Michelle Obama's outlook on motherhood has adjusted throughout the years, as her daughters are now young adults.
During the premiere episode of her new "The Light Podcast," the former First Lady admitted she's "on the other side of parenting," now that Malia, 24, and Sasha, 21, have moved out and started lives of their own.
While there's no doubt becoming an empty nester has its difficulties, Michelle is mostly grateful she "didn't mess them up," and actually finds her family's new chapter quite enjoyable.
"It was hard on my daughters growing up in the spotlight," she confessed, as she noted how difficult it was for their entire family as a whole. Despite hardship, Michelle emphasized she didn't want to seem "ungrateful."
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"I'm moving from mom-in-chief to advisor-in-chief," the 59-year-old joked to Today star Hoda Kotb, who joined as a guest on the Tuesday, March 7, episode. "That's a lovely thing — to be able to watch my girls fly and have the relief that 'Okay, I think I didn't mess them up.'"
Instead of involving herself in every nitty-gritty detail of her daughters lives, Michelle confessed she has taken a step back and no long looks at Malia and Sasha with "a critical eye."
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As Michelle and Hoda — whose three-year-old was just released from the ICU — continued to discuss motherhood and all that it entails, the wife of former President Barack Obama noted the importance of simply being there for your child instead of trying to "fix them."
The mother-of-two provided an example of a time Malia walked into her hotel room wearing wrinkled clothing and looking for a steamer.
Instead of smoothing out her daughter's clothing for her, Michelle recalled stating, "'you're wrinkly — you're gonna do something about this.' And she was like 'Yeah, Mom.'"
"And then I thought I did it. I greeted her with — instead of what I felt, which is, 'Sit on my lap, give me a kiss' — I'm fixing things. I'm pointing out, 'Oh my God, your hair is not right here,'" Michelle quipped.
"What Toni Morrison says is that our kids just want our gladness. They don't need us to fix them. They don't need us to point out the thing that's wrong, first," she expressed.
