
There are some experiences raising a child that pretty much any mom can connect with, no matter who they are. Even the royal moms have relatable parenting moments, though have lots of help and financial resources. But there are ways that raising kids can transcend these weath and class gaps. After all, kids are gonna do what kids are gonna do — whether they're the future king of England or not.
It's mostly the modern royal moms who are relatable, since the world was pretty different back when Queen Elizabeth was raising her children. But Princess Diana ushered in a new era of hands-on parenting, and Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle have followed in her footsteps.
Here are their most relatable motherhood moments.
Struggling to homeschool
Homeschooling has been rough for most of us, and the royals aren't excluded from the frustration. Kate recently said that one of her biggest struggles was getting George to focus on his work — which was much less fun than what his sister, Charlotte, was doing. "George gets very upset because he just wants to do all of Charlotte’s projects," Kate said. "Making spider sandwiches is far cooler than doing literacy work."
That's some serious sibling rivalry to sort through.
Always running after the kids

Doesn't it feel like we're always on the go? Kate Middleton is the same, chasing after her kids at a polo match in heels, no less. OK, maybe the polo match and the heels are less relatable, but the running definitely is. We get all excited when our kids start to walk, while also forgetting that it's just one step from there to sprinting around, causing chaos.
Getting messy
Kate let Louis get a little messy for his 2nd birthday portraits, and she ended up covered in paint, too. (How does that always happen?!) "I should've taken a photograph of what I looked like after as well! Luckily, that wasn't documented but I was pretty much, I looked like Louis at the end of those," the duchess said of taking the funny photos.
Dealing with meltdowns

Kids are going to have meltdowns, and they're pretty much always going to be at the most inopportune times … like when a million photographers are around. Kate had to deal with a sobbing Charlotte on a tour of an airport in Germany, and she had to do it while everyone was watching. Like the pro she is, she handled it perfectly, and Princess Charlotte's tears were dry in no time.
Dealing with postpartum
In an interview given shortly after Archie was born, Meghan Markle got real with how she wasn't doing all that great. "Any woman, especially when they're pregnant, you're really vulnerable, and so that made it really challenging," Meghan said. "And then when you have a newborn, you know. And especially as a woman, it's a lot. So, you add this on top of just trying to be a new mom or trying to be a newlywed."
Not all of us can relate to being a public figure — and having a baby — but all moms can relate to those postpartum struggles. She's not in this alone, that's for sure.
Beach games

Princess Diana was one of the first royal moms to let her guard down a bit. We'd never have caught Queen Elizabeth letting Prince Charles bury her in the sand, but Diana was more than happy to let her sons and their friends have a little fun on a vacation. This is what made her more of a normal mom than most royals.
Troublemaking kids

Prince Harry has always had a bit of a troublemaking side to him, and Diana had to deal with that a lot when he was younger. She once wrote in a letter to a friend, "The boys are well and enjoying boarding school a lot, although Harry is constantly in trouble!" We can so understand what it's like when our kids get rowdy, and so could Diana.
Getting Louis to stop sucking his thumb

Many parents struggle with trying to keep their kids from sucking too much on their thumbs. At the Trooping the Colour in 2019, Kate had that struggle play out in the public eye. When she noticed that Louis had his thumb in his mouth, she tried to get him to stop. Then, she spent the rest of the event attempting to distract him by making funny faces, pointing to the parade, and encouraging him to wave.
Playing with mom's hair

There's a reason for the mom haircut stereotype, and it's babies pulling on their moms' long hair. (That hurts!) Babies look all helpess, but they're strong, and they have good grips — and if they don't want to let go of their mother's hair, they won't. Fortunately, Kate made it out of this experience with her gorgeous locks intact, but it was touch-and-go for a minute.
Family photo problems
Taking a cute family photo where everyone is smiling and their eyes are open and looks good is such a struggle when children are involved. Kate knows that firsthand as her family's personal photographer, but also because her 2015 Christmas card wasn't perfect. At first glance, everyone looks great. But upon closer inspection, Princess Charlotte kicked her shoes off right before the photo was snapped.
Classic.
Taking control of storytime
Meghan Markle isn't a working royal anymore, so she doesn't really owe the public any content about herself or her family — but she threw everyone a bone for Archie's first birthday and released a video of her reading him a story. The clip is so cute, because Archie has pretty much no interest in what she's doing. He's trying to take the book, turn pages early, and generally take over storytime. Any parent who's ever tried to read a young child a bedtime tale knows this struggle all too well.
Missing the kiddos

It's always nice to get a bit of a parenting break from our kids, but at the same time, we miss them so much when we're apart! Diana totally nailed this feeling when she ran to give her sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, a big hug when she finally got to see them after a trip away. Hugging used to not be that common in the royal family, but Diana helped break that barrier down.
Doing anything to protect our kids

Harry and Meghan have a few more worries about Archie than us regular moms do, but we all have the same high level of concern for our kids' health and safety. For Meghan, that translated into her suing someone for taking photos of Archie with the help of a drone. She's gonna do whatever it takes to keep her son safe, and we don't blame her!
Entertaining the little ones

On the surface, this was a photo of Meghan Markle holding Archie at a polo match, but when we zoomed in, we found such a perfect mom moment between Kate Middleton and Prince Louis. The duchess was keeping her young son occupied by making silly faces at him, and it's such a precious moment to have been captured on camera.
Being a human napkin
Skip about a minute into this video to watch Kate Middleton wipe drool off George's mouth and directly onto her designer dress. (That's #momlife right there.) We're basically human napkins for our kids' various messes. It was NBD for Kate, though. She didn't even hesitate. She just did what needed to be done.
Wrangling kids at events

Wrangling kids is just part of a mom's job, and Kate just happened to have to do it at her sister's wedding — a few times. There are photos of her shushing the children and also scolding them for being naughty during Pippa's big moment. Fancy events with children can be a bit of a nightmare, and every mom knows this, whether she's royal or not.
Children misbehaving

All the Duchess of Cambridge wanted was her daughter to nicely wave at the paparazzi. Instead, Charlotte stuck her tongue out at them. All Kate could do was laugh, because kids are gonna do what kids are gonna do. Tell them to do one thing, and they'll always pretty much do the opposite.
Being a kid with the kids

Sometimes, the best thing to do as a mom is just play along with the kids. Diana was always so good at this, and Kate and Meghan have followed in her footsteps. Here, Princess Diana is at a theme park with a young Harry and William, and she was totally game to get soaked on the water ride right along with them. It's nice that they have these memories to look back on.
Trouble keeping up
Three kids under the age of eight is a lot, and Kate can't always keep up with her little ones. (Same, girl. Same.) She recently said of her kids that they "have got such stamina, I don't know how. Honestly, you get to the end of the day and you write down the list of all the things that you've done in that day." It's amazing what moms get done before nine in the morning, let alone during a whole day. We're exhausted just thinking about it.
Carrying mom guilt
Every mom experiences mom guilt on some level — even someone like Kate Middleton who technically has it all. When she was recently asked on a podcast if she suffered from mom guilt, the duchess answered, "Absolutely. I think anyone who doesn't as a mother is actually lying."
She went on to say that she struggles to balance her job as a working royal, and her desire to be a hands-on mom, and Kate doesn't always feel like she gets it right. We feel that, and we're all just doing our best — Kate included.