The Duchess of Cambridge says parenting in lockdown has left her ‘exhausted’, as she joked about her children recoiling in ‘horror’ when she cut their hair.
Kate spoke candidly about the challenges of looking after Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis during an informal chat with a group of parents and revealed husband William was her biggest support during the pandemic.
The Duchess urged people to ‘reach out to loved ones and friends’ to help them deal with any mental health problems.
Kate was taking part in a discussion with three parents, whose children attend Roe Green Junior School in Kingsbury, north-west London, alongside headteacher Melissa Loosemore.
When asked to rate her maths ability, the Duchess gave herself a score of minus five.
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 up the word ‘exhausting’ while others joined in with similar sentiments including ‘hectic’, ‘patience’ and ‘challenging’.
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.’
Laughing, she 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.’
Ms Loosemore agreed, adding: ‘Absolutely, absolutely. I think that is probably something we can all share.’