In the days following Charlotte’s birth, as any normal father would, His Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge filled in the details of her birth certificate.
When a photo of the handwritten certificate was posted on the Kensington Palace Instagram account I, like many others, carefully read every word and marvelled that a Prince (!) would take the time to fill in his daughter’s birth certificate by hand.
How sweet.
How lovely.
How normal.
That the birth certificate lists the occupation of her parents as Prince and Princess of the United Kingdom didn't seem to register as just a bit unusual while we exclaimed over their everyday-ness.
I had a similar moment yesterday when Kensington Palace released a personal photo to celebrate Prince George's second birthday.
I exclaimed loudly, "awwww! Look at that. So cute." A gorgeous candid moment between a father and his son.
It's a photo that any parent might have in their camera roll.
"Isn't it lovely to see them just being a normal family."
That was when it hit me.
The Royal Family are winning the public relations war, and I am slowly becoming a monarchist.
The truth is, of course, this family is anything but normal. They just have an extraordinarily effective public relations strategy and some very smart media advisers.
Because we've managed to gloss over some fairly serious gaffes in recent times.
Like the time Prince Charles compared Vladimir Putin to Adolf Hitler last year or the time Prince Harry referred to a colleague with an Asian background as, 'Paki'.
From an annus horribilis, the descriptor the Queen herself gave to 1992, and the days following the death of Princess Diana in 1997, arguably the darkest days for the 'modern' royal family, they are now enjoying something of a hey day.
But, we're still talking about a family living a life of luxury at the expense of the taxpayer in large part. We're still talking about the fact that at some stage, Prince Charles, then Prince William and then Prince George after him will become our head of state.
Despite the fact that we're a democracy and that every three years we all line up at a polling booth to elect our representatives, that two-year-old boy will one day rule us. This strikes me as more than just a little bit out of whack.
I'm happy to admit that at The Motherish we publish our fair share of stories about the royal family, and that in some part we're doing a bit to help them with their public relations.
But they're sooooo cute!
I asked Peter Fitzsimons, the new chair of the Australian Republican Movement whether or not he had a similar response to me when he sees photos of George and Charlotte. He laughed, and replied, "No. I don't think they're any more adorable than your children, my children, children all around the country."
I'm a proud mother, so I was somewhat gratified by this response, but I needed to know how the ARM planned on tackling the public relations juggernaut coming out of Kensington Palace. "By pointing out that I am, you are, we are Australian. A mature nation doesn't have have a head of state living in another country. If we're going to be a mature and sophisticated nation we should have an Australian as head of state."
As for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their brood, "they seem like a nice young family and good luck to them," Peter Fitzsimons said. "I wish the Queen well too."
If, like me, you're keen on Kate and Wills but secretly feel a bit embarrassed by that, you can join the Australian Republican Movement here.
Do you think Australia should become a republic?
TAP on the image below and click through the gallery to see the best moments of Prince George on his first overseas trip:
