WASHINGTON — When her father's second term as president is up, Malia Obama will be 18 and entering adulthood. She and her younger sister, Sasha, will have spent their formative years in the White House, a place their parents have attempted to shape into something resembling a normal home.
Over the past four years, Barack and Michelle Obama — though jetting around the country and the world — have put an emphasis on being home for family dinner at 6:30 most days. The president has been an assistant coach of 11-year-old Sasha's basketball team, the Vipers, and has often gathered with both daughters and their friends on Sundays for basketball practice. Michelle Obama's mother, Marian Robinson, moved from Chicago into the White House so she could meet her granddaughters after school and keep an eye on them.
"I'm so proud of you guys," the president told his daughters during his acceptance speech early Wednesday after being re-elected. "Sasha and Malia, before our very eyes, you're growing up to become two strong, smart, beautiful young women."
As the president's daughters grow up in such a public way, there are challenges that could pierce even their tightly knit circle. The repercussions of an Obama daughter being caught acting "bratty" have been discussed within the family, Michelle Obama has said.
"I think they are ... the first kids in the White House growing up where everybody's got a cellphone and everybody's watching," the first lady told the women's website iVillage last month. "You may be having a moment, but somebody could use that moment and try to define you forever."
Neither Obama daughter is on Facebook, though their parents have said they have active social lives. Both go trick-or-treating with friends, attend sports tournaments and have sleepovers, she told late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel two weeks ago. This past summer, the girls went to sleep-away camp in New Hampshire, a privilege their mother said they were allowed in part because of the Secret Service detail that accompanies them.
They have been spotted with friends around Washington, but the press corps that follows their parents' every word and move does not routinely write about the first daughters, unless they are with their parents at an official event.
Politics is not a central part of the children's lives, their parents have said. The girls were largely absent from the campaign trail this year. They made appearances at the Democratic National Convention and flew to Chicago after school Tuesday to have dinner with their parents and see their father voted into a second term — but that was it.
Before big speeches on such occasions, their father's pep talks consist of a plea, such as, "Just look like you're listening." Their mother reminds them to smile. They have no "poker face," she told Kimmel.
"The last thing you want is yawning," the first lady said.
In the coming days, after catching their breath, the president and first lady will get "back to work, starting, like, right away," said Valerie Jarrett, the president's senior adviser and a close friend of the family. The same is true for their daughters, the president recently told Brian Williams on NBC's "Rock Center."
"Right now, what my family is thinking about is making sure Sasha and Malia are doing their homework," he said.
Malia will presumably want to learn how to drive while living in the White House, which could be challenging given that her parents travel in motorcades.
Then there's the angst-ridden challenge of dating while living in the White House. Michelle Obama has promised not to discuss her daughters' potential dating lives but has relished the idea that dating the president's daughter will instill no small amount of trepidation in young men. The eldest Obama daughter attended her school's homecoming dance with a group of friends from Washington's Sidwell Friends, where both Obama girls are students. Malia is a freshman in the upper school; Sasha is a sixth-grader in the lower campus.
The Obamas have given every indication that they hope to keep their daughters' lives as normal as possible over the next four years. Although being the president's daughters has meant meeting celebrities like Beyonce and Jay-Z, the girls also have to make their beds, and Malia has to do her own laundry.
"I don't want her to be that kid who is 15 or 16, and (she's saying), 'Oh, I don't know how to do laundry.' I would cringe if she became that kid," Michelle Obama told Oprah Winfrey last year.
"We have real discussions about responsibility, not taking things for granted. And not having a bunch of grown-ups doing stuff for you when you're completely capable of doing it yourself, and being able to take care of your own business. And you're not living in the White House forever — you're going to college. ... We have those discussions."
Obamas trying to keep life normal as girls grow up
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Obamas trying to keep life normal as girls grow up
