Michelle Obama’s unique living situation with late mother who she ‘begged’ to move in

Michelle Obama got to spend plenty of quality time with her late mother Marian Robinson before she passed away in 2024 at the age of 86.

The former First Lady of the United States not only had her on hand to help out with babysitting duties with her two daughters, Sasha and Malia, but even had her living under the same roof as the family for eight years. 

Michelle explained that the unique living situation was prompted by her husband Barack being elected at the end of 2008. In January 2009, they moved into the White House with Chicago-native Marian, who relocated to D.C. following the death of her husband. 

Household rules

After Marian died, Michelle released a moving tribute in which she described the doting grandmother as her “rock” and the “steady backstop for our entire family”, including her brother Craig and his four children, Avery, Leslie, Austin, and Aaron.

Shedding light on their quality family time behind closed doors, which saw Marian uphold their “household rules”, the siblings wrote: “Less encumbered by the responsibilities of motherhood, she’d indulge in a little more fun and games while keeping any danger of spoiling her grandchildren safely at bay.

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“And although she enforced whatever household rules we’d set for bedtime, watching TV, or eating candy, she made clear that she sided with her ‘grandbabies’ in thinking that their parents were too darn strict.”

‘Forced’ relocation

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Michelle later gave an honest account to The Guardian about her mother’s move, admitting Marian’s account of being “dragged kicking and screaming from her quiet little bungalow on Euclid Avenue and more or less forced to live at the nation’s most famous address” wasn’t far from the truth.

The FLOTUS “flat-out begged her” to join the family at the White House in a move that was initially intended to be temporary, in order to help settle her then seven- and ten-year-old daughters, before Marian moved back to Chicago.

However, the family dynamic proved to be successful, and Marian was able to help out with school drop-offs and pick-ups and after-school activities while maintaining her freedom.

“When she wasn’t looking after the girls, my mom made herself deliberately scarce. Her feeling was that we should have our own family life, independent of her. And she felt that she, too, should have a life independent of us,” Michelle explained.