Barack Obama may have once been president of the United States, but he’s admitting that his wife Michelle is the one who is actually the “top dog” at their home.
“I’m generally the brunt of every joke in my household,” Obama said while appearing on Dax Shepard and Monica Padman’s Spotify podcast “Armchair Expert” on Thursday. He was referring to life at home with Michelle and their two daughters, Malia and Sasha.
“Michelle, she’s the top dog because they’re scared of her,” Obama added. “Michelle always says that you have to have at least one parent who the kids think is a little bit crazy and might actually kill you.”
“Plausible threat of death,” said Shepard, who is married to actress Kristen Bell.
“They know that I’m — I’m all bark and no real bite,” Obama continued. “So as a consequence, what happens is at the dinner table, the three of them just mock me constantly.”
The topics that the women in his family torment Obama about include “my big ears, or my weird habits or fashion sense, or if I mispronounce the name of some hip hop star that Sasha has been listening to.”
“They’ll go like, ‘What an idiot.’ So that’s basically the vibe in my house,” he added. “You’re never a prophet in your own land.”
In this same interview, Obama also talked about why he “wasn’t that hesitant to committing to Michelle” when they married in 1992.
“I like the idea of family, I like the idea of being there as a husband and a dad in a way that I hadn’t had,” he explained.
Malia recently graduated from Harvard University, and she is set to turn 23 this coming Sunday, according to People Magazine. When Sasha turned 20 last month, Obama took to social media to pay tribute to her.
“You’ve grown so much, and it’s been a joy to watch you become the person we always hoped you’d be,” he wrote last month. “Your mom and I can’t wait to see where life takes you next.”
Michelle admitted last month that she “almost forgot” her daughters were turning 20 and 23 years old this summer.
“I mean, I’m just like ‘Stop there.’ I don’t even have teenagers anymore,” she said.
Michelle also talked about having her daughters back at home in the past year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This time has allowed us to get some stolen moments back with our girls,” Michelle said. “Those recaptured moments have meant the world to us and I think they’ve made our relationships with our children even stronger.”
This piece originally appeared in Objectivist.co and is used by permission.
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