Former First Lady Michelle Obama, 59, wasted no time getting down to serious topics on her new program The Light Podcast. While speaking to her first guest Hoda Kotb, she admitted that she’s attempting to be less critical of her daughters Sasha, 21, and Malia, 24, as they advance further into adulthood. “I’m on the other side of parenting,” the former First Lady to Barack Obama said. “I’m moving from mom-in-chief to advisor-in-chief.” She said she’s no longer viewing her accomplished girls with a “critical eye.”
“That’s a lovely thing – to be able to watch my girls fly and have the relief that ‘OK, I think I didn’t mess them up,'” she said on the podcast, in part. “Our kids just want our gladness. They don’t need us to fix them.” Michelle the added that, “They don’t need us to point out the thing that’s wrong, first.”
Per Yahoo! News, she recalled a time when her daughter Malia came looking for a steamer for a wrinkled outfit — only Michelle didn’t know that. “Whatever she had on was very wrinkly,” she recalled. “I was like, ‘You’re wrinkly. You’re going to do something about this.’ And she’s like, ‘Yeah, mom, I’m going to…’” In that moment, Michelle indicated she could have been less critical and more affectionate.
She also shared what she tells her daughters in the realm of physical and mental health. “Make room for your mental health,” she said. “Prioritize it. Eat right. This is what I tell [my daughters]. [I ask], ‘Are you eating vegetables? Did you go to sleep? You just might need a nap.’” And though she is married to a man who was once President of the United States, she said she doesn’t want her girls to think marriage is the only way to a happy life.
“I want my daughters to have a broad view of what happiness can look like,” she explained. “I just tell my kids there’s so many ways to be happy, there’s so many ways to find joy in life, and you’re just starting the journey.”