Ah … a dressing-down by one’s own sweet son, regarding one’s ability to play soccer. Is there a crueler fate? A sharper knife with which to be stabbed, speaking metaphorically? Can a mother experience a hotter shame than when her soccer skills are taken to task by the tiny soul she has nurtured, both inside and out? No, I’d have to say a mother certainly cannot.
Kate Middleton recently found this out the hard way.
While Kate and Prince William were on a two-day tour of Northern Ireland, during which she pulled a pint of Harp beer and wore a lot of blue, the duo stopped by Windsor Park Stadium in Belfast. There, they learned about the Irish Football Association’s community soccer projects, and took to the field to kick around a ball with a group of young girls.
According to the Telegraph, Kate shared her sporting shame when she and Prince William were talking to the group about their love of soccer or, as it is elsewhere known, football:
The Duchess told secondary school pupils that her five-year-old son, Prince George, is now learning to play football, practising at home and telling her: “Mummy, you’re so rubbish.”
Oh, no. Oh, Mummy. Oh, sweet rubbish Kate, merely trying her best on the soccer field, kicking and … kicking, oh, and head-butting. Scoring goals, or not scoring them, as the case may be. Cut down to size by her own flesh and blood! She reportedly added, joking to soothe the burn of humiliation, “I should have picked up some tips from George.”
Indeed, Kate Middleton. Take this critique as motivation. Perhaps one day it will be you who tells Prince George that he is rubbish at soccer! Maybe when he’s 6!