Former US President Barack Obama and his wife argued about leaving their children to cry.

(Dan Tri) - Former US First Lady Michelle Obama shared that she and her husband - former US President Barack Obama - once disagreed on how to raise their children. Barack wanted her to let the children cry and not comfort them.

In a recent interview, Michelle Obama revealed that she and her husband had a heated argument when they first became parents. The two disagreed when Barack Obama wanted to use the Ferber method to train his son to sleep and stop crying at night.

The Ferber method was introduced by American doctor Richard Ferber in 1985 to help babies learn to self-soothe and sleep independently early. When applying this method, parents will not comfort their babies immediately when they cry during bedtime.

Mr. and Mrs. Obama with their two children many years ago (Photo: DM).

Parents would only check in periodically at predetermined intervals to make sure their baby was safe and that all sleep conditions were okay. Barack wanted to adopt this method, but Michelle objected.

“I really didn't want to use this method, and I didn't think I could do it, because letting my most beloved child cry for a long time without anyone to comfort him was too much for me to bear,” Michelle shared.

Eventually, the couple agreed to split the nighttime babysitting duties. “Barack would take care of the baby at night, and he would do whatever he wanted, and I would go to bed early, plug my ears, and I would get more rest and sleep better,” Michelle recalls.

Despite her initial misgivings, Michelle admits that the Ferber method actually worked. In less than a week, her baby got used to it and stopped crying at night.

Also in an interview on the topic of parenting, Mrs. Michelle said that her two daughters with Mr. Barack Obama - Malia (27 years old) and Sasha (24 years old) - both developed a mentality of wanting to separate from their parents to assert themselves early.

Michelle said she understands and sympathizes with her children's psychology: "I think this is quite common in children of famous people. They all want to assert themselves early on, not wanting to live forever in the shadow of their parents."

Obama's children soon developed the mentality of wanting to separate from their parents to assert themselves (Photo: DM).

Both of their daughters have been living on their own for years now. Their eldest daughter, Malia, doesn't even use the Obama name when she works in Hollywood.

“We told her, ‘People will still know who you are, Malia,’” Michelle added. “But in the end, we respected her decision because we understood that she was trying to make her own way.”

Barack Obama and his wife have been married for more than 30 years, and they welcomed two daughters in 1998 and 2001.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/giao-duc/vo-chong-cuu-tong-thong-my-barack-obama-tung-cai-va-ve-viec-de-mac-con-khoc-20250627204804917.htm