinized to virtually no end, but these facts do not justify the sort of criticism they have received on this front. However, they do lead to my next observation.
2. ...however, they need to step up on royal duties.
Part of the outrage about the Maldives vacation lies in the fact that William and Kate have not carried out many public engagements since the Christmas holidays. Moreover, since the New Year began, the Duchess - with Prince George in tow - visited the private island of Mustique with her family for a week, Prince William traveled to Spain to do a bit of hunting, and now there is the current vacation.
All of these things add up to give the appearance of a royal couple failing to do their bit, whilst enjoying the perks of royal life without bearing the responsibilities.
On this count, there also needs to be a cooling of heads. William and Kate have been carrying out a public royal workload since their wedding, which has included events marking the Diamond Jubilee in the UK, being goodwill ambassadors during the 2012 Olympics, and the extensive Jubilee tour of southeast Asia. In addition, it should be noted that there is much royal work that takes place behind the scene's, such as planning and scheduling engagements, hosting private receptions, having meetings with key people, dealing with mail and other communication, preparing for engagements, and etc. In this light, one can believe that preparations for the Australian and New Zealand tour has taken a good chunk of their time in the last few months.
It must also be remembered that they are now parents and that some priority must be given to raising Prince George, and that at this stage in their lives, they are gradually getting their feet planted in the everyday machinery of the monarchy.
And of course, unlike most of us, their personal lives are never entirely private. Even now, there is no doubt in my mind that some photographers are (or have been) attempting the find ways of getting a shot of the couple on the beach.
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| Royal engagements and tours are time-consuming in their planning and execution |
Nevertheless, there is the perception that they are living off the taxpayers with not much to show for it. If Kate or William (or both) had carried out a set of engagements in the previous week or two weeks, and then took this vacation as a respite before the three-week long tour Down Under in April, I do not believe the backlash against the vacation would have been as significant.
Some commentators have argued that the problem is the image created by the press of William and Kate being "just like us" - with the suggestion that they would live humbler lives with no maids, nannies, or other other perks of being royal - and that recent events (i.e., Prince George getting a nanny) have caused disappointment amongst supporters of the couple.
This may be true, but at the same time, I do believe that it does damage to the monarchy when its members are seen going on multiple vacations (in exclusive locations) outside of the UK throughout the year, especially during this age of austerity when people are being told - in many ways - "we're all in this together." Such actions do little to engender such togetherness and only serves the interests of cynics who see the monarchy as entrenching wealth and privilege. In this sense, the trip is also a public relations issue for which the Palace ought to have been prepared.
Hopefully, the Duke and Duchess will step up their royal commitments after the Down Under tour to avoid squandering the fount of goodwill that has been built-up over decades by other members of the Royal family, including the Queen herself.
Having said all of this, all of us must also remember the the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are humans, and like the rest us, they will make missteps as they go through life. To expect that they would ever be perfect in our expectations for them is false and unrealistic. At this stage in their lives, they are settling themselves into a full working royal life while also raising a child, and they are doing this under the glare and scrutiny of the media - which is something few people have to endure. In time, it is my belief that they will find that balance between public duties and personal needs. Indeed, they may even surprise us - like William and Harry lending a hand with flood relief in southern Britain last month - by being more hands-on than their predecessors. The survival of the monarchy will depend on their ability to maintain and deepen the connections between Crown and People.
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