Former President Barack Obama says his daughters Malia and Sasha are adamant about paving their own paths to success.
The father of two said he and his wife, former first lady Michelle Obama, struggle not in deciding how much help to give their daughters, both in their 20s, but in being allowed to offer any help at all.
"The challenge for us is letting us give them any help at all," Barack Obama said on the Oct. 31 episode of the podcast "The Pivot." "They're very sensitive about this stuff. They're very stubborn about it."
The former president cited as an example of his daughters wanting to do thing on their own terms his eldest daughter, Malia Obama, 25, choosing to forgo her last name in the credits of a film she recently directed.
When the film, "The Heart," which Malia Obama directed and wrote, debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in January, only her first and middle names -- Malia Ann -- were listed in the credits.
"I was all like, 'You do know they'll know who you are?'" Barack Obama recalled. "And she's all like, 'You know what? I want them to watch it that first time, and not in any way we have that association.'"
The former president added that after growing up in the White House, both Malia and Sasha Obama, 23, "go out of their way" to avoid any traces of nepotism.
"I think our daughters go out of their way to not try to leverage that," he said.
Michelle Obama on post-White House life, seeing her daughters 'adulting' and her new bookMalia and Sasha Obama were just in elementary school when Barack Obama was elected president and the family moved from Chicago to the White House.
Barack Obama said one of the "great blessings" of their time in the White House was that Michelle Obama's mother, Marian Robinson, lived there too and helped raise their children.
"She was the most down-to-earth, Southside [Chicago], straight up," he said of his late mother-in-law, who died in May at the age of 86. "If the kids misbehaved, she'd be like, 'Y'all know you haven't done anything, right? Your parents have. Don't you guys start acting entitled."
He continued, "So everybody was on watch to make sure that they both had a normal childhood and that they did not feel as if they got something that they hadn't earned."
Barack Obama says Michelle told their daughters to avoid a career in politicsNow nearly one decade out of the White House, Barack Obama described his pride in watching Malia and Sasha Obama today.
"They turned out amazing," he said. "I can't brag about them enough."
