In case you were wondering, not every Londoner has pitched a tent outside the Lindo Wing of St Mary’s Hospital. Or Buckingham Palace for that matter – where the press has been waiting for so long that journalists are turning into (LEGO) bricks. It would be easy to assume so since the Internet world seems to have been taken over by #royalbaby hysteria and perhaps in the eyes of non-Brits, London has become some sort of giant waiting room with people waiting to light up cigars and pop open the champers. (As for the real world, well, then that’s a whole different case.)
Even the most royal-friendly amongst us (and let’s face I don’t know many of those) are keen to turn on Guardian’s ‘Republican’ button by now as the baby talk progresses to take over the news. Commemorative royal baby packs of detergents ? Check! Bite&Reveal Donuts for baby’s gender? Check! Stunts with royal oversized babies, Will and Kate doubles or Queen lookalikes? Check! Royal Morning Sickness bags? Check! (That last one might be handy nevertheless when the #babynews nausea kicks in).
The Crossed Cow blog sees the conversations emerging from the baby mania and the focus on the future world that the child will grow up in as a positive outcome. Edie Greaves writes that it ‘encourages us to think more deeply about society, even if we are not parents’. That could be one way to look at how businesses, journalists, parents, grandparents and almost everyone is jumping on the royal baby bandwagon trying to fit their story in and just grab some of the attention that surrounds the birth of a single child.
I could just be bitter about all this because I drew Chardonnay in our office royal baby name sweepstake. Which is kind of fitting as Chardonnay will be my drink of choice once the pot is handed over to the lucky bugger that drew Alexandra. Yes, I’m betting it’s a girl.
