'First children' are in brighter spotlight


December 9, 2008

As Malia and Sasha Obama prepare to become the "first children," there is the question of how they will cope psychologically with the attention they are sure to get.

While historians say Amy Carter had a lonely childhood in the White House, they think the Obama girls will fare much better because they have each other.

"There are so many nooks and crannies and hidden staircases that they can explore together," says Bonnie Angelo, author of the book First Families.

"Girls that age are going to feel like they're living in a Nancy Drew book. It's going to be so exciting for them."

Bill Bushong, historian for the White House Historical Association, notes that presidential families with young children draw intense interest because American families "see a mirror of themselves in the essence of something about presidents and their families," adding that the historic nature of the first black presidential family will draw great curiosity.

He points out that there have been black children in the White House before -- one of Quentin (son of President Theodore Roosevelt) Roosevelt's best childhood playmates was Roswell Pinckney, the son of a White House steward -- but they were usually the children of servants or slaves.

Irene Swerdlow-Freed, a clinical psychologist based in Farmington Hills, Mich., says the most important thing for Sasha and Malia will be "to have that home base they can return to and continue to have that routine."

For Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7, that probably means they'll be expected to follow the current Obama household rules such as making their beds, setting their own alarm clocks and adhering to a strict 8 p.m. bedtime. It's unclear whether they'll get a raise in their $1-a-week allowance.

Sasha and Malia, Swerdlow-Freed says, "are the most vulnerable to people seeing them as older than they are. They still have the needs of young children, but they will be presented all dressed up in ballrooms and conference rooms. I think more of their time will have to be spent in normal, family activities. They have opportunities that are extraordinary, and if their parents are honest and direct and continue to be role models, children follow that.

"We all grow up feeling everyone is focused on us and analyzing what we say or do, but in their situation, everyone is focused on them."

As long as they grow a sense of themselves as individuals with their families and friends rather than who they are in the public, Swerdlow-Freed says, they will thrive.

"They're going to have so much fun," she says. "It's like a fantasy, where you go off with the king and queen and live in a castle. That's what these children are going to be doing."

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