Michelle Obama admits she and Barack clashed over popular parenting technique

Daily Mail​

5 days ago

Michelle Obama has revealed that she and her husband, former President Barack Obama, clashed over implementing one parenting technique with their daughters when they were younger.
During the latest Wednesday episode of her IMO podcast, which she hosts with older brother Craig Robinson, the former first lady admitted that she and Barack ran into some trouble as they didn't see eye-to-eye on the Ferber Method.
The Ferber Method is a technique made popular in 1985 by Dr. Richard Ferber, and it's used to sleep-train babies by teaching them how to self-soothe, per Cleveland Clinic.
One of the main ideas of the technique is to only check on your sleeping child in certain, timed intervals, even if they're crying.
However, it was something that Barack was in favor for and Michelle against when it came to parenting Malia, now 26, and Sasha, now 24.
The topic came about as the sibling pair were interviewing social psychologist and author Jonathan Haidt on the latest episode.
'Well, I didn't want to do it. Barack did it. I don't know that I could have done it, because I wasn't sure about it, the notion that you just let the little person that you love the most cry and cry and cry,' Michelle shared.
'Maybe it was something about estrogen and my response to the crying, so we set it up where Barack took the night shift, I went to bed, which was helpful, because it got me some sleep,' she shared.
'I would have to cover my ears so I couldn't literally hear the crying.'
However, it turned out that the method worked quite well for their family, as it took no longer than a week for the girls to get used to it.
At the time they started to implement the Ferber Method, their daughters were about four or five months old.
Haidt shared that he had the same experience with his children as the Obama's did when it came to implementing the Ferber Method.
The admission came just weeks after Michelle had previously opened up about her relationship with her two daughters and how they started 'pushing away' from her and her husband when they were teenagers.
The couple, who have been together for over 30 years, welcomed their firstborn Malia in 1998, and Sasha in 2001.
The mother-of-two explained that she believes her daughters distanced themselves because they wanted to 'distinguish themselves' from their famous parents as they became adults during a recent appearance on the Sibling Revelry podcast hosted by Kate and Olivia Hudson.
'Our daughters are 26 and 23, they are young adult women. But they definitely went through a period in their teen years… it was the "push away."'
Michelle noted that she has found that this is something that often happens to celebrity kids.
'They're still doing that, and you guys know this of children with parents who are known,' she continued.
'You're trying to distinguish yourself. It's very important for my kids to feel like they've earned what they are getting in the world.'
While striving to make her own path, Malia dropped her last name when she premiered her short film at Sundance in 2024, per OK! Magazine.
'We were like, "They're still going to know it's you, Malia,"' Michelle said of her decision.
'But we respected the fact that she's trying to make her way.'