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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to loathe the Royal Family

401 replies

InWinoVeritas · 21/04/2017 18:29

The way the media is so gushing about everything Wills, Kate and Harry do, just been watching the evening news, there is a story about Wills and Kate doing a radio broadcast, makes me want to vomit..
And the issues about mental health - really? Do we need Royal 'endorsement' just to get more funding?

OP posts:
AwaywiththePixies27 · 23/04/2017 11:24

I wonder how your life would be viewed OP if we could scrutinize it for 24 hrs a day for the rest of your life.

I'd hate it. I wonder if they ever get to have down days where they just slob about watching Netflix in their onesies eating Doritos and dairy milk.

SeekEveryEveryKnownHidingPlace · 23/04/2017 11:26

Exactly, they grieve like the rest of us and they are humans. This is hardly a surprise, and not especially interesting. It's certainly not 'brave' to say so, and it's not going to 'end the stigma'.

FreeNiki · 23/04/2017 11:31

Yeah I'm sure Harry was sunning it up whilst his mates fought on the frontline alongside him

he goes home to a fucking palace. where do the rest of his squaddies go home to?

No hardship. Ever.

Hotheadwheresthecoldbath · 23/04/2017 11:32

I think it's pretty brave for anyone,whatever their walk of life to admit to mental health issues whatever the cause.Ending the stigma will take longer but poopooing someone's feelings just shows how far we have to go.

SeekEveryEveryKnownHidingPlace · 23/04/2017 11:36

Grief isn't really a mental health issue, though, is it? 'Ending the stigma' is a great line because it places all the responsibility on people, in a fairly vague and wishy washy way, without saying anything about money, funding, counselling, services - just 'end the stigma'.

The only stigma about them saying they were sad and grieving came from the institution of the Royal Family itself - nobody would have said it was wrong for them to be openly unhappy!

The grief of losing a mother is fairly universal (and I bet they wished she spent more of the summer with them, too, rather than prancing about in bikinis) - but the experience of grief as a prince at Eton is not.

Hotheadwheresthecoldbath · 23/04/2017 11:36

Yes he goes back to a palace while the rest of the squadies get to go out with their mates,family and can behave as they like in privacy.I know which I'd prefer.

Hotheadwheresthecoldbath · 23/04/2017 11:39

I think when my mother died I will be thankful while grieving not to have to read about her and others opinions of her for years to come.And yes grief can cause depression.

Nessie71 · 23/04/2017 11:52

I know plenty of "normal" people who go on holiday and prance about in bikinis while leaving there kids at home with their dad and grandparents. They cannot help that they were born into the royal family.

AwaywiththePixies27 · 23/04/2017 12:00

he goes home to a fucking palace. where do the rest of his squaddies go home to?

Not whilst he was on tour with his squaddies he didn't.

SeekEveryEveryKnownHidingPlace · 23/04/2017 12:03

Oh, I don't know anyone who behaves like that. You'd think she'd have enough time for that whilst the kids were at boarding school the rest of the year. But hey, she did take them to Alton Towers that time. And had the gall to tell the rest of us we should hug our children more!

Side issue, anyway. All this 'I was sad when my mother died, I even had to have counselling' - not particularly helpful to your average bereaved teenager, is it - and so very obviously an immediate response to the Mail's detailing of how very little William actually does.

AwaywiththePixies27 · 23/04/2017 12:06

Nessie yes. My DM has a friend. Her & her DH work FT all week. They have all the grandkids every weekend without fail to give their DCs 'a break' from the GDCs whilst they all go out on the piss weekly. I personally wouldn't dream of dumping my DCs on my DM every weekend but apparently because these lot aren't royal it's all dandy Hmm

Livingtothefull · 23/04/2017 12:07

It's nonsense to say that the Royals work hard.

The truth is that they do very little. To quote Mark Bolland, former press officer for Prince Charles: "the Windsors are very good at working three days a week, five months of a year and making it look as though they work hard" .

I would never denigrate their grief at losing their mother, of course grief is universal. But they just don't have the experience of most other people re trying to hold things together, handle demanding jobs (facing performance reviews/possible dismissal if they don't) and care for families whilst dealing with their own grief: with (as is often the case) minimal support. Don't insult our intelligence by claiming that their overall life experiences are universal; they just aren't.

Of course it is welcome when any public figure speaks out on mental health and encourages openness on the subject, and I am sure they mean well. But come on, to say the royals are 'brave' for doing so is over the top, what's so brave about it?

derxa · 23/04/2017 12:27

royalcentral.co.uk/uk/cambridges/princes-william-and-harry-mocked-for-their-mental-health-initiatives-80854
A lot of you are just sounding like Katie Hopkins on here. And that's not a good look.

SeekEveryEveryKnownHidingPlace · 23/04/2017 12:38

Pixies clearly you don't think it's dandy though, do you? Any more than I do!

spinassienne · 23/04/2017 12:56

Head of State that has been groomed to dignity, poise and thinking before they speak

Tell that to Prince "tampongate" Charles.

And the tired old trope of President Blair: well we could end up with a king like that, and we couldn't vote them out.

Livingtothefull · 23/04/2017 12:58

No I don't agree that those critical of the royals are 'sounding like Katie Hopkins'; her opinions are her own and btw I don't share them.

Really I don't understand why republicans are made out to be the unkind ones. If we had our way then there would be no royals, forced to be public figures from birth regardless of what their own feelings might be….that means that when bereaved they could grieve in private like the rest of us & not be compelled to parade through London behind their mother's coffin.

Nor would we have a nonagenarian Head of State feeling it expected/her duty to stand on a boat for a chilly and rainy 80-minute boat journey for a Jubilee Royal Pageant - accompanied by her nonagenarian spouse (who was hospitalised a few days later btw).

Who are the cruel ones here?

RachelRagged · 23/04/2017 13:43

MANY many have lost their mother ! Stupid comment.

As for the biscuit to the OP .. What's the point in that ?

OP most on here are rapid Royalists , Best of Luck .

GinIsIn · 23/04/2017 13:53

Rachel - "many have lost their mother" well strictly speaking pretty much everyone will lose their mother. Doesn't make the grief any less blindsiding or give the royals any less right to grieve.

Tapandgo · 23/04/2017 14:21

The royals are a family who, by mere accident of birth, are able to live off taxpayers money. They collect their benefits regardless of wether they put in a days 'work' (i.e. cut a ribbon) or 5 days 'work'. The benefits are huge. They have an army of sycophants and servants ministering to their every whim and can make as many gaffs as they like and never lose their 'job' - think Philip, Edward, Andrew, Harry. They clearly lap it up or they wouldn't pass the titles and privilege on to their children (Beatrice and Eugenie already lapping up the benefits and seeking more!- They could give it all up if they wanted too - but some of them just want to give up the 'work' and keep the privileges.

I'd prefer an elected president - accountable and affordable, who can be voted out if they fail to reach the agreed standard. Anything else has no place in a 21 Century so called democratic country.

LuluJakey1 · 23/04/2017 14:30

I like the Queen and can't help liking Phillip.- and thete acn't be many 96 year olds doing 300+ public engagements a year as he does.

I like Charles - and Camilla has made him a happier person.

Don't mind William and Kate and Harry although I think if he married the american actress that would be doomed.

Can't be doing with any of the othets although the Dukes of Kent and Gloucester do a lot of public engagements.

Princess Anne works hard but I don't find her likeable. Andrew is awful- pompous and arrogant. Beatrice and Eugenie are irrelevancies and should just be private citizens as should Edward, Sophie and family.

LuluJakey1 · 23/04/2017 14:31

Don't they cost us 50p a year each or something? I think they bring in more.

Livingtothefull · 23/04/2017 14:50

I don't really care whether or not royalists are the vast majority as some of them claim. I wouldn't be too smug about this if I were them….I think that much of the support for monarchy is based on personal respect for the Queen and her successors are much more controversial figures.

But let's suppose they are right & the public are & will always be overwhelmingly monarchist and the republican cause is hopeless. Well we are still free to say that we believe that monarchy is wrong in principle and has no place in a so-called 'democratic' country like this one.

'Democratic' in inverted commas because as all MPs have to swear allegiance to the Queen; they can't take their seats unless they do so (which would mean their constituents being unrepresented). If they are republicans they have a choice of not taking their seats, or lying/crossing their fingers and taking the oath. And of course there is no way that the republican case could ever be debated in Parliament by MPs who have sworn allegiance to the monarch.

These are the main reasons I think that the monarchy should be abolished, it is undemocratic and wrong on principle and as a republican supporter I feel disenfranchised.

spinassienne · 23/04/2017 14:53

Depends how you cou t lulu. Anyway even if it was just fifty p, meh, I'd still rather have a bag of crisps than the royals.

spinassienne · 23/04/2017 14:53

Depends how you cou t lulu. Anyway even if it was just fifty p, meh, I'd still rather have a bag of crisps than the royals.

SeekEveryEveryKnownHidingPlace · 23/04/2017 14:59

However little it is, cumulatively it is clearly a lot! If we never gave them another penny, they'd be absolutely fine - and we could spend it on doing something actually concrete and real and beneficial for mental health, for example, rather than waiting for one of them to helpfully comment that being sad is sad even if you're rich, and then pretending that makes them worth the money!