According to former First Lady of the United States Michelle Obama, former President Barack Obama and she have been happily getting to listen to their daughters Sasha and Malia. Speaking to Good Morning America‘s Robin Roberts recently, Michelle Obama (57) expressed her thoughts about future generations of young Americans, whom she has often called inspiring—starting with her kids.
Mrs. Obama said, “If you sit around the dinner table, me and Barack, we can’t get a word in edgewise and we like it like that. We want to hear their thoughts and their opinions, and that’s where it begins.” She added, “I always have wanted them to start practicing the power of their voices very early on.” She also hopes they learn “that who they are right now is enough.”
In an interview in November 2020, President Obama told PEOPLE he “could not have been prouder” of Malia (22) and Sasha (19) for taking part in protests against police brutality and racial injustice during Summer 2020. Commending the young organizers who led the protests, Mrs. Obama told Roberts, “We gotta march, we gotta protest and we have to vote. We have to be educated and we have to be informed. Young people are starting to put those pieces together and understand that it’s not either-or—it’s all of it.”
The former first family has long made their views about making way for future generations clear. Mrs. Obama told GMA, “They are our hope. They are not jaded yet. They are not beaten down by what they’re supposed to be. They are still wide open.” Additionally, she said, “If you are lucky, you will never become something and that’s the end. If you are lucky, you will constantly grow and evolve until the day you cannot breathe anymore. We are all learning and becoming something better and greater.”
The former first lady also mentioned that she has also been evolving off late, while she becomes “someone that is comfortable getting out of the way so that the next generation can take the seat that I’m sitting in.” She said she’s becoming freer and hopes she’s “becoming smarter, wiser, and more patient.”
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