10 times Princess Diana showed she was an amazing mother

Princess Diana took being a mother very seriously, and always made the effort to spend time with her sons, William and Harry. From the time they were born, Diana pushed the boundaries of what was expected of the mother of the royal heirs — she chose their own names and breastfed them as infants.

"Most importantly, [my role is] being a mother and a wife. That's what I try to achieve; whether I do is another thing, but I do try," Diana said in November 1985.

Princess Diana later said, "I live for my sons. I would be lost without them."

"Diana and Charles bucked the royal trend of separation by taking nine-month-old William, as well as his nanny, with them on the six-week tour to Australia and New Zealand," royal expert Christopher Warwick told Harper's Bazaar. "William and Harry were very, very fortunate with Diana as a mother because her ideas were so different from the previous generation."

"I've got two very healthy strong boys, and it's not always the case with the families I'm meeting ... and I realize how incredibly lucky I am," she said in an interview.

Although Diana didn't work a regular job — she gave up her position as a nursery school teacher when she married Prince Charles — her life was filled with royal duties, events, and obligations.

However, she would reportedly coordinate her schedule to match the boys' schedule. Like many other royal children, they were partially cared for by nannies.

"In her official calendar, the princess had all the everyday details of her sons' utterly everyday lives marked in green ink," Katrine Ames wrote in Newsweek in 1997.

Tradition in the royal family said that royal children were to be educated at home by their governess. However, Princess Diana changed royal education forever when William started at Mrs. Mynors' nursery in Notting Hill in September 1985.

"I was [a little sad] because it's opening another chapter in my life and certainly William's. But he's ready for it. He's a very independent child," Diana told the press after William's first day at school.

Prince William became the first future royal to be fully educated in the public school system, and Princess Diana would continue to support Prince William and Prince Harry's education throughout their lives.

On a trip to Necker Island in 1990, Princess Diana played in the sand with her sons and their friends, showing that being a royal definitely doesn't mean you can't have some fun.

"She understood that there was a real life outside of Palace walls," William said in a documentary about her life.

Prince Harry has since reflected on his mother's hugs, and what made her so special as a mother.

"She would just engulf you and squeeze you as tight as possible and being as short as I was then, there was no escape, you were there for as long as she wanted to hold you. Even talking about it now, I can feel the hugs that she used to give us," he said in the documentary "Diana, Our Mother: Her Life and Legacy."

"I miss that feeling, I miss having that mother to give you those hugs and that compassion that everyone needs. Behind closed doors, she was a very loving, caring mother and an incredibly funny person. I think she lived a lot of her life, especially in private, through us and I think that childish fun element really came out when she was spending time with us."

During a ski trip with Prince William and Prince Harry in 1991, Diana pleaded with paparazzi to leave her and her family alone while they were enjoying their quiet family vacation and even approached people filming her and her children to ask that they stop.

The Princess had also ordered that they would have no bodyguards in attendance, even for the children, to ensure that the vacation would be as "normal" as possible.

Even today, it would be considered unusual to see a member of the royal family jetting down a water slide.

However, this was just one reason why Diana was so beloved by her sons and the public — she completely reinvigorated what it meant to be a royal and raising the future ruler of the United Kingdom.

"I want my boys to have an understanding of people's emotions, their insecurities, people's distress, and their hopes and dreams," Diana once said in an interview.

Not only did Princess Diana speak with her sons about how privileged they were, but she also brought them along on visits to hospitals and homeless shelters.

"My mother introduced that sort of area to me a long time ago," Prince William told the Telegraph in 2005. "It was a real eye-opener and I am very glad she did. It has been something I have held close to me for a long time."

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