President Obama says that serving in the nation’s highest office has made him a better father, a claim he makes in a column in the upcoming issue of More Magazine that was guest edited by First Lady Michelle Obama.
In the “Second Sex” column, the president writes how it took entering the presidential bubble to realize that as a civilian, he didn’t take on enough child-rearing duties.
“I saw myself as a pretty enlightened guy,” Obama writes. “But the truth was, I helped on my terms and on my schedule, and the expectations and the burden disproportionately — and unfairly — fell on Michelle, as happens to many women … Michelle was understandably stressed and frustrated, and I suspect she felt a little like a single mom sometimes.”
“But to our surprise, moving to the White House was really the first time since the girls were born that we’ve been able to gather as a family almost every night,” he continued.
Obama says that he has made dinnertime “inviolable.” The family gathers at 6:30 p.m. nightly, and he said it “pretty much takes a national emergency to keep me away from that dinner table.”
Ironically, Obama’s fundraising swing this week through California won’t have him back in Washington to celebrate Father’s Day until late Sunday evening. Michelle and their daughters, Malia and Sasha, have been in Europe since Monday. It’s unclear if they’ll return to the White House before Sunday but Michelle Obama did joke at a USO barbecue in Vicenza, Italy on Friday that the president shouldn’t “golf too much” while they’re apart.
“[W]e want to wish the dad in our families a Happy Father’s Day too,” the first lady stated. “We miss you. We hope you’re not missing us too much. Don’t golf too much.”
In the July/August issue coming out Tuesday, Michelle Obama interviews actress Meryl Streep, shares her music playlist and reviews the new work of her friend, poet Elizabeth Alexander, titled “The Light of the World.”
