Kate Middleton Won’t Include Kids in Stomach-Turning Royal Tradition

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Kate Middleton has always been about setting new royal precedents. Whether it be by blazing new trails (like supposedly picking a different school for her kids) or by nixing certain royal traditions, she is never one to put tradition before her maternal instincts.

Now, the Princess of Wales is apparently saying no to a royal family tradition her kids Prince George, 11, Princess Charlotte, 9, and Prince Louis, 6 are likely expected to take part in.

“[King] Charles’ daughter-in-law, Catherine, Princess of Wales, has put her foot down and insisted there will be no blooding for her children,” royal author Tom Quinn wrote in an excerpt from his upcoming book, Yes Ma’am: The Secret Life of Royal Servants.

And this is where queasy readers might want to take their leave.

Because “blooding,” for those of you with strong enough stomachs (or an insatiable curiosity), is the royal family’s tradition of going hunting with the kids and smearing them with the blood of their first kill.

And while we know this practice and similar ones hold special meanings in many cultures … I also know that I’m getting woozy just thinking about it. Older generations of royals — including Middleton’s husband Prince William and her brother-in-law Prince Harry — had to go through with blooding. In fact, the Duke of Sussex went so far as to detail the intense experience in his tell-all memoir, Spare.

It turns out Middleton isn’t the only one who wants to keep animal blood off her children’s faces. It sounds like the Prince of Wales is pretty against it too. In his book Gilded Youth: A History of Growing Up in the Royal Family, Quinn said Prince William has been “struggling with the traditional pastimes of the royal family as they become ever more unpopular with the public,” per InStyle. Before blooding even gets to be a possibility with his kids, Prince William is apparently wondering if plain ol’ hunting is even “suitable” for the young royals.

And so despite what King Charles III might want (his position on blooding is unclear), we have to believe that a mom on a mission who has a future king in her corner will make sure her kids’ faces aren’t smeared with animal blood.

These relatable moments show that Kate Middleton may be a royal mom — but she’s a regular mom too.