As many have pointed out, it really does seem like the Duchess of Cambridge (specifically) has been tasked with doing as many photo-ops as possible with people of color in the wake of Sussexit. Even more specifically, Kate’s been spending a lot of time posing with black and mixed race children. Kensington Palace often sets up events so that Kate will be photographed with kids of all races, but ever since you-know-who left, so many of the kids chosen for Kate’s events and photo-ops are children of color. It’s becoming quite obvious and notable.
Is it possible that it’s especially notable for the past week because of Kate’s Struggle Survey and the half-assed launch of her Early Years initiative? Perhaps. Kate’s done a steady stream of appearances to promote the survey in the past nine days or so, and many of the events have involved various kids’ programs. It’s absolutely a good thing that Kate is highlighting and drawing attention to those programs. But it kind of sucks that the programs are only getting highlighted in association with the Struggle Survey. But good news, the survey is working! Or something.
More than 100,000 people have already answered Kate Middleton’s groundbreaking survey about early childhood — in just one week. The royal mom of three is polling parents, caregivers and professionals about the early years of children’s lives. The U.K.-wide initiative, called the 5 Big Questions on the Under Fives survey, was launched last Tuesday and Kate, 38, promoted it again on Wednesday as she visited LEYF (London Early Years Foundation) Stockwell Gardens Nursery & Preschool in London, where she helped prepare the children’s breakfasts.
There, she said she wanted “to hear society’s views about raising the next generation,” adding, “I’m so happy that over 100,000 people from all across the U.K. have already completed it, and I can’t wait to see the results,” PA Media wire service reported.
The survey is active for a month, and experts from Ipsos Mori will then use the data to formulate a report for Princess Kate and the Royal Foundation. The findings are expected to help guide Kate in her public work in the area for many years ahead.
Palace sources say they don’t have a target number in mind, but are thrilled that so many people have already participated.
“The more people who take part shows there are more people engaging in the conversations across the country,” one source tells PEOPLE. “The more people who are thinking about this issue and talking about it, the better.”
Kate has spent eight years immersing herself in the research and new thinking about the early years of childhood development.
I… still can’t believe that the official story is that Kate spend EIGHT YEARS “immersing” herself in early childhood development and all we got is: A) a five-question trash survey, B) some photo-ops where children are mostly used as props, C) the disturbing sub-argument Kate has consistently made that children’s development and mental & physical health comes down to affluence and two-parent families.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid.
This survey isn’t geoblocked. Apparently, people can even retake it? And, It got all sorts of press coverage.
And only 100,000 people have filled out the thing? In a week? That’s not great results.
Depending on how advanced the company that set it up is, they can separate results on the back end. Whenever my company sends out employee engagement surveys, we can request only one response per IP address and goetrack on the back end. That being said, that’s an awful lot of work for a five question survey.
Very few people here seem to understand backend analytics and IP sorting.
One marketing lesson I’ve always taken to heart is to keep questionnaires and surveys short and sweet.
@ Enn — as a person who will gladly take a survey, YES! If it’s too long I will quit midway through without a second thought. It’s also nice when they have the little tally at the top showing you how much more you have left to do
It’s so GROUNDBREAKING that everyone needs access to it 😂
I keep seeing this criticism, but it shows a lack of understanding of the industry. Kate didn’t just hire a local highschool kid who likes computers to put a basic contact form on a website. This was done by a company who SPECIALIZES in this kind of market research. They work GLOBALLY. They know what they’re doing. I assure you that any company who does this for a living KNOWS how to sort their results.
I know everyone wants something to be salacious about this, but this is standard stuff for this industry.
It has also been mentioned repeatedly that these types of surveys are not intended for stats gathering, they are to promote awareness and “buy in” for next stages.
yagotme what way the survey helps in next steps? this is just random survey when you ask in hotels like did you like your stay? how do you rate your service ? find solution is different than next step. this survey she would have done in 2 years after marraige. this thing doesnt need 8 years.
If it’s all about market research and buy-in, they should stop describing it as groundbreaking.
That’s fine, but it’s well past the point for market research for Kate’s initiative, isn’t it? If anything, this survey should have been set up years ago, when she first launched her Early Years program.
@enn marketing and finding solution is two different things. if they filtered using ip then i bet the number will be far less t find solutions. i know many uk people of age frm 25 to 40 who are parents none of them knows about this survey and i pointed this to them and they dont seems to care. which makes me thing that most of kate stans are from usa and rest of the world. only few in uk, those ppl might take those survey to get her success in that project the same way they create multiple fake accounts so they will stay ahead of sussex instagram (now both are equal in number). how randomly asking ppl to fill the survey is going to help. i mean ppl in london and major cities have more acces to technology and help but ppl in those village? their child support is diiferent from the amount of help access in city. without sorting these major problems along with racial community, single parents, gay parents dividos are there and each and evryone of them have different view, just randomly asking is so dumb, poor, middle and rich have different approach to life and so does their kids.
Ipsos Mori, the company conducting the survey, is literally one of the biggest companies in the market research industry. They don’t appear to consider “randomly asking” like this as being “dumb” and if anyone should know this, it’s them. They especially wouldn’t want to flub something as high profile as this.
Some people seem a bit keen (lol) to jump all over everything related to this woman, but perhaps it’s best to save the scandalised comments for the frequent occasions when they’re actually warranted.
“i know many uk people of age frm 25 to 40 who are parents none of them knows about this survey and i pointed this to them and they dont seems to care.”
They’re part of the problem – people SHOULD care about the issues facing families. I’m not saying they should care because it’s Kate, but the overall ‘meh’ response that some people in the actual area have is part of the overall problem. Too many people just don’t care – but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t.
Look, I don’t think this was some kind of fantastic innovative project from Kate. I am 100% in agreement that it is ridiculous that it took this long to actually come out with something – especially something so simple. But sharing incorrect information to make it look like they’re purposely going to take all submissions and count them as people in the area isn’t cool. There is a legitimate firm involved in this survey. And when people don’t understand the tech industry and start making claims, I think it’s important to point out how things work.
As far as the instagram things go – this is a bit of a conspiracy that’s being spread. I have ran both SussexRoyal and the KensingtonRoyal accounts through some auditing tools ( I did this quickly, and didn’t pay for any reports, so take what you will) and they BOTH come up with very high scores in audience engagement and likes-comment ratio. Where one couple has a slightly higher score in one metric, the other has a slightly higher score in another. They’re sitting at 99% and 100% scores. I do not for a moment think that W&K are sitting around creating fake accounts. Both couples may have fake accounts following them – hell, I’ve had bots follow me. But you also have to keep in mind that when you follow someone, another related account is typically immediately suggested. And there are plenty of people who hate-follow, or follow because they cover this kind of thing for their jobs. So while it may seem suspicious because a lot of people hate the Cambridges (fairly so in many cases) – I really don’t see it being as sketchy as some people seem to think. Remember – the SussexRoyal account is just as susceptible to bot accounts as KensingtonRoyal. Follower count isn’t a direct indication on whether the people following are actual fans or not.
Aria, as a 42 year old woman who is childfree by choice, I am still invested in the factors that affect children both here in my city and across the country (US). I know that locally, our children need access to better nutrition (food deserts abound) and we need to make it easier for parents to obtain. More free preK programs and free or low cost day care would also make a huge difference in lessening the financial and mental load for parents, which in turn can allow them to spend more quality time with their children. If I can identify things that I think are important from my experience living here, I bet a lot of other non parents can too.
People not caring about this survey is not the same thing as people not caring about this issue.
Kate so far has been a dilettante who is praised for attending a three hour meeting. I wouldn’t take anything she did seriously either. She’s probably spent more time on hair and wardrobe than this issue which is why we have ridiculous statements from KP like this is a landmark survey.
The company may do their job properly but KP is the one making announcements and they’ve already revealed themselves to be disingenuous on this very issue. People are not too stupid or ignorant to understand what is happening here and they don’t need a tech background to understand it.
There is an AI program I had to use for work that analyzed bots / fake accounts and engagement stats. Since the Sussex’s started their Instagram I’ve monitored both theirs and the Kensington royal account (for personal not prof reasons).. and surprise surprise… Kensington’s grade was very low and has been getting worse since the start of Sussex royal’s Instagram. Kensington’s account started with about 60% authentic/real followers and most recently was down to around 40% while Sussex royal has consistently stayed between 85%-75%. For reference.. most celebrities and high follower accounts (5 million or more) usually have about 20% bot accounts following them.
“people SHOULD care about the issues facing families”
If they do indeed care about the issues facing families, there are other avenues through which they can contribute their perspective on this subject. It’s weird to posit this survey as some type of nadir for research into factors that affect early childhood, let alone imply that people don’t care about the issue if they don’t fill it out.
I have this image in my head of KP staff taking and retaking the survey in order to drive up the numbers. Given the approx 70 million population of the UK 100000 seems unremarkable to me.
It’s not that these types of surveys can’t be helpful for marketing/buy-in. It’s that it took 8 years to get this far and there are no clear action steps post-survey. They may take another 8 years to look at the results (/s). It looks like the initiative doesn’t have much buy-in from the people allegedly spearheading it.
@erinn i didnt mean that cambridges or sussex creating fake accounts but most of their stans are doing it. this is the same way selena and justin beiber fans do in instagram and compete with eachother. plus both accounts have many russian bots and many people say that kp doesnt have independent audit to their instagram account. i mean i belive that both accounts might buy followers which celebitry usually does but this is cheap act for them to be doing as royals. i mean one of the main problem and complain about sussex is they are behaving like celebrity and meanwhile kp staff does things like celebirty is dumb and stupid.
As for the survey and people reaction, if this was done by any proffesional people would have welcome it and brf mainly kate is doing is bad. people dont belive her cerdits for these projects because she doesnt have any work expericnces in those field and if you dont have good records on these people will hardly follow. because non professional telling them how to raise the kids is not going to help plus kate comes from previlage for not working those years and people wont take her serious. diana and meghan was smart enough to stay out of these things and stick to basic like visiting and collobrating with books deal with her name it boost the sale. with diana in aids hightlight the charity and pour money into the cause . kate should stick to basic like queen shaking hands and cutting ribbon. both kate and queen doesnt know what is to live in real world and struggle so ppl wont take them seriouly(diana, camilla ,a nne too). i take point out many times that at present younger generation of age from 18 to 40 having kids and kate doesnt have good rating with these people. thats the main reason that survey is struggling for number. kate supporters in uk are mainly of age between 50 and over. yes i know but very few of younger generation are the supputer of kate . meghan on the other hand has younger generation support and ppl related to her and understands the struggle to work in men wolrd. the older generation dont like meghan and she represents the change what they hate in diana and meghan that outshine they husband which kate never does. even in the crowd you can see older people are seen in cambridge and younger ones in sussex. simply brexit crowd support kate, non brexit type crowd support sussex. the main reason is non brexit crwds are in child bearing age and kate is not appleaing to them.
These are great numbers if the 100,000 is actually only 1,000 prisoners in Russia retaking it! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 Talk about lack of quality control. Nothing obtained by this survey with these poorly designed, meaningless questions are of any use in child development research. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: every professional person who had any part in this should be ashamed of themselves. As to the Duchess, I got nothing. She is such a disappointment. Here is a young woman who has a unique opportunity to make a real difference and she constantly rolls out mediocrity. Either that’s the level she wants to offer or she does not choose to listen to experts advising her.
TBH I’ve come to think that she is forced into the shrinking violet role. I’m not saying she’s champing at the bit to work more, but she does sometimes show genuine enthusiasm (mostly around kids and sports).
William barely seems able to put on a bespoke suit and show up most of the time.
We’ve heard that the Sussexes wanted to work more but were stifled. Same reason Prince (THE Prince!) parted ways with Warner.
So it’s not really a stretch to see that Kate might actually have been keen to do more but was shut down.
tl;dr: I blame William for all of it.
Somechick, I would believe that William is stifling Kate’s numbers against her will if the tiny bit of work she actually did was professional and meaningful. Like if he doesn’t want her doing more than 80 engagements a year, fine, but let’s have those engagements be awesome, finished projects that make a difference, and not the kind of weak-sauce “Kate is learning about textiles” stuff that she counts. This survey could have been great. It could at the very least, have know what it wants to be. Is it marketing? (For what?) is it to start a conversation? Is it to gather data? Is it to inform her next steps? She doesn’t know and the questions aren’t helpful.
Meghan didn’t do a lot of engagements but her projects always accomplished something and made a big, immediate, but long lasting impact.
I thinks it’s likely that William is lazy and doesn’t want to work and also doesn’t want to be outshone AND SO he chose a wife who was also lazy, didn’t want to work, and didn’t care to shine or make a difference. Kate seems to be able to fight for the things she really wants: she moved in with her mother for months after George was born, she’s able to go on vacation with her family a lot, she was allowed to completely redecorate her palaces with taxpayer money multiple times, she got her 3 kids instead of 2, she was able to get William to skip the Sandringham royal Christmas twice and do a Christmas pap stroll with her parents instead. She seems to be able to get what she wants when she wants it. So if she really wanted to work more often and make a difference, I bet she could make that happen.
@Amy Too, I think it’s really hard to do the type of meaningful work you’re describing here when you have a spouse that isn’t exactly the most supportive person on that front, and you don’t exactly have a history of working steadily at a job for a considerable amount of time and seeing it through to the end.
I think Kate has ideas, but she does not know how to tap into the resources she needs to implement those ideas. I don’t think she’s looking to become a workaholic, but I think that there are a few areas of interest where she’d like to do exactly what you said. However, it’s likely that she doesn’t know where to start or who to speak to in order to get the ball rolling. The only folks she can rely on are the KP staff, and they don’t seem like they’re really the brightest eggs in the bunch frankly.
But have a 100,000 people taken it or even 100,000 people from the UK? Or has it been taken 100,000 times?
You are assuming that they are IP sorting. There’s also the question of demographics. There’s also the obvious point that this survey is not going to determine the direction of her work because it’s not set up to do that and KP lied about that.
It’s not that people are too stupid or ignorant to understand that they can filter the information on the backend. People are pointing out that the priority in how it was set up is to drive up the numbers which is why all those filters and requirements were not there in the first place and is why the questions are not meaningful for gathering data.
You’re giving them the benefit of the doubt after KP has already lied about this being a landmark survey that will determine Kate’s direction for her work. It’s a cheap marketing stunt.
I took the survey walking through Target, thinking: Why is a woman in So. California allowed to give answers to non-research-based questions from KP on this soft survey, where the answers are already known? It was akin to asking if we are in favor of world peace, ending hunger, and saving the whales. Elem. Ed. is my field & I raised kids & have grandkids The questions are no more than discussion prompts for a parents’ meeting. What concrete outcomes do they hope to achieve as a result of the responses on this survey? I don’t know either.
100000 peoples not even british…
I believe the U.K. is bigger than England.
Anyone in the entire world can take the survey as many times as they’d like
across the UK? So no one has told them that anyone in the world can take it? LOL.
This survey is just…..I don’t know, lol. It doesn’t sound like she’s using this as a way to get people’s attention and then going to unveil her initiative. It sounds like this survey IS the initiative, at least at this point. The lines about “using the responses to direct her future work” and such indicate to me that she doesn’t have the next step lined up. For someone who has spent 8 years immersed in the research, shouldn’t she have the next step figured out?
the survey doesnt have the basic question which are very important like race and gender of the people. it plays a major role in developement. every race has different social economical upbringing as well as gay parents who have to face different situtaion then other familes. what about single mom? we cant just throw these important questions out of discussion then trying to find what is next step. im very curious to see what they will do with these result.
I just want to note that Ipsos Mori checks for the following:
“Country validation via Geo-IP, Mismatch between device settings and geo location” as well as checking for fresh submissions to see that – “they have not participated recently in similar surveys (Strict panel usage rules, Duplicate devices through digital Fingerprinting …).”. “They complete surveys seriously (Detection of speeders, straight liners, regular purge…)” “Unique – They can only take the survey once (Duplicates, digital Fingerprinting)”
So yes, anyone can take it anywhere, and as many times as they want… but the global research marketing company is filtering this for them.
Sure, the results can be filtered. But it still doesn’t answer the question of what the point of the survey is. people keep insisting its for PR but that really doesn’t seem like it to me.
That’s great that Ipsos Reid can find the location of the respondent but why didn’t Kate just include two questions that would have asked for 1) respondent age and 2) location? Presumably if she worked with academics and experts in the field for YEARS to develop this survey someone would have pointed out that fact to her? Asking about participant demographics is data collection 101.
I made the effort and took the survey and read the info on the 5big questions website. This is a quote:
“Our goal is to start a UK-wide conversation on the under-fives in order to build the healthiest generation in history so please do share this survey with your friends and family.”
IMO this sounds like the survey is mainly for PR.
“For someone who has spent 8 years immersed in the research, shouldn’t she have the next step figured out?”
This. It’s so hugely late for her to say that now is when she’s going to DECIDE what she’s doing with her initiative. All the research of the previous 8 years and she’s come up with a bare bones survey that doesn’t break any new ground in the slightest. She could have easily just rung up a few early childhood experts or organizations, asked them what they think is the most crucial things that are affecting children today and what they are doing to help and what she can do to assist them. What this does is call into question wtf she’s been doing research on in these past 8 years.
Frankly, the single most glaring answer she’d get from anyone she talked to and any research she’s done is that poverty is one of the biggest issues facing children and affecting them negatively today. Child poverty is on the rise in the UK, largely due to austerity measures. And the only way to alleviate that is to push for policies that lift austerity and start investing in social welfare again. But it’s doubtful that Kate would ever wade into such waters, tbh. It’s controversial and political, and she’d rather keep it light and breezy.
I think it’s unfair to say that she conflates a good childhood with affluence and the presence of two parents. From my understanding, she seems more to be focusing on the importance of early intervention and breaking the cycle between bad childhoods and subsequent bad parenting.
However, I teach in a wealthy area but we have loads of kids who are suffering a crap childhood- they have two parents and loads of cash, but their parents are time poor and their days involve long stretches of indoor wraparound care, poor diets, poor oral health and tech use.
I have loads of criticisms to make about the weird survey, but it’s got me talking and discussing it here and 100,000 other people are doing the same. So, good on her and I hope it’s just the start of something really significant.
the survey doesnt have the basic question which are very important like race and gender of the people. it plays a major role in developement. every race has different social economical upbringing as well as gay parents who have to face different situtaion then other familes. what about single mom? we cant just throw these important questions out of discussion then trying to find what is next step. im very curious to see what they will do with these result. 100000 people are mostly her stans like in instagram who created many fake accounts so they beat sussex instagram account. the same way those stans might taken those survey many times and majority of them dont live in uk.
So happy about an embarrassingly basic survey that anyone in the world can easily take? Sounds like Kate alright. Half-assed, minimal “effort” with all the focus on PR and keeping up appearances. Of course some will whine about her critics not giving her enough credit, but credit for what exactly? There is absolutely nothing to praise her for.
Whatver. I was one of them.
Signed,
American and Childfree
Me too!
Canadian and childfree
Did you just take it because you enjoy surveys aye?
I know I only spent two years studying Sociology but… THIS SURVEY WOULD BE UNACCEPTABLE FOR FRESHMEN STUDENTS.
The sample isn’t defined as anyone, everywhere can take it; you can triangulate or segment according to anything unless you steal all the metadata of the participant; the questions are so generic and trivial that they are almost designed to provide zero insight.
I’ve seeb better on Google Forms. Take a good look Britain, this is what social studies will look like in Boris Johnson’s England.
I thought the same thing when I saw the survey. My professor would have laughed in my face if I thought that was acceptable.
Surveys cans be short, sweet, AND meaningful.
She really needs to stick with the bread and butter show up and wave engagements.
Because people continuing to lower the bar for her aren’t doing her any favors. She just looks silly.
I love the little girl in the first photo. She’s like “I got your number, Duchess Dolittle. Now where’s Meghan?”
As soon as I read the title, I said to myself, “Unnecessary Meghan commentary in 3…2…” Every time!
That is an outstanding side eye
I love that little girl’s side eye! 👀
Word.
I would be embarrassed for Kate if she had any idea how embarrassing that survey was.
Talk about living in a bubble.
100,000 people? What’s the demographics?
Also that little girls face in the top photo is everything.😂
That girl in the top photo! Get me the f**k out of here…
I’m here just for that little girl’s expression!🔥
Why is the survey “groundbreaking” exactly? And if she’s so immersed in 8 years of research, why is she crowdsourcing her next steps based on vague questions?? I feel like Kate is now in a tricky position because early childhood seems like a warm fuzzy thing that everyone can agree on, but to actually effect structural or cultural change would require big political buy in and lots of funding. Why doesn’t she work on creating more children’s gardens in low income areas or youth sports programs etc instead of trying to make it seem like she’s going to change the way society parents or something?
yes finally someone saying this. she is not academic to find these solution . i mean she cant stick to basic like queen show up , make a speech and shake few hands and leave. or just visit random foundation or charity where they can get free press and she cut the ribbon and go. these finding solution is done now because in two years meghan done cookbook which helps in money and those books will forever will bring money to those charity. what kate does in 8 years? thats why they rushed this survey to make it look good on her. but this is dumb.
Combination of issues:
Lack of real life problem solving experience + Lack of imagination
I wonder how many of them are Brits
I’m completely aware this is most likely a PR survey used to drum up interest. My issue is why she’s doing this 2 years later when this should have most likely been done in the beginning.
The survey can’t have it both ways. Either it is a poorly drafted set of questions that won’t collect any information of value and wouldn’t meet any standard undergraduate level sociology research methods course, or it’s correctly drafted as a PR survey, which is not groundbreaking, and the media and KP are being deceptive about the true purpose of the survey, which is to make Kate look like she did something. And whoever started to pretend she had worked on this for eight years only makes Kate look worse. It’s half ass regardless of what type of survey it’s supposed to be. No one worked on this for more than eight weeks much less eight years.
Kate doesn’t have the intellectual heft or the work ethic for a project like this and it shows. Most people launch something like this with an actual speech outlining their objectives. Kate has said nothing directly but only through intermediaries and it’s all vague nonsense. Instead she poses for pictures that frame her as enthusiastic around kids.
My big question about this is- who owns these data? The Royal Foundation or an international market research firm? And if it’s the latter, what is their stake in this- what do they want to use the data for?
omg lise my thoughts too. we already have many data breach by those big corporate company and how they used it for money. this is why she should have stick to basic. like making muffins and learning or teaching cooking to people and get them self employed.
Good point about it all being filtered through various statements – that’s why we’re all going around in circles here, Kate hasn’t actually said what the heck this is all about!!
I don’t think you even need a great deal of intellectual heft in order to do this type of work. I think you need to have good people who can help guide you appropriately, if you choose to accept their help. But given the way the staffers at KP exposed their own lack of work ethic by pissing all over Meghan for being proactive, I’m not surprised at the way this has all shaken out.
Doesn’t look like anyone spent more than eight minutes on it, never mind eight months.
And I don’t think whoever wrote it in KatieKeen’s stead (because come ON, she’s not capable enough to produce even this shambolic excuse for a “survey” on her own) gave even a whiff of thought to infosec.
So tired of these people at KP demanding fireworks and plaudits for missing the mark on achieving the bare freaking minimum.
Haha…dumb survey lol. Kate and William hired former Conservative representative to be their new communicanations cheif consultant whatever. Look forward to more brainwashing of the masses, paid for by the masses.
Sigh. So embarassing whennshe can actually make a difference with smaller targeted goals.
They should be careful about punting around this figure as when they do their data cleanup to exclude non UK replies and multiple submissions the figure will be quite low – I haven’t seen any other marketing for the survey other than what the main stream media is saying.
After the embiggening comes the fall.
The last statement of this piece, that they believe mental health is tied to affluence and two parents, is so interesting, given this toxic and dysfunctional family. They have all the money in the U.K. and two parents at the helm, and look at all the mental health struggles they have faced. Indeed, I’m sure they would like to think they are superior due to these factors, but they regularly sacrifice each other to gain ground, they defend pedophiles, they can’t communicate except through courtiers, and they drove out two of the stars of the next generation. But hey, they’ve got money and a two-parent “household”, so clearly they’re better than most.
Both Kate and William has pushed this for the past 2 years, go back and listen to previous speeches they have given on the subject esp Kate. They are ignoring the fact that many children suffer from medical conditions that affect their MH.
spot on
This is actually an extremely egregious assertion that they’re making tbh, on two fronts at least. 1) It implies that single-parent families are not conducive to a child’s mental health without a further explanation as to why that is, and 2) that children born into stable, two parent households with plenty of money to spare can’t have issues.
The first is just a disgustingly Tory talking point that they’re parroting, and frankly, it’s easy to see why they adhere to that type of thinking. The fact that they see these issues as things they can tackle outside of the political realm when anyone would tell you that the govt needs to invest more is the key issue here is depressingly normal for them, if you ask me. It’s a broader reflection of the common attitudes held by the British upper-class. “The govt is not responsible for alleviating poverty,” is what Priti Patel said quite smugly this election. Examine this in conjunction with William stating quite plainly that he wants to “help communities help themselves,” and you can see quite clearly what the BRF’s values and focus is going to be moving forward.
What struck me about the Instagram for this is that it looks like a clothing catalog photoshoot.. The kids seem to be window dressing.
Also, on what platform are they running this survey? Is the data just out there to be scraped and manipulated, or is it protected in any way? Surveys are a known way that Cambridge Analytica (now Emerdata) targeted individuals on Facebook.
That side-eye is so good! The survey is a joke if people outside of the U.K. can take it. What a mess! Throw the whole thing away and start over.
Anyone know what she plans to do with the results of the survey? Fundraise? Develop programs?
According to US and Cosmo, Kate is so stressed right now, working 18 days and worried about her workload doubling. Oh and she’s crying and missing her “close relationship” with Harry 🙄
That’s how quickly the media narrative changes. Just last week, it was Kate the calm and steady as she goes.
I guess KP realized how stupid the survey came across and are now setting up the “blame the Sussexit” when nothing comes of it.
Kate was so upset by Meghan stealing Harry away to Canada that she is going to need ANOTHER 8 years before she can share the results of the survey.
When the shade is so on point you need to go out and buy lightbulbs.
A+ Lise!
I saw that claim, too. I wonder if she really is working 18 hour days. She does look absolutely exhausted, stressed and ill, so maybe it is true. I know working behind the scenes at just one school fundraiser can eat up my days, my patience and my sleep. We have seen a lot of her in public recently, so maybe she is genuinely overwhelmed behind the scenes. If she really is an introvert, that would double the stress.
Some people like Meghan are energized by all of this kind of activity. I’m not one of them. And though I’m not a Kate fan, I will give her the benefit of a doubt that she’s not one of them either and this is killing her.
Which is why she needed to stand up for her brother and sister-in-law. Even better, it’s why she should have told her mother to jump in the Thames and then gone on to marry a wealthy banker or something. But this is the life she let herself get railroaded into and now everyone’s stuck with whatever this initiative is. Oh joy.
i hardly doubt she works for 18hours a day. but i can get your point though. if she is introvert then she should not choose this life. she should have marry like pippa and be rich trophy wife. these things needed to be seen and she was grown up with watching what royal family does and she does have all those waiting years. if she is not interested in working then she should have back off. instead marrying for title and tiara makes things worst for her. thats why people dont feel empatic towards her.
Who knows why she’s “stressed”, if she actually is. Would not want to be alone in a room with William right now. The fact is they are just going to be domestic news from now on.
I think Kate fucked up choosing childhood development as her “cause”. I think she chose it because she likes kids and finds them easier to interact with than adults.
But the problems she wants to solve are hugely exacerbated by cuts in the social security net, cuts in community programs. Essentially, cuts by the Tories. Ie. The people surrounding Will & Kate and who their support base are. Reactionaries.
I suspect Kate thinks the problems are down to those poors and minorities and their bad parenting. And wants to be the white saviour coming in to help everyone learn how to parent.
When actually the problem is structural and sanctioned by the same system that supports her.
I don’t think Kate has the mental capacity to realise that.
i understand your point but bad parenting does not associates with any soical community. i mean i have seen single poor mother kids comes out best and even in minority too. look at william and kate both comes from rich privalge background , how they turn out.
@aria Those are not my views. They are the views of a lot of white upper class people in the UK.
Kate has never significantly mixed socially with working class people or minorities. She just likes to have photo ops with them.
sorry im bad i thought i was your point. yes i agree that kate doing this project is laugable and now constantly suing black /brown kids for photo op is very bad.
This exactly. In order for her “initiative” to be successful she basically has to eradicate poverty, mental illness, the class system, and entirely overhaul early childhood education, childcare, how people eat and their access to nutritious foods, and the healthcare system. Oops. That’s going to be impossible to do. Maybe she could’ve found that out during her 8 years of research. Maybe she could’ve narrowed her work down to one thing like setting up more visiting nurses to come into homes and screen children early for developmental delays and illnesses; or providing healthy and free school breakfast and lunches; or opening more of those “mommy and me” places where women can come in with their babies to visit and combat loneliness and isolation. But no, she is “fixing broken Britain” and “creating the healthiest and happiest generation of children ever.”
Because she can’t solve such huge institutional problems, I see her trying to push the focus back onto individuals and getting very reductive and simplistic in her reasonings. “Two parents are better than one. All the time, no matter what.” “Kids who play outside are healthier, so do that more often.” You need two parents, so don’t get divorced, and don’t have babies with people you’re not married to. You need to be financially independent and highly educated and mature, so don’t have kids if you’re poor or you don’t have a college degree, and kids born to teen moms are automatically screwed. Fix your mental health, don’t do drugs, and stop drinking (all on your own. Or maybe, just “talk to someone” about it.) Take your kids outside, go on family vacations to the beach, travel more often, buy a house in the suburbs with a yard and build a tree house in it. Send your kids to a good preschool, hire a multi-lingual board certified nanny. Pull yourself up by your bootstraps, basically.
It’s not that Kate doesn’t have the mental capacity to realize that. I think that she does, but she chooses not to. Frankly, the sort of things that she’s been communicating in her speeches for this initiative are actually quite telling of the types of politics she and William adhere to at large, which are firmly in line with the Tories. There are a few things that have happened in this family over the last couple of years, combined with some on the surface innocuous remarks from William especially, that make me realize that these people are far from apolitical. They have also quite clearly decided which segment of the population they’re going to cater to from now on, and it’s absolutely the white middle class Little England family of four with a 2 parent household.
Cosign.
KeenKatie is to early childhood development what Melamine Trump is to cyberbullying.
If I’d presented such a survey at postgrad level -hell, at undergraduate level – I’d have been laughed out of university. Without socioeconomic and cultural data inc gender, sexuality, age at the very least the survey is filler-fluff. Redundant.
Kate was never reckoned to be a bright spark at either school or university and has bitten off far more than she can chew. Shame she can’t ‘fess up and state all she really wants is to rear her children and lead a leisurely life. But after Sussexit and the takedown of Teflon Andy which hopefully will happen any minute now, the press will soon be seeking fresh blood
Kate just wants to spend another 8 years deciphering the survey’s data?!
Are they controlling for socioeconomic class? For geography? For healthcare and disability options? Sex and gender? Marital status? Race and ethnicity? Age? Immigration/citizenship status? What’s the sorting method? What variables are they testing for given their population data?
If they can’t even answer two of those, that survey is scientifically useless.
She looks like the sort of person who has a high pitched buzzing noise between her ears, and nothing else. If you pull her string she says “I am varry keen”.
LOL! This is the best!
LMAO. Y’all, I’m running out of lightbulbs with all this shade going on.
What is supposed to be groundbreaking about it? The palace saying so does not make it so. I wish editors would consider the meaning of words and not just blindly parrot the press release. I also don’t recall any deep commitment or passion for the early years from Kate in 2012! But hey, why bother with facts? If the palace says it is so, it MUST be so! Just ask Prince Andrew – he’ll confirm it!
I still dont understand why this is “monumental”?!! The questions with pre-determined picks of answer was so limited that I struggle to understand how it’s going to help them🤔
I’m doing my masters and although it’s a different discipline/profession I assume the research methods are same and such its hard to see how this is informative. It’s more likely a marketing approach than for research.
Either way cant believe they thought it’s a good idea to say it took her 8yrs to come up with this!🤦♀️
How embarrassing. I mean most people wouldve done masters or professorship by that time.
I cant wait to see what Meghan is up to. I’m more than certain she’s working on a few things for mayhew and national theatre+ some new ventures perhaps becoming an intern with UN or British Red Cross or NGOs to further her philanthropy efforts in commonwealth and other developing countries.
This woman depresses the heck out of me.
The fact that the survey doesn’t represent the cross section of the UK speaks volumes. It doesn’t give an honest sampling or honest perspectives on how to address childhood needs based on background. This also exacerbates the blatant lack of understanding or care from the BRF when addressing the needs of people that don’t look like them, let alone in the same class strata.
Kate is going through stress over the increased workload? She’s reaping what she’s sowed for her complicity of the Sussex smear campaign. Whoever put this story out just made Kate look really bad position wise. She is the wife of the future king of England, head of state. Kate had eight years in the Firm and during that time now only she should have developed a strong work portfolio but have the training under her to deal with unforeseen situations. She’s having a meltdown over a family feud spilling out on the front pages of the newspapers all over the world? How will she cope when William ascends to the throne and in a take of national crisis the nation would look to them? Kate’s not ready for prime time.
1. That teal coat is pretty f-cking cute, and I’m probably gonna see if I can find a vintage/thrifted version of it for myself for the winter.
2. I’ll bet $10 CAD that after they finish hyping up the struggle survey, we’ll never hear about it again because the data is going to be fundamentally unusable. The fact that the survey was not geolocked makes me wonder how they’re able to assert that 100,000 people in the UK have taken it. How can you even tell? The survey does not seem like it was put together by an actual team of childhood experts at all. It seems to me like it’s a survey that the PR rushed out in an effort to make it appear like they did something when they didn’t.
What Kate and others could have done is actually work with an existing charity on this. I’ll bet there are plenty of them that do surveys and collect data on the regular. Rather than struggle with this on her own, why not just reach out to organizations that would benefit from her patronage? Why reinvent the wheel like this?
KATE! You should be proud! After all, that survey wasn’t just taken by people in the UK but all over the world! 😂😬🙄