The current Princess of Wales is often credited with inventing things which have existed for years, decades or centuries. Remember the log seat Kate “invented”? Remember when she invented maternity leave? Remember when she invented buttons? Good times. Well, this week, Kate is being credited with inventing soccer-moms. You see, one of the new Real Housewives of London claimed that she sees Kate at the Wales kids’ sporting events all the time, which is a brand new thing and definitely not what Princess Diana was known for either! Behold, an excerpt from Tom Sykes’ Substack “Soccer Mom Kate Is Raising Her Children a Whole New, Very Un-Royal Way.”
Prince William and Princess Kate’s parenting style has long been a source of fascination to me. I strongly believe these two are going to raise the first generation of royal children not to be traumatized by their upbringing in over 70 years. I have several friends whose kids either go or went to the same school as William and Kate’s kids and I checked in with them today after Real Housewives of London star Panthea Parker, speaking to Hello!, gave a rare insight into the Waleses parenting style.
She revealed that the Princess of Wales never misses her children’s sports matches, whether soccer or rugby. Her son’s school plays against Prince George’s, she explained, so she often sees Kate cheering from the sidelines.
“I see her quite a few times because my son’s school plays against her son’s school. So they play rugby and football against each other so we’re always at her school or my school. I do see her a lot but not to talk to, just from afar. So classy, so lovely, and she never misses any of her children’s matches, so really amazing.”
I have heard variations on this theme from many parents over the years. One parent whose kids were at school with them when they lived in London told me: “They always showed up to absolutely everything. Often both of them, but always Kate. She never wore make-up at school events or on the school run, and we were all very protective of her. She always looked amazing, but noticeably very slim. She often looked absolutely shattered, just like the rest of us, but was relentlessly cheerful.”
A parent whose children attend their current school told me: “They are like caricatures of middle-class parents. I went to the house for a kid’s birthday party, and they were the ones organizing the games and playing rounders [a British game similar to baseball]. Any of us lot would get an entertainer in and sit in the house drinking rosé.”
It’s always been very clear that William and Kate have made a conscious decision to fight for their children’s day-to-day lives to be steeped in normality, a habit setting them apart from previous generations of royal parents.
While I agree that Kate is trying to raise the kids differently than “the royal way,” I also think she just doesn’t know any other way, and William is fine with it. The reason William is fine with it is because Diana already paved the way and broke all of those stuffy traditions anyway. The biggest difference between Diana and Kate is that Kate seems extremely opposed to boarding schools, whereas Diana was fine with shipping off her sons to boarding schools when they were pretty young (too young, if you ask me). Kate is a pretty typical Millennial/Xennial helicopter parent, super-involved in her kids’ school lives and sporting events. Also: “She always looked amazing, but noticeably very slim. She often looked absolutely shattered, just like the rest of us, but was relentlessly cheerful.” Hm.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Cover Images.
