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| Obama, Michelle, Sasha and Malia |
The public rarely catches a glimpse of President Barack
Obama's daughters Malia, 14, and Sasha, 11. Even an appearance on stage at the
end of the Democratic National Convention wasn't reason enough to break the
"you must go to school" rule; as the president promised in his
speech, the girls were at their desks at Sidwell Friends School first thing in
the morning. But when you're parenting in the White House, you have to be even
more strict than your average mom or dad.
How strict? The New York Times' Jodi Kantor listed a few
rules that First Lady Michelle Obama has mentioned over the years:
The girls must write reports about what they've seen on
their trips, even if it's not required by their school.
Malia may use her cellphone only on the weekends, and she
and her sister cannot watch television or use a computer for anything but
homework during the week.
Malia and Sasha have to play two sports: one they choose and
one selected by their mother.
Malia must learn to do laundry before she leaves for
college.
The girls have to eat their vegetables, and if they say that
they are not hungry, they cannot ask for cookies or chips later.
But the first lady doesn't think her rules are all that
harsh. "They're not little princesses," Mrs. Obama told Yahoo! Shine
in an interview last year. "It's just basic rules, boundaries, and
expectations that we would have normally."
Would you let your
child make the household rules?
In general, the rules that the Obama kids must abide by are
pretty straight forward. Here are a few others that the first lady shared with
Yahoo! Shine:
They must do their chores. Though the White House has a
large staff, Malia and Sasha have chores of their own. "They have to make
their beds, they have to clean up their rooms," she said last year.
"They have chores to do, and they don't get their allowance until they can
prove that they've done their chores for the week."
They can't watch much TV. "We have clear rules about
screen time and TV time. None during the week if it doesn't involve
schoolwork," she said. They're allowed some TV time on the weekends, but
even then "I try to fill up their weekends with a lot of stuff so they
wind up missing that, too," Mrs. Obama confided. "It's like, sports
and games, and then, oh, it's bedtime, so sorry you didn't get your TV time
in."
No R-rated movies for pre-teens. While Malia, 14, has gone
to a few R-rated movies (after they've been vetted by her parents), Sasha, 11,
is not allowed to watch R-rated movies at all, and even kid-centric TV shows
get monitored. "Nowadays, sometimes what's on the kid programming, some of
that teenage programming is pretty high-level stuff, too," the first lady
said. "So you find that you have to constantly just be engaged with them
and hear what they're learning and talk to them about the shows that they're
watching."
They can only have healthy snacks. "We have fruit. We
have some cereals, some crackers, nuts, dried foods that are out," Mrs.
Obama said. "We try to put out healthy snacks in clear containers, because
seeing dried fruit gives the kids the idea, 'Oh, yes, if I'm hungry I could
really have this or the nuts or the soybean things.' And my whole thing is if
you're really hungry, you can have that. If you don't really want it, then
you're not really hungry."
They must play a team sport. "Sports is an expectation,
and we say it's an expectation because it's about good health," the first
lady said. "It's about learning how to play on a team, learning how to
lose, learning how to win gracefully, learning how to trash talk and not get
your feelings hurt." Individual sports are great, but "I think team
sports are important particularly for girls, where they learn the camaraderie
of being dependent on other people for the victory," she told Yahoo! Shine
in April. "And I think my girls need to learn how to compete. Whether they
choose to do it long term, I just think it's an important opportunity for girls
to have."
Quitting is not allowed. "Kids tend to quit when it
starts getting hard, which means that's when they're starting to learn
something," Mrs. Obama told Yahoo! Shine. "And that's the tough time
to continue to make them go to that tennis lesson. Even though Malia was
complaining about it, she now loves tennis. And now she's saying, 'Well, I'm
glad you made me keep taking tennis.' "
In the end, the Obamas want for their kids the same things
that we want for ours: A chance for them to grow into safe, responsible, and
happy people.
"They're terrific girls. They're poised and they're
kind and they're curious. Like any mother, I am just hoping that I don't mess
them up," the first lady told Yahoo! Shine. "Even when times are
tough, in the end you are as happy as your least happy child."
What do you think of the Obama's household rules? How do
they compare to the rules your kids live by at your house?
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