Sunday Rerun: Oh, Archie!

We may not have kids of our own, but we fully appreciate what a lot of work it is to be parents.  Many people are very surprised to find that the child they proudly brought home from Maternityville will not be able to make himself a sandwich, pay a bill, or clean up her own room until their late 20s.  If then!

So it might come as a surprise to American Royal Watchers that the newest of royal parents, Prince Opie Harry and his lovely wife Meghan Markle have not hired a nanny to care for little screamin' Archie.

Now, it must be remembered that the royal family over in jolly Olde Englande has every kind of help available 24-7, so it's really not like Reds 'n' Meg are really truly going it alone.

At first, the news from London told us that they were hoping to hire an American nanny, but when Fran Drescher was busy doing other things, they planned to go with what they call a "scaled down team."  That means no nanny, but her mother, Doria Ragland, is on the job.  She came over from her home in sunny Los Angeles to be there for the birth, and is hanging around for the diaper changes and burping.  And from all reports, her help has been indispensable.

Har and Meggie, A/K/A the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, said all along they intend to be hand-on parents, and observers say this is a tradition they got from his mom, the late Princess Diana, who was said to bring a sense of normality to bringin' up Brits.

Why, they even report that Prince William (his brother) and his wife Kate Middleton even have dinner with their children! And go bug-hunting, and other family fun.

Royal Biographer Duncan Larcombe of the Daily Mail says, “Diana made sure William and Harry lived as much as a normal life as possible and as parents, William and Harry will always be influenced by their mother. Her desire to give them a taste of normality runs through the veins of William and Harry.”

So yes, it's laudable that these two youngsters in love want to be in there for every step of the way, as opposed to lots of upper crust types who are crummy parents.  It's not like they live in a cottage small by a waterfall, and she's not out there doing the laundry on rocks, but it's closer to normal than most.