Princess Jawaher Fahad Alsaud has traveled around the world since she was a girl, but if she had to live anywhere other than her home country, Saudi Arabia, well, she just couldn’t. Jawaher, thirty-eight, has seven children and is married to a nephew of King Abdullah, the head of the Saudi royal family. I spoke with Jawaher about her love for her country, her husband’s football hobby, her relationship with her children, and the truisms of the female experience around the world.
Q: What is the rhythm of your daily life?
A: I have five girls and two boys. The oldest is seventeen and a half and the youngest is four. It’s so enjoyable, but at the same time it’s a lot of work. Five years ago I used to work in early childhood education. I opened a preschool in the beginning and then we started first, second, third, and fourth grades. We had the school for ten years and then we decided to build our own space according to our needs. But most of the work was things I needed to do, and for the last five years, I’ve decided not to work so I can concentrate on my family. It was hard for me to compromise between my life, with my kids growing up, and my work. Now I do volunteer work and at the same time I don’t lose contact with what’s going on around me, my house, and my family. For me, being a mother is work in itself. With seven kids it’s not easy. I do have help, but our social life is so busy in and of itself.
Q: What kind of school do your children attend?
A: They go to private school. In Saudi Arabia, private schools have the same curriculum as government schools, except for English. In government schools they start English in sixth grade and in private schools they start it in kindergarten.
Q: Tell me about your relationship with your children?
A: I’m thirty-eight years old. I was married when I was nineteen, and by the time I was twenty, I had my first daughter. So I felt she was more of a doll—it’s like you don’t know what to do, but you feel the responsibility. When you see us now, we look more like sisters than like mother and daughter. I love them so much, I take care of them, but the motherhood feeling I didn’t really feel it with the older children. By the third kid I felt more like a mother’s sense. We’re very, very close. We have open, but respectful conversations. We go out a lot together. We share interests together. We share the same books. If we watch television we discuss things together. We do silly things together.
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