Barack Obama Reflects on Fatherhood and Raising Daughters on Michelle's Podcast

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Former US president, Barack Obama was a guest on his wife Michelle’s IMO podcast alongside her older brother Craig Robinson.

The episode premiered on Wednesday, July 16. A preview shared ahead of its release showed 63-year-old Barack and Michelle discussing raising their two daughters, Sasha, 24, and Malia, 27.

“I think we did a pretty good job of raising our girls, but I’ve said often that I think I would have had more difficulty raising a son,” the American politician who was the 44th president of the United States said, to which Michelle replied, “I agree.”

Barack continued:

“I think I might’ve been more judgmental, harder, and I would’ve tried to — I’d like to think I would have been more self-aware enough to combat that, but I just think father-son relationships, for me, particularly if I don’t have a dad around to show it to me, might’ve been more difficult.”

Barack has previously opened up about the minimal presence his father had in his own life, as he was born in Hawaii and raised by his mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, after his parents divorced when he was two years old.

Both Obamas also reflected on how parents and communities need to focus on nurturing young men and acknowledged the political shift seen with that group.

READ ALSO: Michelle Obama Shares The Parenting Method She And Husband, Barack Clashed Over

Trump made inroads during the 2024 presidential election with appeals to younger men in particular, though he’s started to face criticism within the podcast “manosphere” since taking office.

“If you’re not thinking about what’s happening to boys and how they are being raised, then that can actually hurt women, and I would argue that some of the broad political trends we’ve seen not just in this country but around the world have to do with this sense of boys, men not feeling as if they are seen, feeling as if they count,”

Barack Obama said. He continued,

“That then makes them more interested in appeals by folks who say, ‘You know what, the reason you don’t feel respected is because women have been doing this or this group has been doing this or that group’s been doing this.’ And that is not a healthy place to be.

“We rightly have tried to invest in girls to make sure that there’s a level playing field and then they’re not barred from opportunities.

“But we haven’t been as willing, I think, to be intentional about investing in the boys, and that’s been a mistake.”

ALSO SEE: Michelle Obama Recalls Her Husband’s Brutal Three Words To Her After Her Mum Passed Away

This is not the first time Barack and Michelle have addressed a hypothetical son.

Last month, during a different episode of her IMO podcast, the former first lady said she was “so glad” she didn’t have a boy.