Bringing Your Baby to the Bar Is a Rite of Passage
Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, are breaking into parenting with a series of admirable stances: Archie is poised to become a wee feminist. He reportedly sleeps in a nursery painted in vegan products. The pair declined to give him a royal title, in the supposed hope that, despite the minor detail of growing up on castle grounds, he’ll be as normal as possible. Also: Mom and Dad are already taking Archie to the pub.
According to photos obtained by TMZ, Harry and Meghan recently toted a sleeping four-month-old Archie to the Rose & Crown in Windsor—a stone’s throw from their home at Frogmore Cottage—where the couple ordered the traditional Sunday roast and “Harry helped himself to a couple of pints.” All the while, Archie reportedly did not make a peep.
Deep curtsy to both of them, because this is what winning at parenting looks like. I am exceedingly pleased to see that Meghan and Harry, just four months into child-rearing, already know what I failed to learn until my second kid: Taking one’s baby to the bar is a rite of passage.
Often, with a first child, there can be paralyzing fear to leave the house—so much stuff, so many germs. What if they require a boob or a bottle, which they seem to constantly? Will they be warm or cool enough in the great outdoors? This line of thinking was precisely how I became a shut-in—and also how I came to appreciate a nice, peaty scotch—during my first maternity leave.
By the time my second child came around, I knew better. Firstly, babies are highly portable to the bar or pub. Often not much bigger than a bread basket, they are easily propped tableside or tucked under a table (much to my mother’s chagrin). Further, they sleep all the time—some even tend to pass out the minute they’re nestled into a car seat, à la Archie. Where they sleep is of little import to them. Strapped to my chest in a baby carrier, my infant son once dozed through my margarita at a raucously noisy Mexican place—with only one tiny drop of guacamole on his head—followed by a friend’s surprise party in the backroom of a bar.
If you’re Meghan and Harry, you can either watch Archie sleep at home (luxe yet potentially boring) or venture out to the Rose & Crown, where, beyond the roast, the menu includes a very appealing “kilo of mussels and a carafe of wine.” Most of all, new parents essentially engaging in shift work to keep their child alive deserve to get out and feel human again, even if they have to bring their infant along. As babies become toddlers, they become infinitely less chill and fun to have at the table, so cheers to Harry and Meghan for seizing the fleeting, magical phase when your tot is no bother at the bar. Bottles all around!
Originally Appeared on Vogue
