Michelle Obama's Advice to Parents

"Value her voice and let her speak." Michelle Obama talks about the strong values instilled by her parents that she embraces as a mom. (via Brut UK)

Transcript

00:00My mother said, would always tell me, I'm raising adults,

00:03I'm not raising babies.

00:05So her philosophy was that we could understand a lot

00:10if she took the time to explain it.

00:12So it was never speak only when spoken to.

00:16She encouraged us to let our voices be heard.

00:20And I talked about this earlier today

00:23when I was with the girls at the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson

00:26School, which we had a wonderful time.

00:28But one of the things that my parents believed

00:34was that my voice was relevant, and my opinions were meaningful,

00:41and my anger and frustration was real.

00:45And that's something that's important for parents

00:48of any socioeconomic background to realize.

00:51That was the gift that she gave me.

00:53I say that my parents saw this flame in me,

00:57that flame that would challenge my Aunt Robbie

00:59and speak up for myself.

01:01And instead of doing what we often

01:03do to girls who are feisty, which

01:06is try to put that flame out to douse it ever just so

01:10because we're worried about them not being ladylike

01:13or to be being bossy, they found a way

01:16to keep that flame lit because they knew I'd need it later on.

01:21And to have that flame lit in a girl

01:22means that you have to value her voice and let her speak

01:26and learn how to use it with boundaries.

01:28Amen.

01:28Yeah.