‘EMBARRASSED’

Michelle Obama Reveals Why She Stopped Spanking Her Kids

Obama said it took “a few” spankings to realize something important.

Michelle Obama changed her outlook on spanking when she realized how it made her feel. The former first lady, who shares daughters Malia, 26, and Sasha, 23, with former President Barack Obama, shared the revelation on her IMO podcast with brother Craig Robinson. “I felt silly,” after spanking her daughters, Obama said during the Wednesday episode’s conversation with Damon and Marlon Wayans. “I took a couple spankings for me to be like, yeah, you know what? But I felt like, you know, this is a little kid and the fact that I can’t think of any better way to get my point across than to smack somebody on the butt, I felt embarrassed.” That said, Obama wouldn’t classify herself as a new-school kind of parent. “I want to be a proponent for reinstating some of the stuff that we had,” in older generations, she explained. For example, when kids say, “‘I hate my mom.’ It’s like, you better say that in your head, in your room,” she continued. “You don’t say that out loud. You know, parents are too afraid to set those kinds of boundaries. And I think that’s also part of the challenge that we’re facing in this generation.”