How will the Obama girls like life in the White House?

[babylonsister]

How will the Obama girls like life in the White House?
By EDWARD M. EVELD
The Kansas City Star


President-elect Barack Obama, his wife Michelle and their daughters Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7, arrive on stage during his election night party at Grant Park in Chicago, Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2008.
Pablo Martinez Monsivais


At 10 and 7, Malia and Sasha Obama will be the youngest White House children since 9-year-old Amy Carter.

They can have private pool parties, play the ultimate game of hide-and-seek and meet just about any celebrity.

But they could also feel lonely in that big mansion — when they aren’t trying to avoid the news cameras.

Even during the campaign, the Obamas struggled with publicity at times, regretting a decision to allow the girls to be interviewed at Malia’s 10th birthday party and shooing away photographers on Halloween.

Public exposure is one of many issues the Obamas as first family will confront, said Doug Wead, who has interviewed 19 presidential offspring and wrote the book All the Presidents’ Children.

We asked Wead and Bonnie Angelo, author of First Families and a former Time correspondent at the White House, for hints about what’s coming for Malia and Sasha in their new home.

Exciting place/lonely place

The White House is one exciting place for meeting amazing, famous people. Maybe Nelson Mandela one day and Miley Cyrus the next, Wead said. Presidential children have loved that.

But it’s also an adult place. For younger kids it can be lonely. Mom and Dad will be busy, to say the least, although face time might actually increase after two years of presidential campaigning. Malia and Sasha have spent lots of quality time lately with their grandmother, Michelle Obama’s widowed mother, Marian Robinson.

“It’s a fortunate thing there are two Obama daughters because they will never be without a playmate,” Angelo said. “Amy Carter was quite miserable there. She longed to be down in Plains fishing with her grandmother.”

Perks for kids

Not everybody gets to live in a house with a movie theater, swimming pool and multiple staircases and elevators, and the Obama daughters will have space in the mansion to themselves. Presidential families have made good use of the Solarium, the informal room on the third floor.

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http://www.kansascity.com/703/story/880750.html

[onehandle]

1. My guess is that their paths will be more in the mold of Amy Carter and Chelsea Clinton.

And less like the Bush twins as teenagers.

[JenniferJuniper]

2. Tad Lincoln always managed to have a good time

....herding goats into the sitting room, firing toy cannonballs at cabinet members, and getting turkeys pardoned.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

3. I love reading about the Lincoln kids...there were two parents who absolutely adored their kids

Something you don't really associate with 19th century parents.

[Fleshdancer]

4. I have mixed feelings

On one hand, I'm very excited to have young kids in the WH again and Malia and Sasha are too cute for words. As a mom though, I feel for Barack and Michelle. Not just on the issue of security (which would scare any parent), but wanting to keep your kids well grounded under such extraordinary circumstances. I can only imagine how difficult this task is.

[treestar]

5. It has a swimming pool?

I didn't know that.

But overall, though there are obviously a couple of disadvantages, living there is a part of history and an opportunity few will ever get.

And that's without having any major duties! :rofl: For the Prez and the FL it's work!

[Marrah_G]

6. I think's it difficult for any child in the White House

They will get through it.

[Captain Hilts]

7. It wears on you after a while. When they get a spot older it might not seem so fun...

It's hard to stay.

The WH has a way of wearing out people, even little kids.

I wish them all the best.

[Marrah_G]

8. I think having their grandmother there is an excellent decision

She can keep things a little more normal for them.

[Captain Hilts]

9. I agree. She'll be a big help. But it might be good for her - and them - if she...

has a pied a terre, as it were, in town. Her weekend place to have space or give the kids a change of pace.

Eleanor Roosevelt's secretary, like most aides, was offered a space in the White House but opted to live in an apt. near GWU just to have a refuge from the "goldfish bowl" as they all called it.