After selling details of her wedding and basically getting a fully sponsored honeymoon/tour, are you surprised that Pippa Middleton hasn’t “sold” photos of her son Arthur Matthews? I am. I thought there would be a big, splashy baby photoshoot in People or Hello or hell, maybe even Tatler. I thought Pippa would shift her brand from “fitness, party-planning and Pippa Tips” to “the motherhood industrial complex.” But she really hasn’t. She’s written about her pregnancy and postpartum fitness a bit, and she’s gotten pap’d with the baby a few times, and maybe those are “set up” shoots, but still… have we ever seen this child’s face? So… props to Pippa for actually keeping her son private. She’ll still talk about him generally though, like when she’s talking endlessly about fitness:
Pippa Middleton has the perfect gym buddy: her 11-month-old son, Arthur! Kate Middleton‘s younger sister documented how she stayed active during her pregnancy last year, and now she’s continuing her Waitrose Weekend fitness column by sharing how little Arthur is following in her footsteps by attending a baby gym.
“Now that Arthur is 11 months old and more mobile, I have been trying to come up with different activities to do with him,” she wrote. “I needed to find something more than just park walks in the pram. Our local baby gym has been a saving grace. It’s a big space full of fun, soft objects, play mats, stairs, balls, swings, mini trampolines and more to stimulate and physically engage babies and toddlers.” Pippa, 36, explained that in addition to free play, there are classes with “structured activities that help promote movement, balance and strength.”
“Arthur burns lots of energy in this safe environment and learns many physical skills,” the mother of one said. “I have also noticed him building his confidence with each visit.”
Pippa previously revealed that at 6 months old, Arthur was already loving the water (after sharing how swimming helped her stay fit during pregnancy). “Starting my son Arthur swimming at four months old has given him confidence and enjoyment in water,” she wrote. “He’s now six months old, and swimming is one of our favorite activities. The exercise helps guarantee sound daytime sleeps, and the movement has improved his digestion.”
I totally forgot about the baby swimming class and that “the movement has improved his digestion.” Congrats, Arthur. Now everyone knows that swimming = pooping. As for baby gyms… before I actually read her words, I thought she was talking about a gym which is friendly to moms, like they have in-house day-care, which my gym has. That’s the only baby gym I will accept! I guess Arthur’s baby gym is just foam everything. No treadmills, no weights. I realize it’s good to start kids early with fitness, and it’s also good to introduce kids to new environments and all that. But it does seem like Pippa is going pretty hard that her 11-month-old baby needs to be FIT more than anything else.
Photos courtesy of WENN, Backgrid and Avalon Red.
It does not sound like she wrote those quotes. Instead they sound like yummy mummy soundbites and the sort of shyte Waitrose Mag peddles.
Btw Waitrose is a supermarket for US readers.
Oh good lord-my daughter is 21 and when she was a baby I took her to Gymboree classes. This is hardly a new phenomenon.
Exactly. One may call them “gym” but really, we’re talking about indoor baby playgrounds. That’s it, been around for a while… everywhere from the local Y to Gymboree and so on. I mean, who doesn’t know about these places????
@vauvert, people who don’t have kids, don’t know. I had no idea before i became a mom myself. Everything was like a whole new world for me with a baby. I mean, i always loved babies and had enough friends with babies but it’s a whole different thing to have one and be introduced to all the things parents do with their babies. Like baby swim, baby gym, baby dance, yoga etc. This baby gym thing is popular.like you said, It’s basically a indoor playground, where moms can communicate and whine about not having enough sleep 😉 like me
Exactly! Pippa tip: children enjoy playing. Try going to indoor play spaces with mats and foam.
That photo with the sunglasses and the off-white dress – she looks like she’s in her 50s. Sun damage is not a good thing.
I don’t think of Pippa as being particularly “fit.” Thin, yeah. Maybe I haven’t seen the right photos of her but she just looks like an average thin person to me, not like she has a great amount of muscle definition.
This is pretty commonly called “open gym” over here. It’s not about fitness. It’s about tiring your kid out so they’ll nap and you get a break. Don’t let anyone tell you different.
Yeah, it’s a way to wear your kid out and for moms to get out. I did it way back when.
Exactly. That’s also why I put my kids in swim lessons at 6 Months. Yes, swimming is an important life skill, but it also induced the best naps EVER lol
Glad she’s getting out with her little one and for someone who has access to the best, those dresses are fug.
Pippa’s Parenting Tips: “It’s brilliant to take your baby to a place where he can do fun stuff with soft things!”
I think it’s the way she describes it that lends people to think she means FIT. These gyms are designed to help with gross motor development and be sensory friendly as well as give babies a chance to socialize. I started my son in one when he was 6 months old. It gave me a chance to meet other new parents. We are still friends with some of the children from that class.
Ah no. I don’t generally like her, but she definitely is very fit. If you look up pictures of her doing marathons, long distance cross-country skiing races, triathlons, etc, you’ll see that she definitely is fit and has tons of muscle tons esp in her legs.
I find it funny that in both quotes, about swimming and gym, she mentions her baby’s confidence levels. Really? You’re thinking about your infant in terms of how much confidence and self esteem he has? I guess I get what she means—he enjoys it more each time, he’s less shy with the other kids and instructors. But the specific mentioning of his “confidence” sounds so new-age and Goop-like to me. “Does your infant have low self esteem? Read our listicle and find out! Babies with low self esteem should learn a new skill like swimming! Or should regularly get a chance to crawl on mats and put gym-like toys in their mouthes!” because you know that’s all “baby gym class” is at that age. It’s you chasing your baby around while he sprint-crawls into other children and puts jump rope handles in his mouth.
Typical Middleton PR!🙄
I just don’t get the hype with Pippa? She’s just so blah.
And I’m sorry, just she has the most unattractive and man-ish face.