I stand with Kate Middleton (pre-schoolers are not meant to be tamed) and with Prince Louis (pageants are boring)

Never did I imagine I would feel sorry for a royal, particularly not Kate Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge. Married to the “good” prince, in line to be Queen, she lives a life of privilege and improbably good hair.

Still, after her grandmother-in-law’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations (#plattyjubes) over the weekend, I have revised my position. Footage went viral of Kate’s youngest child, Prince Louis, acting out, and I felt profound empathy. As the headlines screamed, “Kate cannot control her children!“, I remembered the days I could not control mine.

As the young prince sat through an interminable pageant, he pulled faces, stuck out his tongue, waggled his fingers at his mum in the pre-school equivalent of the middle finger, and put his hand across her mouth when she tried to discipline him. This was not princely behaviour! The internet had a field day.

“This is blatant disrespect,” tweeted one person about a four-year-old child. “Maybe it’s a cry for help,” tweeted another, also about a four-year-old child

“He’s not getting any discipline at home,” wrote another, still about a FOUR-YEAR-OLD CHILD.

Now, there are two types of people who judge others for their parenting: the child-free person who is quite sure their future hypothetical kids would never do whatever this actual human child is doing, and the lucky parent whose child responds beautifully to whatever discipline/parenting regime/wooden spoon they are dishing out.

You know who doesn’t judge others for their parenting? Those of us who know how hard it is.

I have three kids, one of whom never needed discipline at all, one of whom was easy to manage, and one of whom was damn nigh impossible. I read the books, I listened to the podcasts, I consulted the experts, and still that kid had tantrums in public and said inappropriate things to strangers. (“Hello, fat old lady!”)