Michelle Obama Says She Used To Spank Her Kids — Until A Moment That Made Her Rethink It Entirely

Michelle Obama recently shared that she used to spank her daughters when they misbehaved, but later came to an “embarrassing” realization that it wasn’t actually helpful for discipline.

Back when Michelle was serving as the First Lady, it wasn’t easy to get a clear glimpse into the Obamas’ family dynamics behind the scenes.

However, since Barack Obama wrapped up his presidency in early 2017, Michelle has become more open in discussing what family life was really like—before, during, and after their years spent living in Washington, D.C.

During a recent episode of her podcast IMO, where she chats with her brother Craig Robinson, Michelle opened up about a personal parenting experience. She said that there were times when she spanked her daughters, Malia and Sasha, if they were acting out—something she now looks back on with regret.

"I felt silly. It took a couple of spankings for me to be like, 'yeah, you know what? I don't want to do this anymore,'" she admitted.

"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."

Michelle Obama has revealed she used to 'spank' her children Marcus Ingram/Getty Images

Michelle also talked about how she sees many parents today trying to live their children's lives for them—trying so hard to prevent mistakes and failure that they end up shielding their kids from valuable lessons.

She added: "I want to be a proponent for reinstating some of the stuff that we had. 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."

Because Malia and Sasha were the daughters of the U.S. president, keeping them out of the public eye was far from easy. It’s something Michelle has reflected on in several interviews lately.

The Obamas pictured in 2016 NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP via Getty Images

While speaking with Kelly Ripa on the podcast Let’s Talk Off Camera, the 61-year-old shared: "That was a lot of work and it got harder as they got older."

"They had to drive and they had to go to prom and they were on teams and they traveled to other schools and they had to do college searches, and they went to parties and they had drinks, and they tried out smoking and they did all the things."

Michelle went on to say: "Every weekend was a nightmare. Because we had to work to make sure that them being regular teenagers didn't wind up on Page Six."

When President Obama stepped into office, Malia was only ten years old, and Sasha was just seven.

The two of them spent a large part of their childhood growing up within the walls of the White House.