There must be a time in a royal child’s life when their parents take the child to
one side and say something like, “Darling, you are not like normal people.
Life will be different for you.
You are royal.”
They then proceed to tell that kid what being a royal means, with the youngster receiving
a kind of Royalty 101 course.
They are told that they won’t mix with the public like other kids; that there will be
no dating the hoi polloi and that they will spend much of their public life surrounded
by bodyguards.
They’ll also soon understand that they are fabulously wealthy, astoundingly privileged,
but with that comes a lot of negatives such as being hounded by the media forever more.
Now let’s see what else goes on in the life of a young royal.
The first thing that a royal child has to get used to is being on show, and that will
last a lifetime.
When you look at the princes William and Harry in the UK their lives have continually been
photographed.
We imagine at some point they are going to ask their parents why they have to sit around
being photographed all the time, and we expect when they ask that the Royalty 101 course
will be delivered.
Ok, so now they get it, life is different for them.
What next?
Well, they will have to go to school.
In the meantime because their parents will have all kinds of royal duties these royal
kids will spend a lot of time with nannies.
We found in the British media an article that talked about a place called Norland College,
a place where it’s said the British royals have got their nannies from for years.
Make no mistake, the nannies from here will be a big part of a young royal’s life.
Looking after a royal kid is kind of a big deal, and so it seems that to get through
Norland College you’ll have to pass a lot of tests, study child psychology, do a lot
of training and believe it or not they even have some martial arts training and are taught
about threats by British military intelligence officers.
A royal kid is going to spend a lot of time with these well-spoken, intelligent, tough
women.
They will then have to start school, but do they go to just any school?
Well, it seems young royals do hang out with some boisterous kids.
When Prince William was just eight years old he had to go to hospital after being whacked
on the head by another kid wielding a golf club.
At the time the Associated Press wrote, “Prince William, the 8-year-old who is second in line
to the British throne, underwent surgery for a skull fracture after being hit by a golf
club while playing with schoolmates.”
With that in mind, these kids do interact and it seems they are not always molly-coddled.
But if you read the story you’ll hear the accident happened when the kids were playing
on the school putting green.
Hmm, how many schools for children these days have their own putting greens?
The answer is not many, and royals don’t just go to the local primary school with the
working class kids from down the street.
We doubt they return home from school each day to a plate of baked beans on toast and
then rush out for a game of street soccer.
William went to a place called Jane Mynors' nursery school.
The New York Times wrote about this place when William was there and said it was not
particularly an exclusive school, although the then $1000 a year cost was likely more
than most Brits could afford.
That’s about $2,300 a year with inflation.
The future King stayed there until he was five.
After that he attended something called a pre-preparatory school.
This is called Wetherby School and it is located in Notting Hill, London.
From what we gathered, getting into this place isn’t that easy because it’s based on
having your child’s name on the list.
We expect this place is kind of exclusive.
If you wanted to send your kids there now you’d have to pay about $10,000 a term.
William stayed there until he was eight.
After that William attended an all-boys boarding school, and this place is called Ludgrove
School.
Right now it costs over $11,000 a term to study there.
The place has been criticized in the past as being a home for snobs, and if you look
at the list of former pupils you’ll find lots of royals and members of the aristocracy.
Life at this school we expect was slightly different from British comprehensive schools.
We know that because it’s said William was rather fond of clay pigeon shooting while
he was there.
Inner city London schools don’t generally have shooting on the list of activities.
And then he ended up at what’s called one of the most prestigious schools in the world,
called Eton College.
If you are rich and posh and come from an elite family this is where you might end up.
It costs around $50,000 a year to send your child to this boarding school, and you can
be sure the child will be rubbing shoulders with some of Britain’s future leaders in
terms of politics and business.
One former student said this about the school: “My mom’s family for like three generations
have gone there.
My dad absolutely hated the idea of me going there, because he was like, this is the paragon
of everything that’s elitist and awful about England.
I was the last year I think where you could still be signed up at birth — you literally
would get put down at birth for a certain house.”
You get the picture.
As for how prince Harry fit it, one former student said he integrated well.
He also said, “Harry was a couple of years above me I think.
They made a big effort to seem like he was a normal person.
Obviously he was from the royal family, but I think the school and all the people there
wanted to make him feel included.”
But Prince Harry did have bodyguards when he went out in London and partied.
The Queen would also sometimes end up at Eton to visit the boys, and the other kids would
be like, hey, it’s your grandmother, the Queen.
Suffice to say, these royal kids grew up knowing they were entitled and they no doubt spoke
in a coded language used by the elite.
They embraced old traditions, at times wore top hats, and we very much doubt ever received
a punch in the face by the school bully.
To conclude this section, the royal child will likely only mix with children from very
wealthy families.
That child will board at school a lot and so spend a lot of time away from his family.
On top of that, the child will travel a lot with his family and also spend a lot of time
with carers.
It could feel like a lonely life being away from family so much.
At the same time these kids will spend money.
When Harry went out to those nightclubs he had to pay for stuff.
We found one report that said the royal kids don’t really perceive money the way other
kids do because when they want it they get it.
Saying that, it’s reported that Princess Diana wanted William and Harry to know the
value of money.
She discovered that her husband, Prince Charles, didn’t really know what a pound was actually
worth until he was a teenager.
If you want something you just ask, and so that might affect a royal child’s conception
of what money is worth.
Then there’s the stress of being a royal.
Ok, so you might be thinking having money on tap is a good thing, or never having to
stress about being poor or making it in the world.
But if that’s all you know things iron out.
It becomes relative.
You can still feel down.
Those kids at some point will realize that their actions are continually under the microscope.
At some point Prince William realized he was the future King of England and he had to act
the part.
There is little room for error as a royal child, although Prince Harry has been wayward
at times.
Harry for instance has come out and talked about dealing with years of depression, not
being able to get out of bed and seeing a counselor.
He had to deal with his mother’s death, which for the public was some kind of drama,
but for him a reality.
How does a royal child cope when that child has few people to talk to about his feelings?
We expect at some points in life the royal child will be thinking he just wants to be
normal.
Harry said he would almost explode at times with this pressure and he regularly suffered
from bouts and depression and anxiety.
He told the press as an adult, “I just didn’t know what was wrong with me.”
There must come a time when the royal child grows up and becomes much more self-aware.
The child will realize he lives in a bit of a “Mad World.”
In the words of Prince Harry, “I can safely say that losing my mum at the age of 12, and
therefore shutting down all of my emotions for the last 20 years has had a quite serious
effect on not only my personal life but my work as well.”
And no matter how many friends you make, you will always be a royal and people will treat
you differently.
Most of you watching this will have best friends, people who you can rely on and who treat you
like an equal, but for a royal kid there must always be this sense of being separated.
It’s the same for royals everywhere.
Imagine being for the former king of Thailand, Bhumibol Adulyadej.
He is now deceased, but after living in Europe and the US when still young he became the
King of Thailand with a whole country looking up to him.
He had to grow up very fast and was even treated like a God.
There is some pressure when you’re seen as being Godly.
While a prince or princess will be surrounded by people offering them good advice, they
will forever feel the pressure of what they were born into.
There will be many things they will know and will never be able to talk about publicly.
The royal child will have a long list of secrets and that will weigh heavily on that child.
There will be plenty of scandals surrounding the royal child’s life and they will for
the most part take the truth to the grave with them.
So, while being a royal child might at times look like a lot of fun, we imagine it is very
stressful.
These kids might have dreams, but in some ways they will have to do what they are told
to do.
They might only want to backpack around the world, but that is never going to happen,
well, not with the freedom other backpackers have.
They might just once want to go to the movie theater and hold hands with someone, but that
won’t happen unless bodyguards are around and the movie theater has been checked out
first.
The role is inescapable, and as a child this royal might be thinking I never asked for
any of this, but that won’t appease the many anti-royals from wanting them removed
from their house – paid for by taxpayers.
We imagine some of the best times would be when the kids don’t even realize they are
royalty, but once they get to grips with it, it could be quite tiresome.
Prince Harry once said, “To be honest, dinner conversations were the worst bit about being
a child and listening to the boring people around me.”
It seems the royal shoe just didn’t fit well for young Harry.
Then again, Queen Elisabeth said despite what they are, the royals do live a normal life,
too.
She said, “Like all the best families, we have our share of eccentricities, of impetuous
and wayward youngsters and of family disagreements.”
Another British royal who has been in the spotlight of late has been Prince Andrew.
We are going to stand on the fence regarding the truth about what he did, but we might
ask if growing up as a royal gives that person a feeling that they can get away with anything.
If you watched his controversial interview with the BBC you’ll know how he came across.
He didn’t seem to feel guilty about being a friend of a man that had caused so much
damage.
He seemed to have little to no empathy regarding the victims.
You can also read a lot into what he said about going to a Pizza Express in Woking.
It seems he thinks he is above visiting a pizza restaurant where the “normal” people
go.
So, we imagine that while being a royal might be hard, some royals might believe they are
above the normal folks.
Studies have revealed that wealthy people and sometimes celebrities can indeed feel
as though they are above the law, and we guess when you grow up in a royal family you will
have this sense of immunity.
So, while we’ve been quite sympathetic in today’s show about growing up a royal, we
imagine that some royals take advantage of their wealth and power and go to what we might
call the darkside.
After learning all of this, would you want to grow up as royalty?
Tell us in the comments.
And then go watch our other video - How Protected Is The British Royal Family?
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