Kate Middleton was unavailable to joining Prince William on his New York City tour

Prince William just landed Stateside for a two-day visit to New York, but Kate Middleton opted to stay home for a very sweet reason – apparently the royal parents, despite having a nanny, prefer to ‘be home’ when the children arrive from school

Prince William is officially visiting New York – but while Kate Middleton is often on his arm during royal trips, this time she opted to stay home for a very sweet reason.

According to the pair’s imperial PR team, Middleton is staying back in the UK to take care of the couple’s three children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis. Apparently, although the couple has the help of longtime nanny Maria Teresa Turrion Borrallo, they take turns regularly driving the children to school, and prefer to be home when they arrive at the end of the day.

Prince William and Kate Middleton are attempting to ‘give their children a normal life’ all while preparing them for future royal duties, which isn’t easy. “It’s a massive balancing act,” a palace insider previously told PEOPLE exclusively. “William and Kate are doing the right thing, protecting him so he can have as normal a childhood as possible, but he’s also dipping into duties as a future monarch

The Prince of Wales, 41, is in New York for Tuesday’s Earthshot Prize Innovation Summit, where this year’s finalists will be revealed before winners are announced during the 2023 Earthshot Prize awards ceremony, which will take place in Singapore.

It has also been reported that Kate will not accompany her husband to Singapore later this year for his third annual Earthshot Prize Awards ceremony. William is set to head to Southeast Asia at the beginning of November to present the awards, which helped to found.

Kate Middleton x Prince William Together

At the inaugural awards in London in 2021, Kate was with William and wore a gorgeous recycled lilac Alexander McQueen gown. Meanwhile, last December the pair were both at the 2022 awards in Boston, where Kate wowed in a green dress from rental platform Hurr.

Many had expected Kate would be with William for the 2023 ceremony this year, but according to The Telegraph, the princess is not expected to attend – although there has been no official announcement yet. And royal fans have taken to Twitter to voice their despair at the fact they may not see Kate in Singapore later this year.

One wrote: “So sad. We wanna see Princess Catherine.” Another wrote: “Hopefully this is not true.” While one simply added: “Noooo” with a crying face emoji. Although another fan pointed out: “It’s her husband’s project and she isn’t required to be there. Let’s face it, we all just want her to go so we can see a pretty dress.