It’s a commonly accepted phrase that no two children are the same, but according to former First Lady Michelle Obama, Barack Obama struggled to understand the differences between their daughters, Malia, 27, and Sasha, 24, when they were raising them.
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On a recent episode of Michelle Obama and her brother Craig Robinson’s podcast, “IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson”, they dove deep into the conversation of family dynamics with special guests Dwayne Wade and Gabrielle Union. Never being the one to shy away from the topic of parenting, the former First Lady spoke about how parenting differs from child to child and why Barack Obama thought their daughter Sasha was “difficult” compared to Malia.
“When it comes to our oldest, Malia, she is very much… she is going to figure out what, who you are, what you like and let’s discuss, right? Unusual. She’s always been that way… When Malia was a teenager, it wasn’t that she was going out any less or doing anything differently.”
In fact, Malia had a charming tactic when it came to buttering up her dad before she went out with friends as a teenager:
“She would tell me, ‘I’m going out this weekend, but I’m going to go in and give dad 15 minutes.’ And she’d go into the treaty room and [say] ‘Tell me about Syria… Oh really?’ And then she’d be like, ‘Okay, well, I’m gone.’ Barack would come out of the Treaty Room, going ‘I just had an amazing conversation with Malia,” Mrs Obama explains, to laughs from her co-host and guest stars.
She then continues, adding that their youngest daughter is much more like a cat, compared to a more upbeat Malia, “She’s [Sasha] like, ‘Don’t touch me. Don’t pet me. I’m not pleasing you. You come to me.’ And Barack’s like ‘She’s difficult.’ And I’m like, ‘No, the first one was a pleaser.’ And temperamentally they’re still like that.”
The conversation started as Gabrielle Union reflected on the differences in how she was parented compared to her sisters. Union expressed that because her parents didn’t want her to feel neglected as the middle child, they may have accidentally made her the favorite. She then stated that parents have to be like a chameleon for their children, to which Mrs Obama agreed, emphasising that it’s important parents don’t just parent towards one child’s personality.
“You have to be a chameleon, and if you can, be a chameleon. But some people parent to one child, or one personality child, but then you have three, you know?”
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