Stephen Curry and Barack Obama discuss raising kids while managing intense careers. Obama kept Malia and Sasha grounded by having them clean their own rooms and maintaining middle-class discipline despite White House life. Both men credit grandparents and extended family for providing stability and perspective.
Chapters
You know, speaking of like the pressures that we all feel like we face, I know as fathers, you know, whatever career path you've chosen, trying to provide for your family, there's always that balance of pressure, right, between finding success in your career versus, you know, being there, being present with your family. And I can't imagine if we feel this, you know, as a professional athlete and any other walk of life, that as the President of the United States, that was, you know, felt exponentially higher. And I just kind of want to start there in terms of, you know, having been through 8 years of your presidency and now, you know, out of office, how do you, how would you frame that experience of balancing all the pressures in life knowing that you wanted to succeed at everything?
Well, look, I mean, I think that a lot of the book, it talks about The, the fact that although the White House is obviously different and the presidency is different, in a lot of ways it's a job. And the White House was where my family was living, and the same kinds of issues that I think we all struggle with That was part of our journey. You know, I'm pretty blunt in the book about the fact that a lot of times during my political career, Michelle wasn't feeling the amount of time and stress that I had to devote to what I was doing. She believed in the work, But she also felt as if, you know, this was exposing our family to stresses and putting us out there in ways that she didn't always feel comfortable with. I'm pretty honest in the book about, you know, she was not wild about me running for president.
Mm-hmm.
And I don't blame her because we had already gone through a lot. Even before I'd run for president, I'd been involved in a U.S. Senate race, and, you know, I was traveling the country and missing, you know, events at home, and the burden was on her because one difference between being a U.S. senator running for president and, let's say, a all-NBA basketball player—
Right.
Is you still have some financial strains when you are a U.S. Senator. And, you know, you got two households and, you know, because I was going back and forth from Washington to back to Chicago. And I describe in the book, I said, you know, look, times were tight. Michelle had to work still. She's got two little kids. So, so, uh, figuring that out, uh, was, was challenging. One of the things that I write about that we were worried about was how would it be to raise kids in that kind of environment?
Mm-hmm.
And, and I know you and Ayesha are experiencing some of this. Just by virtue of their being your kids, they're in the limelight in some ways. And, you know, Michelle and I understood, I think, kind of early on that, you know, that's a double-edged sword. And we wanted them to have a normal experience of growing up and being able to make mistakes and not being scrutinized and commented on about every single thing that they did.
Mm-hmm.
And we also wanted to make sure, suddenly, you know, we're living like normal middle-class folks. And then the next thing you know, they're butlers. And, you know, as we talk about the fact that, you know, we had to tell the staff at the White House, look, you know, the girls have to clean their rooms. We're not having y'all clean their rooms.
Principles. Discipline.
Yeah. They need to learn how to do that.
Yeah.
And we were worried. Would they end up somehow not having a sense of reality? And part of the reason I think we were able to keep them grounded was because we ourselves reminded ourselves, look, we're just here temporarily. This is a blessing. It's an opportunity to serve, but this is not who we are. And it helped also to have my mother-in-law.
Mm-hmm.
You know, anybody who knows Michelle's mom, she's like salt of the earth, no pretension, wouldn't put up with any kind of attitudes or fuss out of Malia and Sasha. And that really helped. And I'm sure you guys with your— you know, grandparents can be lifesavers.
They can. They have been in our experience for sure. Absolutely. Especially when they carry the same temperament and perspective as you in terms of not getting too big-headed. Like, you have the highest, you know, office in the land, and that could mean a lot of great things, but your kids don't have— they don't have that.
Well, that's— my mother-in-law literally said that to Malia and Sasha. They were acting up one time, and she looked at him and she said, "Y'all do understand you haven't done nothing. Y'all are just along for the ride." Real talk though. Yeah, I mean, you know, if you get elected president someday, maybe you can tell me what to do. Tell me, but not now. Go do your homework.
