Princess Kate has never been one for empty speeches. Her work around the early years has always been more than photo ops and polite nods. But her latest essay, co-authored with Harvard’s Professor Robert Waldinger, takes her advocacy to a deeper, more personal place.
In it, she warns that families are facing what she calls an epidemic of disconnection. Too many of us, she says, are looking at screens instead of each other. Phones at the dinner table, laptops on the sofa, television always humming in the background, all those little distractions slowly erode the quiet magic of simply being together.
Kate urges us to make eye contact, put down our devices, and really see the people we love. Because that, she says, is where connection begins.
Her research with the Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood focuses on how the first five years of life shape everything that follows. The science is clear. A child’s brain develops faster in those early years than at any other time, building the foundations for confidence, curiosity and resilience.
She believes that adults, not algorithms, are a child’s first teachers. When we give children our undivided attention, we help them learn how to listen, respond and connect. When we hand them a device instead, we might just be teaching them how to tune out.
This message isn’t just for parents juggling work and toddlers. It’s for anyone with children in their lives, and that means grandparents too.
Grandparents have something the modern world undervalues – time. And while our children’s generation often find themselves stretched thin, we have a secret weapon in patience and presence.
Some of my best memories are of my Pop telling my sisters and I stories about when our dad and uncle were young. We still have some of those moments on old home videos, and I love showing my child little snippets of Pop’s laughter and his stories. My Grandma’s stories have become folklore in our family, the kind that are retold at every gathering, sometimes with a little extra embellishment each year. Without those conversations, we wouldn’t have that shared history, that sense of who we are.
Kate’s research underlines what many of us already know in our bones. Children don’t remember the toy or the app. They remember the feeling of someone listening. They remember the smell of scones in the oven, the sound of a story told slowly, the way a hand felt when it held theirs.
We don’t have to compete with screens. We just have to show up.
Small Changes, Big Impact
As grandparents, we can make a few small changes that have a big impact. Kate’s message isn’t about grand gestures; it’s about the quiet, everyday moments that help children feel seen and heard.
Make space for conversation. Put the phone in another room when the grandchildren visit. Ask questions that invite stories instead of short answers. Let them ramble, laugh and take their time.
Create a screen-free ritual. Maybe it’s a walk after dinner, baking on Saturdays, or reading before bed. These small traditions become memory markers that children carry with them long after the gadgets have gone out of fashion.
Be the calm in the noise. When everyone else is rushing, we can slow things down. Our steady rhythm reminds children that connection doesn’t need to compete with technology.
Lead by example. If we can put our own phones away, they’ll notice. If we can really listen, they’ll remember.
Kate’s essay isn’t about guilt. It’s about awareness, a reminder that in our hyperconnected world, the most radical act of love might simply be presence.
Screens will always have their place, but so will storybooks, shared meals and muddy shoes by the back door. The Princess of Wales may be talking to the world’s parents, but her words carry a special resonance for grandparents too.
After all, we’ve lived long enough to know what really lasts. Connection, laughter, time, and the simple joy of putting the phone away and looking someone you love in the eye.
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