Michelle Obama 'So Glad' She and Barack Didn't Have a Son: 'I Would Have Felt for Him'

Michelle Obama says she’s “so glad” she and Barack Obama didn’t have a son.

The lighthearted remark came in the closing minutes of a recent episode of the former First Lady’s IMO podcast with Craig Robinson featuring special guest Angie Martinez. In the episode, available in full here and/or below, Michelle offered extensive advice on the ins and outs of parenting.

“Make these men ready,” Obama said, noting that “creating an adult” should be the overarching aim of any parent. “Get them ready for hurt and disappointment and make them resilient. You can’t do that if you’re monitoring his friends and trying to interfere and make life easy for him at a young age, because he won’t be ready for what is inevitably out there. I don’t care what race he is. H’s gonna be a man in the world and there will be hardships and disappointments. He’s gotta be ready. I know I do that with my girls.”

Michelle and Barack have two daughters, 26-year-old Malia and 24-year-old Sasha. Continuing her advice, Michelle pushed against an old adage about the difference in parenting sons and daughters.

“Love your son but raise them too,” she said. “Raise them to be as strong as you know he’s going to have to be. Teach him how to deal with a traffic stop but also teach him how to communicate in a marriage and be a listening father and to be a compassionate neighbor and to be a voting citizen, somebody who’s gonna pay attention and care about something outside of himself.”

This led to a playful interjection from Martinez, who joked that Michelle and Barack should have thrown “a boy in the mix” as parents.

“I’m so glad I didn’t have a boy, because he would have been a Barack Obama. … No, I would have felt for him,” Obama responded amid laughter from Martinez and Robinson, quickly adding “I got plenty.”

This November, Michelle Obama is launching a new book, titled The Look. As she recently explained to hear nearly 58 million Instagram followers, the book is intended as “a reflection on my lifelong journey with fashion, hair, and beauty.”