I wonder what it's thinking? Nothing at all of course, stupid little thing

Princess May was never maternal. Showing Juliet one of the babies in its cot she once remarked: 'I wonder what it's thinking? Nothing at all of course, stupid little thing.'

....

In a later, earnest and somewhat pathetic conversation the Duke [of Gloucester] related that the biggest compliment his mother ever paid him, and which delighted him, was at her second tour of inspection at Barnwell Manor, after his alterations: she turned to him and said, 'Well, Harry, I would never have thought you could make this house habitable, but you have'. High praise, he indicated.


J. Pope-Hennessy, The Quest for Queen Mary, ed. H. Vickers (2018), 138, 200

The list of Queen Mary's lack of interest in small children is extensive. These were my favourites.