Michelle Obama Watch Goes to Take Our Daughters & Sons to Work Day
Thursday, April 22, 2010 at 10:53PM Aminah 
“Did you ever dream of being the first lady?” “Does Beau bite?” “Do Sasha and Malia still hang out with their friends from Chicago?” and “Do you help your children with their homework?” Those were some of the questions that the First Lady answered today from children of White House staffers on Take Your Daughter and Son to Work Day.
The East Room was full of elementary and middle schoolers anxious to meet the weeMichelle's mom. Mrs Obama walked in with the guest of honor, First Dog Bo and took him around to meet the guests. The children greeted him squeals and laughter. Bo sat quietly for a while, a short while and then barked for attention. A staffer, charged with the promise to return at the end, took him out.
“He’s a retriever dog, “ explained the First Lady. “He likes to run and play. You see he got bored sitting in here with me. He was a gift from a very special friend.” “Does Beau bite?” He bit me said one little boy.
Take Our Daughters to Work Day was started 17 years ago to enhance girls understanding of various careers. It was expanded to include boys in 2003. I'm sure there are lots of young girls everywhere, who look like Michelle Obama, that are dreaming of being the First Lady and even President one day.
Q: “Do you miss Chicago?” “We can’t just walk down the street by ourselves. I miss being able to walkout of my house, go down to the lake and ride my bike,” she answered.
Q: “Is it hard to spend time together?” “It’s easier now than it was before. We live upstairs and my husband’s office is here. It’s very easy to come downstairs. We’re home when the children arrive. We have dinner together. We have weekends together.”
Q: “What is your favorite room?” “My favorite room is the Blue Room. It’s oval. There are only three rooms in the White House that are oval,” she said. “It overlooks the Washington Monument and so many other parts of Washington.”
The First Lady's favorite music…. “Here’s what’s on my Ipod. I like all kinds of music, Stevie Wonder, Rihanna, Beyonce, I really like Beyonce. I have some new Usher on there too. I like Sting. I also have Jazz on there. Do any of you like jazz music”, she asked. They raised their hands, she laughed.
Q: “How often do you use the movie theatre?” “Almost every weekend, we get all kinds of movies, new movies, old movies. We can also watch TV and we had a big Super Bowl party here.” “We also use the Tennis Court the most because everyone is taking tennis lessons. But when it gets hot we’ll be using the pool.”
Q: “Is there anything in the White House you didn’t have in Chicago?” “Practically everything, “she said with a laugh. “We didn’t have any of this stuff. We had each other. We had love.”
Q: “What’s your favorite part of being First Lady?” “My favorite thing is even small gestures can impact people’s lives. I can use this platform for major issues. It’s hard work and sacrifice but an exciting opportunity to shine the light on things.”
Q: “Can you do anything to make recess longer?” “The thing we want to make sure is that all children have recess. Some children don’t have recess. We need to make sure every child has an opportunity for recess.”
Q: “Is the Move It (Let's Move Childhood obesity initiative) business working well?” “So far so good,” she said with a smile. “But we’ve got a lot of work to do.” All-in-all it seems like the children had a great time.
Nisa Muhammad, DC Correspondent
Reader Comments (13)
I know that is a good idea for Michelle to help out with take you child to work day/ take your parent to work or whatever. But I think that might help our nation to keep jobs and not be a drop out of school. I just want to say thanks sooo very much to, Michelle Obama because Michelle and Obama is changing this nation (in a wonderful and extradinary way) Thanks so much again.
Very refreshing!! Loved it!!!
Bo is so adorable. Makes me want to get a dog. Enjoy the week-end in N.C. POTUS and FLOTUS.
I'm not a pet person, but Bo cracks me up.
It was a great day for the children, Bo and the First Lady. the children loved it and many were there last year.
Bo is bigger then I thought.
Does no one else see the almost malicious irony of this staged audience with FLOTUS? "Take Your Daughter to Work Day" (we have it over here as well) was intended to make girls and young ladies aware that all careers and jobs are open to them. So, what kind of career role model is Michelle Obama? A rather poor one I think! A woman of the 21st century who derives her only authority from the fact that she is married to the President? Whose every utterance and public appearance is vetted through her husband and advisors? Who can not have the satisfaction of providing for her family's financial security and is instead shunted off to various non-controversial "make work" projects? Michelle is not the modern working woman that any young lady should aspire to nowadays. (Unless you call slipping in and out of 5 costume changes a day "work.") Instead, we have an 18th century lady of the manor entertaining questions from the vassals (or children of vassals).
It is as if the worker drones buzzed in to the hive to ask the Queen Bee how her work is going. How should she know?, she has all of her work done for her. Why wasn't her bloated staff of 22 asked to attend to describe what little real work goes on in the East Wing of the Palace?
To this listener, the mournful tweets of the bird in the gilded cage are beginning to sound discordant. Most working women would gladly be relieved of cooking meals, emptyng the rubbish bin, and shuttling children to football practice in lieu of going out and "riding a bike."
One last question (in the spirit of Take Your Daughter to Work Day). Where were Sasha and Malia? Maybe the wee ones possess wisdom beyond their years, saw this for the charade that it really is, and decided to stay away!
I agree! First Lady Hillary Clinton was a modern working woman. "First Mom" FLOTUS is a throwback to the 1960s.
Oh bob-hoo-hoo, here they go again. Respect, admire, who you want and I will who I want. And I choose FLOTUS, the wonderful First Lady, Michelle Obama.
Oh boo-hoo-hoo, here they come again.
Very refreshing!! Loved it!!!
Oh boo-hoo-hoo, here they come again.
It was a great day for the children, Bo and the First Lady. the children loved it and many were there last year.