Prince Harry Gives an Update on How He’s Parenting While Quarantined
Parents around the world are feeling the stresses of parenthood ten-fold these days. As most schools are closed and many people are working from home due to coronavirus (COVID-19), families are getting to spend an unprecedented amount of time together. And while the added time together is certainly nice, it can be hard to keep children entertained for so long.
When Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor was born, his father, Pince Harry, had a lot of royal duties to tend to. Now that Harry is no longer a working royal and we are in the midst of a pandemic, how is Harry fairing with so much uninterrupted time with his small son?
Parenting Archie is hard
Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, are now quarantined in LA with Archie and they aren’t exactly having the worst time.
“There’s a h*ll of a lot of positives that are happening at the same time and being able to have family time — so much family time — that you almost think, ‘Do I feel guilty for having so much family time?’ ” Harry said in a video call for WellChild, an organization that helps care for children with serious illnesses in the U.K. “You’ve got to celebrate those moments where you are just on the floor rolling around in hysterics. Inevitably, half an hour later, maybe a day later, there’s going to be something that you have to deal with and there’s no way you can run away from it.”
Harry went on to praise the parents who are dealing with the pandemic and caring for their sick children at the same time.
“The resilience and the strength that you guys have is absolutely incredible,” he said. “You must never, ever, ever, ever forget that. Of course, there are going to be hard days – I can’t even begin to imagine how hard it is for you guys.”
He went on to allude to how tough it’s been to parent Archie during this time.
“Having one kid at 11 months old is enough!” he said.
Prince Harry’s advice for getting through this
It’s been weeks since most people have been able to do simple things like go eat at a restaurant or go have dinner with a friend and people are certainly starting to feel the strain of isolation.
“I think it’s certainly strange times — everyone is experiencing the same thing in a very unique way,” Harry told the parents on the call. “But the longer this goes on for, I imagine the harder it is for each and every one of you.”
In order to get through this trying time, Prince Harry thinks a good outlook is essential.
“It’s all about morale,” he continued. “If morale is up, if you wake up in the morning and go, ‘Right, new day, got my whole family here, what are we going to do?’ Of course, there’s that fear of what might happen, but there’s so much that’s out of our control and all of a sudden we’ve realized how small we are in the grand scheme of things.”
Though none of us has any idea when the pandemic will be over or when we can resume normal life, Harry left the WellChild parents with some optimistic advice.
“It is really nice to see you all smiling and happy,” he said to them. “Keep going, keep the morale up, keep busy, keep being creative, dare yourself to try new hobbies and I hope to see you all again very, very soon!”
