Michelle Obama Once Told Daughters Malia and Sasha She Was 'Done Parenting' Them: 'You Can Do This On Your Own'

Michelle Obama got real about some of the difficulties of parenting, including a few darker moments.

During the Wednesday, December 24, episode of her "IMO" podcast, the former First Lady recalled a moment where she wanted to throw her hands up and stop being a mother.

At the time, her husband, Barack Obama, was traveling, and daughters Sasha and Malia were much younger.

"I was at home trying to get the girls to bed… They were probably seven and three at the time," Michelle explained.

Although she credited her girls for being "usually great kids," that night, they were acting "rambunctious."

When “no one was listening,” she said, “Well, that’s it… I’m done parenting. You seem like you guys have this all figured out, and you can do this on your own. So have at it.”

Malia, now 27, apologized because she didn’t know what she would "do without" her mom. However, Sasha, now 24, didn’t seem to care as much.

"She took her blankie, and she turned around and went back upstairs to watch TV," Michelle recounted. "As if to say, like, ‘Thank God. At last. This is what I wanted from you, lady. I am 3. I can handle this. I’m going back upstairs.’ She got five steps up, and I was like, ‘If you don’t turn around and get back down here.’ Well, it worked for one. Didn’t work for the other."

Even today, the 61-year-old says her youngest "wants to learn her way" and doesn’t like "to be told that this is how you do it."

"We tell her, but she’s got to learn on her own," said Michelle.

When Malia and Sasha were teenagers, they reportedly distanced themselves from their mother.

"They definitely went through a period in their teen years…it was the ‘push away,'" Michelle said in June. "They're still doing that, and you guys know this of children with parents who are known. You're trying to distinguish yourself. It's very important for my kids to feel like they've earned what they are getting in the world."

On a December 10 episode of her "IMO" podcast, the lawyer remembered a particular piece of parenting advice she took from her own mother.

"I think she wanted me to know throughout my life, she wanted to hand us our lives early. Like you're responsible. You did this for yourself," Michelle expressed. "My mom would always say, and she would say this publicly, 'I didn't have anything to do with raising Michelle and Craig. They, you know, they always knew this.'"

She added, "And I didn't understand that until I had kids. And I realized that the scariest thing is not just losing them or something happening to them. It's something happening to me, and my kids are going to go through life not feeling like they have what they need to get through."