Queen Elizabeth's style as a mother apparently had a profound effect on the lives of Prince Charles, Princess Anne, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward as adults. The monarch's parenting style was, recently, explored in a new documentary special on the National Geographic.
Filmmaker Tom Jennings explored the Queen's relationship with all her four children in the documentary Being The Queen. The media, apparently, depicted her as a "hands-off mom" with a distant relationship with her children, especially Prince Charles.
Her parenting style was, also, depicted as detached in the royal drama The Crown on Netflix. Jennings said that Queen Elizabeth wasn't deliberate at being cold towards her children but it was simply how things were in the royal household.
The director said that Queen Elizabeth was trained to put the monarchy first. Her job as the monarch is apparently 20 times more demanding than any full-time work so failing to make time for family became a setback.
The Queen had to rely on nannies, tutors and boarding schools in raising her four children. Royal experts who spoke in the documentary said that, while these factors provided the royal children solid education, they lacked the nurturing and the guidance of a mother.
Apparently, this affected the royal children's own marriages since they didn't become "well-rounded human beings emotionally" as adults. Three of Queen Elizabeth's children are divorced.
However, Princess Anne spoke about her mother's parenting style in a 2002 interview with BBC. She said that she doesn't subscribe to the idea that her mother didn't have a caring bone in her.
The Princess Royal said that she and her siblings understood their limitations and the responsibility their mother had to carry as a monarch. However, she refused to acknowledge Queen Elizabeth didn't care for her children.
Meanwhile, another documentary revealed that Queen Elizabeth was jealous of one of Prince Charles' nannies because of their special bond. The Queen and Charles: Mother and Son tackled Helen Lightbody, who served the royal family from 1948 and 1956.
Royal biographer Penny Junor said that Prince Charles mostly stayed with Lightbody at his nursery in Buckingham Palace as a child. He was closer to her than anyone else and she practically raised the future king.
As an adult, this distant parenting was evident when Charles became a dad to Prince William and Prince Harry. His hands-off approach, just like his mother, was even more obvious because Princess Diana was a very hands-on mother.
However, royal experts, also, said that Prince Charles is very different as a grandfather. He is, personally, guiding Prince George and passing on some of his passion to his first grandson. He even relishes in the embraces of his grandchildren. The heir to throne doesn't withhold showing affection for his grandkids, even in public.
