Kate admits to ‘ups and downs’ of parenting during children’s centre visit
The Duchess of Cambridge said she has experienced the "ups and downs" of parenting during a visit to a children's centre in south-west London.
On Tuesday, she spent time at the Henry Fawcett Children’s Centre in Oval where she played with children and talked to their parents.
The children took well to the duchess, with 23-month-old Kamia Perry, whose twin sister Kashay was nearby, smiling and reach out to Kate after stumbling over to the duchess during playtime.
Finesse Perry, the children's mother, said: "She asked me what it’s like having twins and I said it’s double trouble and she said like with her own children you have your ups and downs."
Kate, who wore a Gucci blouse and trousers by Jigsaw, was also taken with Kameron Batta, aged nine months, and held out her hands as he tried to walk from his mother Kriti Batta, 35, when the parents gathered together to have a chat.
The young mother from Vauxhall, south London, said: "She was saying Louis does this and she was just helping him to balance."
The duchess, who is mother to Prince George, Princess Charlotte and baby Prince Louis, has established a steering group to explore how best to support academics, practitioners and charities in their work to provide children with the best start in life.
The Lambeth Early Action Partnership (Leap) uses the centre Kate visited to provide early years services for parents and children aged up to five in parts of the borough of Lambeth.
The programme is replicated in four other areas of the UK – Bradford, Nottingham, Blackpool and Southend-on-Sea – and all have been funded under the 10-year Better Start initiative from the National Lottery Community Fund.
Laura McFarlane, director of Leap, joined Kate and others in a discussion about the project and said afterwards: "It really is very important the fact that Kate has come to see at very close hand how we actually support parents in terms of developing stronger relationships with their children.
"I think the importance of intervening early she really understood that, early intervention in the early years is critical it could be the foundation on which we build better, stronger adults."