Today in "royals, they really are just like us," comes news that makes me love Kate Middleton even more than I already do (as if that's possible?). It seems the Duchess of Cambridge is trying to enforce a nanny-free zone for Prince George ... at least as much as she can. She did, after all, just hire her own mum to travel with her and Prince William to Australia in 2014!
From the way "sources" are talking, Her Royal Highness worries that the little prince may get "more used to the sight of the help than to his own parents."
Oof! Talk about words that really kick any working mom right in the guts, huh?
Yes, this is an issue where Kate Middleton is just like every other mom, albeit with much better hair. OK, and better shoes. And I could keep going on, but point is: if the reports are true -- and by all indications, she is certainly a caring mom very much like her late mother-in-law, so it sounds like her -- Kate Middleton is currently suffering from what is known as working mom syndrome.
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When you're a working mom, you don't get to spend every second that you'd like to spend with your kids. Unless they figure out all the icky ethical issues of cloning, that's the way it is going to be for time immemorial.
What that means isn't that you should give it all up and barricade yourself in a room with your baby because you only have so much time together before he's a toddler and then, gasp, a teenager.
It means Kate -- and every working mom of a baby -- needs to go easy on herself.
Nannies are OK! Babysitters are OK! The baby will likely love them, and they the baby, but that's a good thing. We want our children to have as much love in the world as they can.
At the end of the day, babies are a lot smarter than we give them credit for being. They know who Mom and Dad are. Trust me. My daughter wouldn't call out the sitter's name when she was teething. She'd call for me (or my husband). She knew.
Sure she'd cuddle up to the woman who cared for her when I was working, but that didn't change how she'd turn to me, her little hands out, her facial expression desperate for ME to pick her up. ME. Not someone else. ME. Her mom.
It's good to hear that her Royal Highness has no intentions of dumping Prince George with nannies for the duration and hightailing it for glamorous parts of the world. She wouldn't be much of a mom if she wasn't concerned about parent/nanny balance.
But right there is proof positive that she's doing all right at this mother thing. She is concerned! She does want to be "Mom" (or Mum!) to her little boy.
That's what babies need. Not a mom who is there 100 percent of the time, but a mom who is really there when she is present, and good, safe, stable caregivers when she isn't.
If Prince George's life can't be nanny-free, he'll be OK ... at least with a mom like Kate.
What do you think is the right ratio between mom time and nanny time? Even for a prince?
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