Parenting in the White House

Mercury: In the Obama White House, bedtime is still at 8 p.m. The girls still set their own alarm clocks and get themselves up for school in the morning. They make their own beds and clean their own rooms. And when the much-anticipated pet arrives, they will walk the dog and scoop its poop.
"That was the first thing I said to some of the staff when I did my visit," Michelle Obama said in an interview with ABC News, describing her talks with White House employees. "'Don't make their beds. Make mine. Skip the kids'. They have to learn these things.'"
Even as Barack Obama tackles the recession and Michelle Obama embraces the role of first lady, the Obamas are finding their footing as parents in the White House. They strive, and even struggle at times, to balance the intense public interest in their family with their desire to preserve a sense of normalcy and privacy in the lives of their daughters, according to relatives, friends and television and magazine interviews with the Obamas themselves.
Barack Obama is a modern-day dad who leaves the Oval Office for dinner with his girls, rarely misses a parent-teacher conference or piano recital and prides himself on having read all seven books in the Harry Potter series aloud with Malia.
Michelle Obama juggles play dates and homework with speeches to federal agencies and students. Both are committed to keeping their daughters grounded, their friends and aides say.
"Those are some special girls, and everyone is rooting for them to make it through this intact," Craig Robinson, Michelle Obama's brother, said in an interview.
The president echoed that sentiment. "Right now, they're not self-conscious. You know, they don't have an attitude," Obama said on CBS News. "And I think one of our highest priorities over the next four years is retaining that." Read more