Michelle Obama reveals the big change Barack Obama had to make when they got together
By Karishma Sarkari|
Michelle Obama opened up about her childhood years as she launched her new podcast alongside older brother Craig Robinson.
In their first episode of IMO (meaning "in my opinion"), the duo shared their recollections of growing up in a small house in Chicago with their parents and sharing a room, which was a lounge room converted into a bedroom.
One of the memories they fondly bonded over was their parents' idea of "on time" – and it's something Barack Obama struggled with when he got together with his now wife of 32 years.
Watch video above.
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"In the Robinson house, on time is late, early is on time," the former first lady, 61, recalled.
"Barack, he had to adjust to what 'on time' was," she laughed.
Robinson, 62, joked the Hawaiian-born former United States president "was on that island time".
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"I've got this husband who's like, when it's time to leave, it's three o'clock, he's getting up and going to the bathroom, it's like, 'Dude! Dude, a three o'clock departure means you've done all that, don't start looking for your glasses at the three o'clock departure'," she said.
Michelle said her husband, 63, has "improved over 30 years of marriage" but admits it was a "you must adjust" moment in their relationship and something she's passed onto their two daughters.
"Malia and Sasha, if they're doing anything with me, they are early – they've learned how to snap to it," she said.
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The brother and sister co-hosts both agreed those sorts of lessons from their late parents helped them, even if it meant holding them accountable at a young age for getting themselves up on time to get to kindergarten.
"Mum was like, 'You're going to kindergarten now – here's an alarm clock, here's how to set it. Set it. Get yourself up'. Because, as she said, you're going to school for you, not for me. She's like, 'I had my education'," she recalled.
"And I don't believe that if you care about yours, that you need your mum to be waking you up every morning."
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"So from the time we started kindergarten... now she was up, it wasn't like she was sleeping in, she was just listening to hear us get ourselves up, start getting dressed, when we got a little older, even start our own breakfast," she continued.
"And in the era of helicopter parenting, where people are waking up their kids even calling them from college, [our] mum and dad were the opposite of that.
"And in doing so, they were telling us, I trust you even at five or seven you have the capability of taking care of yourself, and I love you, but I gotta get you ready for the life you're gonna have as an adult."
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The siblings said part of the reason for them coming together on the new podcast was the passing of their mum, Marian Robinson, who died in May 2024.
"For over six decades, we've been each other's sounding board – and now, we can't wait to be yours, too," they said in a post on Instagram.
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