It seems that Wim-Lex, Friso and Constantijn have hit it off well with Bea.
This week Beatrix celebrated her 86th birthday. Over the years we have mainly come to know her as a stately (but sympathetic) queen and endearing princess, but what is Bea actually like as a mother?
Close-knit family
With three sons (sadly one of whom died) and eight grandchildren, Princess Beatrix has a family to be proud of. In 1967, at the age of 29, she became the mother of her first son: Prince Willem-Alexander. A year later, Prince Johan Friso was born, and another year later, Prince Constantijn was born. In three years she gave birth to three sons: wonderfully efficient, as we know the princess.
Together with her great love Prince Claus, Beatrix and the three apples of her eyes formed a close-knit family. During Juliana’s reign, Willem-Alexander, Friso and Constantijn grew up in Drakensteyn Castle in Lage Vuursche.
Good mother
As a princess, it was obviously difficult for Beatrix to combine her job with her family life, but that became even more difficult when she became queen in 1980 at the age of 42. Yet her husband, Prince Claus, has always spoken highly of her. “I think we can say that she is a very good mother,” he said in an interview in 1988. “She guided the boys through school. I didn’t do anything about that. She always went to the parents’ evenings and talked to the teachers. She is the core of the family.”
Normal childhood
What has really pleased Beatrix as a mother is that she has always done her best to give her sons as normal a childhood as possible. “I hope that you will also understand that we, as my parents did, allow our children to participate as little as possible in official occasions and official performances outside while they are still school children,” he said. she in an interview with the NOS in 1980. “Precisely because it causes tension for those children. We want the children to complete their school years as normally as possible, if possible.”
The fact that Beatrix strove to be as involved as possible in her children’s upbringing was partly due to the lack of this in her own childhood. “We were left to the nanny and the governesses and we often wandered around the big house alone,” the princess once revealed.
Perfectionist
Although she is said to be a great mother, Beatrix also has her downsides. “She wants it exactly as she imagined it,” said Prince Claus in an interview with Ed van Westerloo. “But sometimes it is also very easy,” Prince Friso admitted. “Everything has already been arranged.” And although the princess is quite a perfectionist, Willem-Alexander once said that she is open to the opinions of others. “If you have reasonable arguments, she is always willing to listen,” says her eldest son. “She doesn’t completely close herself off to what others say.”
Thoughtful
And as if we haven’t already mentioned enough good qualities of Bea, she also seems to be incredibly attentive. “You can’t imagine it without her thinking about it,” Prince Claus once said about his wife. “These gifts go all over the world. Not just to the children, but to the grandchildren of friends, to my family. She spends nights doing that. Unimaginable.”
Obstacle
However, Wim-Lex saw all of Beatrix’s positive qualities as a bit of an obstacle in view of his time as king. “I actually find it almost oppressive when you see how good of an example she is,” he admitted in an interview. “To even try to match this will be quite a task.”
Fortunately, the bond between mother and son has always remained extremely close. “We always find each other again and we try to see each other quite regularly, because we think it is so important,” Beatrix said recently.
Source: Blue Blood | Image: NL Image, National Archives
