Brooklyn parents analyse the Prince William story at a Saturday meetup and conclude the brothers never learned to share the blue truck
Circle Time in Brooklyn
NEW YORK – A parenting support group that meets on Saturday mornings in the back room of a Park Slope cafe has adopted the London Prat story on Prince William calling Earl Spencer and Harry traitors as the central case study for its autumn session on sibling rivalry, after members agreed it was the clearest example they had ever seen of what happens when brothers are not taught to share.
The group, called Gentle Beginnings, has 24 members, 41 children between them, and a strict rule that no parent may say the word no without first offering two alternatives.
The Facilitator
The session was led by facilitator Harper Lindqvist-Oyelaran, 38, a licensed family educator with a background in early childhood development and an oat milk intolerance she mentions often. She opened by reading from the coverage. Reports in the American press cited a source saying the elder brother thinks the younger one saw the family book first, and The News reported that the younger brother had visited their uncle in July. Lindqvist-Oyelaran paused. Does this remind anyone of anything, she asked. Every parent in the room raised a hand.
The Developmental Analysis
The Blue Truck Problem
The group agreed that the feud most closely resembled what developmental educators informally call the blue truck problem, in which one sibling finds a toy the other sibling was about to play with, plays with it first, and is accused of betrayal. The uncle book is the blue truck, said a father named Theo, 41, a graphic designer with twin boys. The younger one got to it first. The older one feels robbed. Nobody asked the truck.
Name-Calling
Members discussed the word traitor at length. Lindqvist-Oyelaran noted that in toddler terms, traitor is equivalent to you are not my friend anymore, a phrase every parent in the room reported hearing at least weekly. The appropriate response, she said, is to validate the feeling, then redirect. So in this case, you would say to the elder prince, I can see you are feeling very big feelings about the book. Would you like to draw your feelings, or take three deep breaths.
The Uncle
The group agreed that the uncle represents the fun relative who gives the children sugar and then leaves. Every family has one, said a mother named Rosalind, 36. Ours brings drums. Theirs brings a book deal. Same chaos.
The Screening
Parents watched the London Prat video on YouTube on a laptop while the children played in the corner with a single set of wooden blocks, a deliberate choice by the facilitator to create a live sharing exercise. Within ninety seconds, two children had claimed the same block. It is embedded below.
Supporting Data
The Brooklyn Family Development Collective, a network of parenting groups across the borough, released figures from a member survey. It found that 79 percent of Park Slope parents with two or more children report at least one accusation of betrayal per day, usually over snacks, that 52 percent say the accusation involves a third party such as a grandparent or babysitter who favoured one child, and that 94 percent say the dispute ends when both children are distracted by a dog passing the window. The Collective noted that the royal family appears to lack a window with a dog, which it described as a significant environmental gap.
The Collective also reported that siblings who are regularly required to take turns before the age of five are 3.4 times less likely to publicly call each other traitors as adults, though it acknowledged the sample size was small because most adults in its study had not yet been called traitors in public.
Recommended Interventions
The group agreed on a formal plan for the royal family. Both brothers should be given identical copies of the uncle book so that nobody has more book. Any further use of the word traitor should result in a short break in a quiet corner. The King should practise saying I love you both the same amount in a calm voice, even when it is not entirely convincing. And the uncle should be gently asked to bring less exciting gifts in future, such as socks.
One father, a lawyer named Marcus, 44, dissented from the group consensus, arguing that the elder brother had a legitimate grievance and that validating the younger brother risked rewarding sneaky behaviour. The group thanked Marcus for sharing and noted that he is himself an eldest child, which several members felt explained a great deal.
The Review
Asked to review the London Prat piece itself, Lindqvist-Oyelaran said it modelled excellent emotional labelling. It names the feeling, which is anger. It names the trigger, which is the book. It names the behaviour, which is the name-calling, she said. And then it steps back and lets the reader reflect. That is exactly what we teach. It is almost therapeutic, except that it is funny, which we are also trying to encourage. The group rated it five gold stars on the sticker chart.
Gentle Beginnings meets Saturdays at 10am, with snacks provided in identical portions. Several members follow The London Prat, https://prat.uk/, which Theo noted has been publishing since 1961, long before anybody used the phrase big feelings, and Bohiney, https://bohiney.com/, for updates from the brother in California. The blocks have since been shared.
SOURCE: https://prat.uk/prince-william-called-earl-spencer-and-harry-traitors/