Michelle Obama Talks Parenting : “I’m Going to Try to Take Them to School Every Morning—as Much as I can”

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Recently we featured First Lady Michelle Obama on PEOPLE reports in its new cover story.
On her White House parenting rules, Michelle Obama has asked the White House staff not to do too much. “People want to make your life easy, and when you have small kids – I’ve explained this to the staff – they don’t need their lives to be easy. They’re kids,” she says.

Barack Obama’s wife Michelle has made history again – by becoming only the second president’s wife to appear on the cover of Vogue magazine.

Last month rumours were rife that the stylish First Lady was going to pose for the fashion bible.And here she is fronting the mag’s March issue.Michelle was photographed by Annie Leibovitz at the Hay-Adams Hotel, where the Obama family stayed prior to Barack’s inauguration.

On the cover the first lady wears a magenta dress by Jason Wu, who designed her inaugural gown. Inside the magazine, Michelle talks about getting used to Washington and her plans for being a First Lady – and a mum.

The work-life balance that this particular mother struggles with is not typical, but the early-days challenges she faces are remarkably ordinary. Getting her bearings, checking out churches to join, helping her kids adjust to unfamiliar surroundings—these are her top priorities and preoccupations. The First Lady puts her family first.

“I’m going to try to take them to school every morning—as much as I can,” she says of Natasha (a.k.a. Sasha), seven, and Malia, ten. “But there’s also a measure of independence. And obviously there will be times I won’t be able to drop them off at all. I like to be a presence in my kids’ school. I want to know the teachers; I want to know the other parents.”

By now, everyone knows that Mrs. Obama’s mother, Marian Robinson, has moved in with her daughter and son-in-law to help keep the kids on an even keel; we’ve all heard how she basically reared Sasha and Malia while their parents were on their two-year journey to the White House. Mrs. Robinson will, she says, be there to help in any way she can.

Just as Hillary Clinton took Chelsea along to Europe and Africa when she was off from school, Mrs. Obama anticipates traveling with her own daughters during school breaks. “I’ve been grateful that my girls have been able to see parts of the country that I’m just seeing at the age of 44,” she says. “It’s not only seeing Paris, London, and Rome. It’s also the remote places…exposing them to what we hope all kids will have: a feeling that they are citizens of the world.”

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