Down to earth Duchess! Kate Middleton dons a cosy beanie and £160 navy quilted Barbour jacket as she marks Children’s Mental Health Week with a selfie video during jog in the Norfolk countryside
- Kate Middleton, 39, shared message to mark Children’s Mental Health Week
- Mother-of-three donned a cosy grey beanie with huge a fluffy bobble for clip
- The Duchess of Cambridge said appealed to parents to ‘look after’ themselves
- Comes after royal confessed she was finding parenting in lockdown ‘exhausting’
The Duchess of Cambridge appeared stylishly low-key as she marked Children’s Mental Health Week with a video released today.
Kate Middleton, 39, appeared to be speaking from the grounds of her Norfolk home of Anmer Hall where she is spending lockdown with Prince William, 38, and their three children, Prince George, 7, Princess Charlotte, five, and Prince Louis, two.
The duchess donned a cosy navy beanie with a huge fluffy bobble and a £160 navy quilted Barbour jacket during the clip, in which she appealed to parents to ‘look after’ themselves during this ‘hugely challenging time’.
Kate said mothers and fathers need to be ‘the very best versions of ourselves for the children in our care’ in her address.
The message comes after the royal confessed parenting during lockdown has left her ‘exhausted’ and joked about her children recoiling in ‘horror’ when she became their hairdresser.
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The Duchess of Cambridge, 39, (pictured) appeared stylishly low-key as she marked Children’s Mental Health Week with a video released today
Kate has supported the annual Children’s Mental Health Week since it was launched in 2015 – to highlight the importance of children and young people’s mental health – by Place2Be, a children’s mental health charity of which she is royal patron.
In her message, Kate said: ‘This year’s Children’s Mental Health Week is all about expressing yourself – about finding creative ways in which to share your thoughts, ideas and feelings.
‘So whether that’s through photography, through art, through drama, through music or poetry – it’s finding those things that make you feel good about yourself.
‘And while this is Children’s Mental Health Week there has never been a more important time to talk about parental wellbeing and mental health too.
Kate Middleton appeared to be speaking from the grounds of her Norfolk home of Anmer Hall where she is spending lockdown with Prince William, 38, and their three children, Prince George, 7, Princess Charlotte, five, and Prince Louis, two (pictured together)
‘Last year you told me just how important this was, that many of us find it hard to prioritise. This is a hugely challenging time for us all so please look after yourself too.
‘Find those ways in which to share your thoughts and your feelings or find someone to talk to because we really do need to be the very best versions of ourselves for the children in our care.’
Last year Kate released the findings of her landmark study on the early years development of children.
The research revealed that while 90 per cent of people acknowledged maintaining parental mental health was crucial to supporting the health and happiness of their child, in practice the majority of parents struggled to prioritise their own wellbeing.
To start Children’s Mental Health Week – February 1-7 – Place2Be has teamed up with Oak National Academy and Bafta Kids to create a free assembly celebrating this year’s theme of ‘Express Yourself’.
The duchess (pictured) donned a cosy navy beanie with a huge fluffy bobble and a £160 navy quilted Barbour jacket during the clip, in which she appealed to parents to ‘look after’ themselves during this ‘hugely challenging time’
The online event begins at 9am on Monday and will feature Blue Peter’s Lindsey Russell and CBBC presenter Rhys Stephenson alongside other famous faces.
Last week, Kate took part in a candid discussion with three parents, whose children attend Roe Green Junior School in Kingsbury, north-west London, alongside headteacher Melissa Loosemore, in which she confessed her struggles during the pandemic.
As part of a ‘show and tell’ exercise during the video call on Tuesday, the headteacher instructed the group to write down answers to questions with the first request – ‘one word that describes parenting during this pandemic’.
The future queen held aloft the word ‘exhausting’ while others joined in with similar sentiments including ‘hectic’, ‘patience’ and ‘challenging’.
Last week, the Duchess revealed parenting during lockdown has left her ‘exhausted’ and joked about her children recoiling in ‘horror’ when she became their hairdresser
After being asked to explain her decision by the headteacher, Kate said: ‘I think as parents you’ve the day-to-day elements of being a parent, but I suppose during lockdown we have had to take on additional roles that perhaps others in our communities, or in our lives, would have perhaps supported us and helped us with.’
Chuckling, Kate added: ‘I’ve become a hairdresser this lockdown, much to my children’s horror, seeing mum cutting hair.
‘We’ve had to become a teacher – and I think, personally, I feel pulled in so many different directions and you try your best with everything, but at the end of the day I do feel exhausted.’
It comes after a royal expert revealed The Duke and Duchess of are ‘very involved’ with Prince George and Princess Charlotte’s homeschooling routine at Anmer Hall.
Royal expert Katie Nicholl revealed the Duke and Duchess of are ‘very involved’ with Prince George and Princess Charlotte’s homeschooling routine at Anmer Hall
The eldest two Cambridge children ordinarily attend the prestigious Thomas’ Battersea, where school fees are up to £7,000 per term.
Royal expert Katie Nicholl claimed the royals are determined to keep their children learning practical skills amid the Covid-19 crisis, telling OK! magazine: ‘Kate is aware of screen time and tries to limit the children being exposed to too much. When the children have a break, she takes them outside, come rain or shine.’
While the family do have the help of their nanny Maria Teresa Turrion Barrallo, Katie explained that Kate and William are ‘very involved’ in the children’s schooling at home.
She said both Prince George and Princess Charlotte are ‘studious and love to learn.’
While the royal expert said the children are ‘pretty self-sufficient’ when it comes to online learning, the Duke and Duchess are keen to get their children outside into the garden to explore the outdoors world.
She explained Kate ‘wants them to get fresh air and be in nature’, and the royal couple ‘try to incorporate learning’ while out on family walks.
She added: ‘Charlotte is a massive fan of spiders and loves looking at them and learning about them, so they go on spider hunts so that she can see them up close and then let them go.’
And it’s not just geography lessons that the Duke and Duchess are keen on teaching their children. The royal expert said Kate ‘loves to paint’ with the children and ‘isn’t afraid’ for her children to ‘get messy with it.’
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