Life for the First Children

In Hawaii, the Obama girls had their last normal Christmas for awhile, so normal, if we are to believe it, that 7-year-old Sasha and 10-year-old Malia were among the millions of excited preadolescents around the world on Christmas Eve. Would they be judged naughty or nice as St. Nick checked his list twice? "The girls believe in Santa and write him letters because as Malia tells it, 'there's no way our mom would buy us all this stuff,' " Michelle Obama told People magazine.

With some minor irony, the longer version of "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" talks about Santa bringing "curly-head dolls that toddle and coo." So far, these girls, who are about to give curly hair an unprecedented place in American history, have done nothing but warm American hearts. Much has already been made of the potential of Barack and Michelle Obama being the ultimate Huxtable family of the old "The Bill Cosby Show." The incoming First Couple says they expect the First Children to do their chores and pick up the poop from their new puppy.

Will that result in young black men taking note of the responsible black father who happens to be the most powerful man in the world? Will black girls have a new sense of self-image because of this self-assured African American first lady who already has displayed deep roots of remaining grounded during her rise from the working-class South Side of Chicago to Ivy League degrees?

That is an unfair question, of course, since the prior white presidents and their wives were rarely scrutinized for their impact on the rest of the nation as First Parents - except for how President Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky caused vigorous debates in households across America as to what constitutes sexual intercourse.

The recent record shows you can predict the trajectory of First Children about as well as you can predict that of your own children, which is to say you can't .

Amy Carter "entered office" at age 9 and clearly never liked it. She once irritated Mexico's foreign minister by reading a book at a state dinner. But she absorbed deeper thinking about the world.

In 1987, I covered her trial after she was arrested for protesting CIA recruiting on college campuses. She said she was particularly incensed that the CIA was sharing information with apartheid South Africa. Today she lives a private life in Atlanta as a children's book illustrator and mother of a 9-year-old son.

Chelsea Clinton has turned out quite remarkably, given that she was greeted "into office" at age 12 by Rush Limbaugh calling her a "dog." She endured dad becoming a most embarrassing First Father, graduated from Stanford and Oxford, and works for a hedge fund in New York. She stumped nicely for her mother's presidential bid, and it was touching to watch her say at the Democratic National Convention, "I'm very proud to introduce my hero and mother, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton." What parent would not die to hear that, even if it is at the kitchen table?

The Bush twins Jenna and Barbara were famously busted early in dad George W. Bush's first term for underage college drinking. Jenna, who flouted the law the most, still grew up, graduated from the University of Texas at Austin, taught third grade, interned for UNICEF, wrote a book on a mother with AIDS and got married. Barbara graduated from Yale, volunteered with AIDS patients in Africa and works for a museum in New York.

All this points to the fact that, to quote Obama's victory speech, "There will be setbacks and false starts." But the kids generally turn out alright.

Sasha and Malia, who would be 15 and 18 if Obama wins two terms, recently were given a cute introduction to the White House by the Bush twins. Barbara told People magazine that she and Jenna "showed them our little, secret, fun places. There's sort of trap doors . . ." Jenna continued, ". . . that little kids are fascinated by. It's a house that can inspire a lot of games and imagination."

Hopefully, the new First Children will have just enough secrecy and fun to grow up to stir all our imaginations to where girls can go.

Derrick Z. Jackson can be reached at jackson@globe.com.