Today is Prince George’s first day at Thomas’s Battersea, his first day at big boy school. Big G was dropped off by his dad,Prince William, and met by the head of the lower school. People keep talking about how nervous he seemed. He only seems nervous because ordinarily he’s running around running over things. Big G doesn’t look nervous to me. He looks determined. Look at him, his chin slightly lowered, his gaze direct, focused forward – Big G knows he’s going inside to meet the people who will eventually call him King.
As you can see, Big G’s ma wasn’t with him this morning. It was confirmedearlier this weekthatPrincess Kateis pregnant with the Cambridge Third, and is experiencing the same severe morning sickness condition that she had with her two previous pregnancies. Most parents out there would probably agree that it must be bad if she couldn’t join today, that she must be feeling really, really sh-tty. And of course it would totally suck to be a parent and not be able to see your kid off to school for the first time. Of course she would have wanted to be there. That said, what are your thoughts on how this is being described?PEOPLEopened their post about Big G’s first day like this:
Prince George put on a brave face Thursday as he headed off for the first day of a new school year without his mom.
Which is how most outlets are reporting it. Big G goes to school – mom’s not there! When moms do the drop-offs on their own, does it ever make headlines that dad’s not there? Like do you ever hear people saying, “Emma braved her first day at school – without dad!” My guess would be no. Because mom doing the drop-off is the “normal”. But as the modern family evolves and more and more dads are staying home and more and more women couples are reimagining what used to be considered traditional household roles, seeing dads at the drop-off will, hopefully, be more common, not just in the logistical sense but also, more importantly, on an emotional level. That it can also be dads who are providing the emotional caring and reassurance a child needs on their first day of school. That that role, of comfort and sensitivity, can be in the male domain too. I say this because I was raised by a single father at a time where there were few dads on the school run. And I remember the looks of pity I’d get from the moms who were there dropping off their kids, without their husbands, like somehow it was such a sad sight that I was being taken to school on my first day without mom’s steadying presence. The implication here is that a mom’s love, on its own, on those occasions, was enough, but that a dad’s love, on its own, was lacking. Which, obviously, is bullsh-t. But that’s one of the reasons why caregiving became so gendered. And you can see the direct effects of that genderisation on equality – both in the workplace and at home across communities.
