Royal Children

I came across this article recently. Since I'm obsessed with all things British AND the royal family, I just had to share. I'm paraphrasing it here to only those "rules" I thought were particularly interesting. I hope you do too.

Rules for Royal Children

1. Royal children have to follow protocol even before they are born. Per tradition, after the birth, a sign with the gender and time of delivery is displayed outside of Buckingham Palace announcing the news.

2. They have to be baptized. Queen Victoria commissioned a christening gown for her first child. It has been worn by every member of the royal family ever since. Recently, there has been a replica made since the original is too fragile to be worn anymore.

3. The Queen cannot be called "grandma!" She has other nicknames like "granny" or "gan-gan."

4. All royal children will have to take and pass a driving test to drive. Only the queen is allowed to drive without a license.

5. Two heirs are not allowed to travel together in order to preserve the line of succession.

6. There are fashion restrictions but the oddest one is that young boys are expected to wear shorts in public. Pants used to be viewed at "middle class." Little girls wear smocked dresses.

7. The entire royal family, including the children, avoids shellfish because it's the most common food to cause food poisoning. 

8. All members of the royal family are expected to be impartial when it comes to politics, sports and other cultural affairs. They are not allowed to vote.

9. Apparently, there will be no Monopoly playing on family game night due to the family being overly competitive in the past.

10. All members of the royal family--including children, must accept all gifts given by well-wishers. Royal protocol is that the Queen decides what they can keep.

11. Black is only worn for mourning in the daytime. Every member of the royal family must travel with a black outfit in case someone unexpectedly dies while they are away. Queen Elizabeth instated this protocol after she was caught without a black dress in Africa when her father passed away.

12. Although the royals have plenty of nicknames, they are not allowed to use them in public. Hence, Kate Middleton now goes by Catherine.

13. Royal children have to behave in public. They are still children and meltdowns happen. But they are expected to follow a higher standard of manner than the average child.