Jubilee Focus on Kate Middleton's Parenting, Not William's, Was Sexist

The criticism of Kate Middleton's parenting during the Platinum Jubilee celebrations in the media and not Prince William's was sexist. That's according to a discussion between chief royal correspondent Jack Royston and royal commentator Kristen Meinzer on the latest episode of Newsweek's The Royal Report podcast.

The discussion comes after Kate was subject to criticism on social media and in the press after footage taken during the jubilee pageant showed her youngest son, Prince Louis, 4, acting up with his mother and covering her mouth with his hand.

Meinzer said the criticism of Kate and the assumption that the behavior of a child is their mother's responsibility is sexist. Meinzer then took to Twitter to see what the reaction would be if the headlines were reversed.

"So much of the press decided that this is a reflection of what a terrible mother Kate Middleton is," she told Royston.

"I at one point tweeted out something along the lines of 'Maybe instead of asking why Kate Middleton is such a horrible mother maybe we should ask why William is such a terrible father?'... because what I essentially did was, I took all the headlines that were saying 'why is Kate like this'... and I just changed the gender. I just switched it over to dad instead," she said.

She continued, "what I was really saying is, this is sexism. Women always get the blame if the kids behave or misbehave. What about the men?"

Royston agreed with Meinzer's position that "it's always the mom that takes the flack and gets the blame" and went on to examine the wider discourse surrounding 4-year-old Louis' behavior.

"It's weird the way that people make these huge sweeping generalizations of the back of the way that a 4-year-old behaves when he's a bit bored at a royal pageant," he said.

"On the one hand you've got people reading into what Louis is going to be like as an adult, and you've got people trying to read into what's going on at home at Kensington Palace—it's extraordinary."

Meinzer believes the criticism faced by Kate has been unfair, especially as the event in question was a three-hour-long pageant where the royal children were in view of cameras for the duration.

"I think people were being very unfair there in their criticisms," she said. "I heard some people say 'oh, but [Kate] is an advocate for early childhood care,' and it's like yes, you can be an advocate for early childhood care and still have a 4-year-old who sometimes acts like a 4-year-old. That's life."

Kate and William seemed to inadvertently respond to the commentary surrounding their youngest son's jubilee behavior in a tweet thanking the public for turning out in support of the queen.

The message from the @KensingtonRoyal Twitter account closed with the line: "We all had an incredible time, especially Louis... "

This was followed by an emoji representing a pair of eyes looking to one side. Dictionary.com identifies that emoji as serving "to draw attention to something the user wants to highlight, especially in situations that involve drama and interpersonal tension."

The post was signed "W & C," meaning "William and Catherine," which denotes the post comes from the royals themselves and not their communications team.

Despite the criticism of Kate over Louis' behavior, many on social media and in the press have defended the duchess, including childcare expert Jo Frost of television's Supernanny, who took said she was "impressed with how the Duke & Duchess of Cambridge continue to be such impressive parenting role models to our modern parents today, they are open about their own struggles as parents and like all parents out there continue to strive to do their very best in raising their young.

"Catherine has never been one to shy away from publicly giving her children a fair telling off to behave and that's a sign of a confident parent who is able to hold boundaries whilst empathetically meeting her children's needs as well as understanding the circumstances."