Michelle Obama Talks About Women Calling Barack ‘Fine,’ Parenting, & Overcoming Fear

Forever FLOTUS Michelle Obama recently appeared on “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” and she responded to the video of women at a rally calling Barack Obama “fine.”

Michelle told Jimmy that she had never seen the viral video before, and he was excited to show it to her for the first time.

After watching the video and having a good laugh, Michelle responded:

I hadn’t seen that. 

I heard about it.

When he came home that’s the first thing he said.

I was like, ‘How did it go?… Somebody said I was fine.’

I was like, ‘Oh really, that’s so sweet.’

Michelle came on the show to promote her book “The Light We Carry.”

She said she was encouraged to write the book because people ask her for advice all the time, but she doesn’t consider the book a self-help book.

So what this book is is just my offering of the tools that I’ve developed over the course of my 58 years that helped me.

You know, it’s not intended to be a this is how it works and these are the three steps to feeling seen.

It’s still grounded in story, the stories of my life, the things that still make me afraid and vulnerable.

And I wanted it to be a conversation because we all have tools.

Michelle said her mom was also a big inspiration behind the book.

She shared a funny parenting story about Sasha and Malia’s personalities at a young age, related to a saying from her mom, “Parent the child you’ve got.”

She also shared an incredible story of how her mom taught her competence early because she couldn’t give her wealth.

She gave us alarm clocks in Kindergarten.

The minute we were going to school, she’s like this is how you use it, it’s you education, you set it, you get up, you know, you work through you’re schedule.

In the morning, my mom was up, but she was like you’ve got to be responsible.

This is your education.

Then she sent me to walk to school by myself at five.

But, I tell that story because it also helped me get accustomed to pushing through fears and hesitation earlier when your parents are telling you I think you are capable of doing this, you know, it made me feel competent.

And so what one of the things that I say for so many of us who are struggling with fear is that it’s a tricky emotion because it can keep you safe, but it can keep you stuck if you don’t learn how to decode it.

If you don’t learn to understand what’s the fear that’s going to keep you safe, and what’s the fear that you need to push through to get to growth and learning.

My parents made us practice confronting our fears early in life.

Watch the clip from the Michelle Obama interview on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” below:

Michelle Obama’s book “The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times” is available in bookstores and on Audible, Kindle, and Apple Books.

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