Washington - Her husband Barack may be the most powerful man in the world but Michelle Obama has revealed that the US President still has to deal with something all parents dread – moody teenagers.
The First Lady told a group of children at the annual Easter Egg Roll at the White House that daughters Malia, 15, and Sasha, 12, are “embarrassed to be around us”.
Since Malia became a teenager she has become “very annoying” because she always wants to do something else, Mrs Obama said.
“They don’t think anything we do is cool,” she added. “They go in the opposite direction of what we do. They’re pretty normal.”
In a separate interview, Mrs Obama said that she and Barack have had to come up with their own parenting weapons.
“We're like any parents. We love to embarrass them,” the First Lady told Michael Strahan, co-host of Live with Kelly and Michael, during an interview on the White House lawn.
“If they're like looking a little, you know, uninvolved in an event, I'll just lean over and be like, ‘If you don't smile, I'm gonna start dancin’,Obama said while gearing up to get her groove on in her seat.”
“And it's like, ‘No mom, please. Whatever you do, just don't move,’” the First Lady continued, mimicking Sasha and Malia, the first daughters.
The President's approach? Threatening to sing, the First Lady said.
“And Barack is like, I'm gonna sing, I'm gonna start singin'. Here I go. Here I go.”
“A little Al Green's comin' on,” Strahan said, referencing the President's 2012 performance of Al Green's hit Let's Stay Together.
“Dad feels like a number's comin' on,” Michelle Obama chimed in.
Fellow show co-host Kelly Rippa, who joined the interview via satellite from New York, had a parenting question of her own for Michelle Obama: Who is teaching the girls to drive, the President or the First Lady?
“It will be neither of us,” Michelle said.
“I think our agents don't want us driving with teenagers,” she continued. “Especially the President's detail. I don't think they want him in the state when she's learning how to drive.”
Malia Obama turns 16 in July. Sasha Obama, who turns 13 in June, will not reach driving age until the Obamas leave the White House.
The President and First Lady are not allowed to drive in Washington, DC because of security concerns. Presidents have been known to drive their personal vehicles while on their personal property, but it is not common for the Commander-in- Chief to drive, even after he leaves office.
“We will fortunately be able to hand that responsibility over to someone else,” the First Lady told Rippa.
During the interview with Strahan, Michelle Obama also discussed how difficult it was to get the whole family together for family time on the weekends now that the girls have differing schedules and activities. She remarked that while the family tries to go to church as much as it can, as it did the day previous on Easter, it's not always possible.
The Obamas often uses Sunday as a time to relax and catch up on the news, the First Lady said.
“We could be loungin' or nappin' or something like that,” the First Lady said.
Strahan interviewed Obama at the White House as part of NBC's coverage of the annual White House Easter Egg Roll. The First Lady wore a colourful, checked shirt and belted kimono wrap and gray pants on Monday. She also sported a new hair do, sans bangs, which Rippa noted that the show's audience “loved.”
Sasha and Malia Obama were not in attendance of the Easter Egg Roll on Monday. “They are in school today,” Press Secretary Joanna Rosholm told a White House pool reporter. - Daily Mail