Michelle Obama has shared the one question that she would never ask her daughters as she warned other moms about how dangerous it could be.
The former first lady, 62, sat down with Alex Cooper on her popular podcast Call Her Daddy this week, during which she discussed a range of topics including how she goes about navigating discussing her daughters’ love lives.
The author, who shares daughters Malia, 27, and Sasha, 24, with her husband Barack Obama, explained that she often feels the urge to ask them, ‘Are you dating anyone?’
However, she explained that she feels the inquiry sends a ‘subliminal message’ to young women and adds ‘pressure’ on them to find a partner.
‘I have two beautiful daughters. And, you know, you find yourself slipping up and going, “Are you dating anyone?”‘ she explained.
‘But it’s like, let me not make that the first question or the second question, or a question at all.’
Michelle explained that she often reminds her ‘girl group’ of the dangers lurking behind the seemingly innocent question.
‘What are our own insecurities as mothers that we’re like, “Well, you seem happy, and you’re on a track, but do you have a boyfriend?”‘ she questioned.
Michelle Obama spoke about how she goes about navigating discussing her daughters’ love lives during a chat with Alex Cooper on her podcast Call Her Daddy this week
The author, who shares daughters Malia, 27, and Sasha, 24, with her husband Barack Obama, explained that she often feels the urge to ask them, ‘Are you dating anyone?’
She explained that there’s already so much ‘social pressure’ put on young women and men, so parents have to be careful not to add to it.
‘You see everybody getting married. So I think we have to be mindful of the way we craft questions, not just to our daughters but to our sons,’ she concluded.
‘How we talk about what happiness is and we have to work hard to separate our fears and insecurities as parents, we have to separate that from our kids.’
Elsewhere during the conversation, Michelle recalled how she was perceived during her husband’s first presidential campaign while criticizing the public for focusing on how she looked rather than who she was.
Michelle argued during the podcast that articles covering her on the campaign began with ‘She was wearing…’ rather than focusing on her professional career.
‘It started with appearance,’ she explained. ‘And it got worse as we got better,’ Michelle added, referring to her husband’s campaign.
The former first lady went on to say that although she didn’t take the criticisms about her appearance personally at first, she was hesitant to lean into her style because she feared she wouldn’t be asked about her role in her husband’s administration.
‘I understood that fashion and appearance for women is so powerful, that if I spent too much time talking about it, maybe nobody would hear anything else that I have to say,’ she confessed.
However, she explained that she feels the inquiry sends a ‘subliminal message’ to young women and adds ‘pressure’ on them to find a partner
Michelle is pictured with her daughters back in 2008
However, some listeners branded the statements as hypocritical due to her new style book, The Look.
‘The jokes write themselves (and a book, as the case may be),’ wrote one angry fan on social media afterwards.
‘But … her own book is about her clothing?’ another questioned.
‘Nothing gets the media and press of your back about your outfits like publishing a book about your outfits and going on podcasts talking about your outfits,’ a third pointed out.
Later in the interview, Alex asked Michelle to respond to critics who blasted her new style book as out of touch.
‘If you know me, you know, I’m just not that person. I’m not the person that’s going to talk about some dresses. It’s got to have a meaning to it,’ she explained.
Michelle claimed that the book was more than a look into her fashion choices, but explored ‘self-determination’ and ‘who we are as women.’
