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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to feel a bit sorry for Kate Middleton?

127 replies

RavioliOnToast · 02/05/2015 19:56

less than 12 hours after giving birth, she's sent home from hospital, which is totally normal, but within the time frame of giving birth and leaving the hospital, she's quite obviously had a team of stylists giving her a wash and blow, doing her makeup, getting her a lovely dress to wear etc etc. to then be papped by God knows how many photographers.

aibu to think that even though she's royal and all she should have been able to slip out the back in her converse and sweat pants and mellowed in post labour soreness.

OP posts:

TheNumberfaker · 02/05/2015 21:05

Bit of a difference between marrying an heir to the throne and a regular soldier!

newbieman1978 · 02/05/2015 21:24

I feel sorry for her in the sense that she probably didn't have the option to go out the of back door and straight home. Due in part to the publics expectation to see the new born ASAP and world press perception that the world wants to know.

But as others have said she'll have had all the help she wanted or didn't want to get ready to go and meet her public.

Again she'll go home and have all the help she wants. She'll not have to worry about any thing financial and the child will have the best of everything.
It wouldn't be right though to say she has nothing to worry about because every new parent has worries regardless of situation. She'll be under a certain amount of pressure to get back into public life as soon as possible and even in the early days I'm sure they'll be some expectation to give interviews and attend various events.

Nobody's life is perfect and you never know how you'd enjoy someone else's life because you'll never live it.

Paddingtonthebear · 02/05/2015 21:31

I wouldn't want to be her.

But to be able to be well enough to walk out of hospital hours after giving birth, she must be doing ok. I couldn't even walk, I was having transfusions at that time frame. Seems incredible to me. I hope she's feeling alright but she has had two straightforward births and has all the support money can buy.

Scattymere · 02/05/2015 21:39

Only after giving birth did I realise how mucky, messy and bloody it was (sorry if TMI etc), I did so few months after Kate with George. I then thought how under her lovely blue polka dot dress she was probably in huge multiple layered granny pants & sanitary towels, feeling utterly shell shocked feeling hungover x 1 million, sore/in pain, knackered yet standing there with worlds paps flashing...so in that sense have more respect and bewilderment than pity though. However if I had chance to have hair blow-dried and a pre selected, washed, ironed, pretty outfit bought in for me and me made up by a fab team to look as good poss...Id be very happy

cruikshank · 02/05/2015 21:40

For people saying that she 'just happened to fall in love with a prince', as far as I understand it (and tbf I don't make a habit of reading up on royals but I do pick up on dribs and drabs) she had her sights set on him from a young age, pictures of him on her bedroom wall, wanting to go to the same uni as him etc. So by the sounds of it, she didn't just want to marry a man she fell in love with - she wanted to marry a prince. Which is fair enough - I'm sure lots of other girls do as well. But it wasn't just a 'their eyes met across a crowded room and they were starstruck but oh dear she happened to be a pantry girl' moment - it was calculated - and she was hardly a pantry girl anyway. And now she's got what she was always after. Fair play, as they say.

victoire1208 · 02/05/2015 21:42

I wouldn't want that life either. She did look a bit haunted in the pics. I would feel really anxious that my children are facing a life of constant scrutiny, threats to their personal safety, no privacy and public criticism. Now shes a bit older and a mother it may not seem worth all the pomp, baubles and holidays.

hiccupgirl · 02/05/2015 21:43

I'm really not a fan of the monarchy but I do feel sorry for her. The last thing I would have felt like doing less than 12 hours after giving birth was having get dressed up in a posh dress and heels and stand outside being photoed by the world's press. Even all the help etc afterwards doesn't make up for that.

GGabcd · 02/05/2015 21:44

I feel more sorry for her parents since they get not one mention in the birth announcements.

She was made pretty, she waved and showed her daughter then went home, got into sweats and can hide in her house for however long she wants.

Totality22 · 02/05/2015 21:44

I actually didn't feel too bad after my second (and was discharged 6 hours later)

I wouldn't have been keen to be papped to high heaven but with a team of stylists I could have suffered it!

JemFinch · 02/05/2015 21:45

I don't feel sorry for for her, good on her for being up and about. It's unconventional but then it's unconventional being the future queen and having a real live princess as my daughter called the baby.

StrawberryTallCake · 02/05/2015 21:48

Posted this on another thread - I feel sorry for the other mothers -

Of course she looks wonderful and she should because pretty much every country in the world will have her picture on the front of their papers tomorrow morning. I do wish they would be a bit more transparent about how much or many make up artists/hairdressers/help etc they have as for a normal young mother I could imagine it would be yet another idealistic unreachable goal to strive for with potentially awful consequences.

I know with my first child I felt I should be superwoman and seeing someone put across as the perfect individual at the same point would have been a bit of a blow. Not her fault, I would enjoy the same privileges in that position I'm sure but showing a human side might help so many mothers who could be susceptible to PND or even the awful 3rd day crying over nothing. The reality of having a child shouldn't be photoshopped or glamourised, it's real and raw and beautiful without glossy hair and heels.

Buxhoeveden · 02/05/2015 21:49

Sent??

HermioneWeasley · 02/05/2015 21:49

ROFLing at "met a man and fell in love". Didn't she delay going to uni specifically to meet him? And then hung about for 9 years not working waiting for him to propose despite having one of the best educations money can buy. Bet she bloody wouldn't have waited for 9 years if he worked at Tesco checkout.

She actively pursued this - I wouldn't want her life, but she definitely does!

Fairylea · 02/05/2015 21:53

I can't imagine the amount of pressure she is under to be honest. I wouldn't want her life. To never have any real privacy, to feel unable to leave or divorce my husband if things weren't "right" due to being in the establishment and in the public eye. Simple things like never being able to pop out to the shops on my own or the park with my children. To be in constant fear for my own and my children's safety from utterly bonkers people.

It's not a life I would ever want and I don't think anyone could know how it would feel to live that life until you were there. I thought her eyes looked quite sad today. I think she looked extremely stressed and under pressure - which she was.

squoosh · 02/05/2015 21:58

I think she looked like she was having a pretty great day!

MeggyMooAndTinkerToo · 02/05/2015 21:59

My friend was at Uni with them. Kate chased him endlessly. She knew what she wanted, went for it and knew what she was getting into. I don't feel sorry for her at all, she has the life she wanted.

tinymummy300 · 02/05/2015 22:01

I think she loves being shown off and from what little I know about her she was groomed from an early age to be suitable bride, not much left to chance.
If she did not want to be put on display I am sure she would not be, so don't feel too sorry for her.
I did however feel queasy when the fact she was in labour was blazoned everywhere, I think being in labour is really private, but I guess nowadays its difficult to hide!

VelvetRose · 02/05/2015 22:02

I don't think anyone is under the illusion that Kate looks that way all by herself! Obviously she's a pretty woman (which is all people ever say about her) but she clearly has a large team of people helping her to look good. I'm not saying I'd want to have done that 12 hours after giving birth but I don't think it's a massive achievement given the circumstances. I'm sure if she'd had a really tough time there would have been a plan B. It was lovely, they all looked gorgeous but it was about 3 mins and then she got taken home where she will have all the help she needs. I wish them all well, I just don't enjoy the fawning.

squoosh · 02/05/2015 22:03

I know someone who was at St Andrews with them too! She doesn't have much gossip just that William was more outgoing than Kate. And Kate used to keep a beady eye on him and sometimes got a bit jealous because William used to flirt with a particular tomboyish, outdoorsy girl in their year.

Pedallleur · 02/05/2015 22:04

Had a nice outfit for the pics prob. pre-packed. Wheelchair to the door, 2 x mins for photos then into the Bentley/Range Rover and back to the Palace where the chefs will have something ready. Prob. on the phone on Tuesdayto St.Pauls School to get the education sorted. She has a lovely life and her childrens health and future is pretty much guaranteed.

QuintShhhhhh · 02/05/2015 22:06

Bet you would not see her, her husband, together with another royal couple in your local petrol station buying fizzy drinks and a burger!

crownprincess Victoria of Sweden & crownprincess Mette Marit of Norway with hubbies buying treats in Statoil petrol station

Sorry for the highjack - could not resist.

dancemom · 02/05/2015 22:12

I don't feel sorry for her. She's a grown woman, if she wanted to leave the hospital privately wearing what she wanted then she could do so. She chose to get primped and preened within hours of the birth and go and pose for photos.

PenguinsandtheTantrumofDoom · 02/05/2015 22:14

If I was her,I probably would have done it today too.

A few hours after DS (DC3 ) with no stitches, I could have been primped and blow dried and smiled and waved (lot fatter though ). Three days later, the swelling had set in and I nearly passed out after doing too much and passing a huge clot. But by that point she is safely home with 24 help.

MeggyMooAndTinkerToo · 02/05/2015 22:14

squoosh. I've been told that too. Kate was more 'into' him than he was her. They spilt up for a while and he spent time with a few girls from Uni.

hidingfromthem · 02/05/2015 22:17

WhetherOrNot
She didn't 'pursue that life' - she met a man and fell in love. He just happened to be the future King. Don't be so cynical Wheeler !

Do you always slap people down like that, WhetherOrNot?

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