Michelle Obama is offering parenting advice, and as a mother of two adult daughters, she has a wealth of experience to draw from. During a recent episode of her “IMO” podcast, the former First Lady and her brother, Craig Robinson, discussed the importance of parents maintaining boundaries around screen time and social media.
A listener submitted a question about her daughter’s digital habits, and Michelle expressed the importance of parents understanding that their kids are not their friends. Consequently, she shared that parents are responsible for creating and enforcing boundaries, especially as kids are constantly pushing them.
“They’re waiting for you to go back on your word. They’re waiting to see how long it will take. How many times can I outlast you? Because, as I say, they’ve got time on their hands. Kids don’t have jobs. They have no responsibility. They are not paying bills. All they have time for is to outlast you, to wear you down,” the author said.
Robinson also chimed in, reflecting on his upbringing with their late mother Marian Robinson and the lessons she taught about enforcing boundaries.
“I was just thinking about how our parents parented and what my mom would say about saying ‘No’ is that it’s not just saying ‘No,’ it’s holding your ‘No’ accountable,” Robinson said. “It is explaining why you’re saying ‘No,’ and it’s outlasting your kids.”
While Obama was clear about how critical it is to set limits for kids, she also acknowledged that it’s not an easy thing to do.
“You will be disappointing them, and scaring them, and making them hurt, and arguing with them, and doing all the things that you don’t wanna do with your best friends,” Obama said. “But in the end, as parents, we are responsible for securing the safety and the health of the children we bring into this world.”
She concluded, “And that means, once we know that something isn’t good for them… we’ve got to do the hard thing, we’ve got to take the substance from the addict.”
Michelle is the mother of Malia and Sasha Obama, who are 26 and 24 years old. She had to navigate challenging teenage years, which included keeping her girls out of tabloids. Obama’s hard work is bearing fruit, as both young women are now making their mark in the world and forging their own paths.