A look back at the childhoods of British monarchs offers some lessons for raising the royal baby-to-be: For instance, teasing is a bad idea, but tadpoles on toast are fine.
Make sure the royal child learns at least five foreign languages by age eleven.
Queen Elizabeth I reportedly knew French, Greek, Latin, Spanish, and Welsh (in addition to English) by that age, thanks to her tutor Roger Ascham. The new royal child will need to know at least that many languages in order to read the Pope's Twitter.
Via: cs.fredonia.edu
Invest in media training.
Queen Elizabeth II took to the radio airwaves in 1940, when she was just 14, to speak to children evacuated during World War II. Any royal offspring will probably need to make public appearances from a pretty young age — though radio skills may be less important than Facebook. The Prince and Princess should start looking for a social media consultant who's good with kids.
Foster healthy self-esteem.
Young Henry VIII's father favored his older brother Arthur, the rightful heir, ignoring Henry. As a result, Henry never got along with his father, and when he eventually became king, had his father's servants killed. Obviously this was just the beginning of his thing for beheading. Execution is typically frowned upon at court today, but it's still wise to raise the royal child with a healthy self-image lest he or she write a nasty tell-all later on.
Via: lh5.ggpht.com
Choose a contemporary alternative to the "whipping boy."
Since royal children couldn't be beaten, Henry VIII and other young royals had "whipping boys" to take their punishments for them. Since corporal punishment is frowned upon these days, the royal family should probably choose a commoner child to be asked to think carefully about what he or she has done, and possibly be issued time-outs, when the royal offspring misbehaves.
Via: harpercollinschildrens.com
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