Like many mothers, First Lady Michelle Obama worries constantly about her daughters Sasha, 10 and Malia, 13: “Like any mother, I’m just hoping I don’t mess them up,” she reveals in a candid new interview.
“”That’s all we’re living to do. It’s like, at the end of the day, I find myself checking with friends: ‘How did the girls seem?’ And they’ll say, ‘No, they’re the same kids. They’re the same girls.’ I’m like, ‘OK, good. Just tell me if you see anything. Just let me know.’ ”
So far, the girls are fairing well. “They’re good,” she adds. “That’s why the president and I are so happy. Even when times are tough, in the end you are as happy as your least happy child. When your kids are healthy, your dog is healthy, you find that you sleep a little bit better.”
On being a normal family
Michelle and President Obama try to as much as they can to maintain some normalcy in their home. “The first thing is establishing rules among the staff that they’re not little princesses,” the first lady says. “They have to make their beds, they have to clean up their rooms, they have to — Sasha has started doing the laundry, Malia was supposed to be doing it but (Sasha) is really into laundry. My mom still does her own laundry.”
“It’s really the interaction that we have as a family that makes it feel like a home.” Yes, it will feel like a normal American family when you hear this. “It’s sitting down at the dinner table and having Barack’s day be really the last thing anyone really cares about,” she said to laughter. “So he’s sort of the throw-on piece. It’s like, ‘Oh yeah, Daddy, and what did you do today?”
On tv time and the Kardashians
Malia and Sasha are not allowed to watch television or be on the computer during the week unless it is related to schoolwork; however, they can watch limited television on weekends. So what are the girls not allowed to watch? “Barack really thinks some of the Kardashians — when they watch that stuff — he doesn’t like that as much,” says Michelle, “but I sort of feel like if we’re talking about it, and I’m more concerned with how they take it in — what did you learn when you watched that. And if they’re learning the right lessons, like, that was crazy, then I’m like, okay.”
On Halloween and Holiday Treats
“I tell this to my girls all the time — that when it’s time for the holidays and the fun stuff and the birthday party, that you don’t have to worry about it because you’re doing what you’re supposed to do every single day.” She said she lets them hang on to their Halloween bag for a day or two but then “I confiscate it, because it’s like, you just don’t need to have this in your room; it’s not good. The temptation is too great.”
