Kids Will Be Kids, Even In the White House

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Susan Ford, now Chairman of the Betty Ford Center said in an interview; “Sometimes I wished my father (President Gerald Ford) was just a congressman, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything. The travel, the people I met, movie stars, heads of state, it was like; Wow, look who I’m meeting now.”

There’s been a variety of pranksters beginning with Tad Lincoln who herded goats into a White House sitting room. Quinton Roosevelt rammed his little red wagon into a historic painting and some of us remember young John Kennedy and his, not so private, hiding place inside his father’s desk. At nine years old, Amy Carter made history for herself by bringing a book to a state dinner.

White House kids of the past continued to be kids as their dad’s occupied the Oval Office but not without their own challenges. Their braces, fashion faux pas, even their first boyfriends were documented for history. Whether or not mom and dad choose public or private schools was publicly debated, and Chelsea Clinton at thirteen years old became the subject of an “unkind” reference on “Saturday Night Live.”

The most pressing issue concerning “White House Kids” is security. “Way back to the earliest days, the children of Presidents have been targeted,” say Doug Wead, a former aide to President George H.W. Bush, and author of “All the President’s Children.” Jackie Kennedy, he notes, was so concerned about her children’s safety that she organized kindergarten for Caroline inside the White House.

The kids of Presidents have constant Secret Service. After learning the Symbionese Liberation Army had listed her as a target, Susan Ford had Secret Service protection even as a Vice President’s daughter, as reported by the Associated Press (July 11, 2008).
One day, seeing the White House gates open, she whizzed through in her car, unchaperoned. “Everybody tries it, it becomes a challenge and you want to succeed.”

Like the seventy-one year old McCain, many Presidents have not been young enough to have small children in the White House. McCain has seven children from two marriages, the youngest is sixteen. The public sees very little of the Senator’s children with the exception of Meghan, twenty-three, who blogs on McCain Blogette.

So far, the Obama’s haven’t been shy about bringing their two daughters, Malia, ten and Sasha, seven, into their very public lives. They’ve been on stage at rallies, speeches, and their photos have appeared in campaign ads. When asked how she dealt with the crowd, Malia answered; “Those people aren’t here to see me, they just think I’m cute. I just wave and smile and then I’m out of there.”

Whether Amy Carter was having friends over to carve pumpkins for Halloween or playing in her tree house, or Chelsea Clinton having a scavenger hunt with her friends, or Jenna Bush having brushes with the law for underage drinking, these were normal, active kids just like your and mine. Regardless of who’s kids walk or run the White House halls, kids will be kids.