Kate Middleton says pandemic parenting has been exhausting

• The Duchess of Cambridge participated in a discussion about how parents have been impacted by the pandemic.
• Middleton has found the extra family time exhausting, but said there have been silver linings.

Like many parents, Kate Middleton sums up parenting during the pandemic with one word: exhausting.

Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, appeared on a virtual panel where she talked with other parents about the challenges of the pandemic nearly one year in.

During the chat, Middleton said she has felt overwhelmed by the ways she's had to step up for her three kids, George, seven, Charlotte, five, and Louis, two.

"I think as parents you've the day-to-day elements of being a parent, but I suppose during lockdown we have had to take on additional roles that perhaps others in our communities, or in our lives, would have perhaps supported us and helped us with," Middleton said in the conversation, which was posted on The Royal Family YouTube page.

She's even started cutting her kids' hair.

"I've become a hairdresser this lockdown, much to my children's horror, seeing mum cutting hair," Middleton said in the conversation. "We've had to become a teacher - and I think, personally, I feel pulled in so many different directions and you try your best with everything, but at the end of the day I do feel exhausted."

Despite stepping up as a teacher, Middleton rated her math skills as "-5," and that she's "right at the bottom of the class."

Middleton said that Prince William has been very present during the pandemic. However, she noted that many other families are left without school and community support to help them.

The panel also discussed how time at home has taught kids about non-academic skills, like baking and housekeeping, that they might not learn in the classroom. Middleton also talked to the parents about their feelings of being overwhelmed and lonely. A study that Middleton oversaw, called Early Years, found that the number of parents in the UK feeling lonely doubled during the pandemic.

"I appreciate the amazing jobs that parents up and down the country are doing every day. And it's important for our children that we look after ourselves," Middleton said.