A SIT DOWN WITH THE OBAMA FAMILY

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The Obama family recently sat down with People magazine to talk about their family life. In a snippet of the interview below, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and wife Michelle tell People how they raise their girls in the public’s eye.

PEOPLE: Someone told me today that you don’t do birthday presents.
Michelle: No, because we spend hundreds of dollars on a birthday party and movie tickets and pizza and popcorn …
Barack: That sleepover is enough. We want to teach some limits to them. And their friends bring over presents.
Michelle: They get so much stuff that it just becomes numbing. Malia believes there is still a Santa Claus even though she’s a little wary because some of her friends are non-believers. But Malia says, “Ma, I know there is a Santa because there’s no way you’d buy me all that stuff.” [Laughing]

So what does a slumber party at the Obama house look like?
Barack: They’re pretty noisy.
Michelle: The older they get, they just talk a lot. But they’re at the age where they’re pretty self-sufficient. [For Malia’s birthday] we’re going to go swimming, see Wall-E, make pizzas, have sundaes.
Barack: I usually go for the swim but this time I want to go to the movie just because Wall-E has gotten great reviews. I find actually that children’s movies are the best movies these days. But I’ll probably, after that, peel off until the cake.
Michelle: [Laughs] “Peel off.”

What does discipline look like in your house?
Barack: Mommy raising her voice.
Michelle: It’s usually a lecture. It’s a lot of conversation. Or it’s separating them. Or it’s saying if you guys can’t decide nicely what program to watch, then you don’t get to watch anything. It’s sort of pulling away a privilege. But in all honesty, we don’t have to discipline –
Barack: If you ask them to do something, they’re like any other kid …
Michelle: They’ll whine a little bit.
Barack: They’ll test boundaries. But if you say, “Guys, this is what we need to do …”
Michelle: An example of this is one night I was going out, I had to do a fund-raiser, and I told Malia, “You guys really need to have an early bedtime because you’ve got to get up tomorrow and have a busy day.” So my mom was there, and my mom doesn’t adhere to bedtime. She’s kinda, “Well, maybe you wanna start taking your bath…” But that night, she said she sat down to watch TV with them and they both got up, turned off the TV and left. And my mom was like, “Where are you going?” And they said, “We have got to go to bed early today, Grandma.” And they went downstairs, took their baths and went to bed, and my mom was just stunned.

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~ by blackcelebritykids on July 30, 2008.