Being the president of the United States is a 24/7 job — which can make things difficult when you're also a parent. Barack Obama was president for two terms, and his young daughters, Malia and Sasha, were 10 and 7 years old, respectively, when they moved into the White House. But Michelle Obama didn't want her husband's parental duties to fall by the wayside now that he was the leader of the free world. You can't push pause on being a dad; while the country needed its President, Malia and Sasha also needed their
father.
During an episode of her "IMO" podcast that she co-hosts with brother Craig Robinson, Michelle had guest Julia Louis-Dreyfus on the show. When the "Veep" star mentioned she didn't know how Barack managed everything, Michelle said she pulled him into it, despite the fact that neither of them had a lot of free time. "It was like, no, you got to go to parent-teacher conference, and he wanted to go," the daring style icon admitted. "It's like, even if you don't have to go, you have to go. You have to get the school normalized to you being the type of engaged parent that you were before election night."
Michelle then shared how before he became POTUS, Barack was like every other regular dad. He went to his kids' school for events and coached their basketball games. That kind of commitment wasn't going to stop just because he got a new job and office.
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Parenting Was Easier When The Girls Were Younger
Once Malia and Sasha Obama had their head-turning transformations, that made parenting much harder for Barack Obama. In an interview with Ryan Clark on "The Pivot Podcast" in 2024, the former president shared the most difficult part of being a parent to his daughters. "The challenge for us is letting us give them any help at all," he admitted. "They're very sensitive about this stuff; they're very stubborn about it." It's tough to be there for your kids when they just want to figure things out on their own.
Things aren't as easy now as they were when the girls were little, back when they could be content with a swing set that their parents bought them. Barack hadn't been president for long before he and Michelle Obama surprised their kids with the present. The fact that the plaything sat near the Oval Office, where their dad could keep an eye on them and also join in on the fun, only helped to strengthen the father-daughter bond. Barack probably wishes things with his kids could be that simple again, but what has never changed is his love and dedication as their dad.
Read the original article on The List.
