12 photos show how motherhood has changed in the White House
Talia Lakritz
- Jacqueline Kennedy, Rosalynn Carter, and Michelle Obama had young children in the White House.
- Melania Trump's son, Barron, was the first boy to live in the White House since John F. Kennedy Jr.
Some first ladies have raised their families in the White House, moving into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue with young children who are still in school. Others have become first lady after their children were fully grown, but they remained close with their grandchildren.
In honor of Mother's Day, here's a look back at how motherhood has changed in the White House.
Jacqueline Kennedy took her daughter Caroline horseback riding in 1963.
Jacqueline Kennedy was an accomplished equestrian, and she passed her love of horses on to her children. At 5 years old, Caroline had her own pony named Macaroni.
Claudia Alta "Lady Bird" Johnson saw her two daughters get married during her time in the White House.
President Lyndon B. Johnson and Lady Bird Johnson's daughter Luci married Patrick Nugent in 1966. They held their ceremony at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception and their reception in the East Room.
Luci's sister, Lynda, got married in the East Room the following year to Charles Robb, a captain in the Marines.
Pat Nixon also helped plan her daughter Tricia's White House wedding in 1971.
The wedding ceremony took place in the White House Rose Garden — making it the first outdoor White House wedding — followed by a reception in the East Room.
Betty Ford and her daughter, Susan Ford, posed on the Truman Balcony in the White House's Executive Residence in 1975.
The youngest of the Ford children, Susan lived in the White House full-time. In 1975, 17-year-old Susan held her senior prom in the East Room of the White House. Her senior class raised all the funds for the prom, including the fee for bands Sandcastle and the Outerspace Band, and elected her prom queen, according to Vanity Fair. It remains the only prom to have ever been held in the White House.
Rosalynn Carter fixed her daughter Amy's hair before President Jimmy Carter's inauguration parade in 1977.
Amy Carter was 9 years old when her father's presidency began. She had a pet Siamese cat named Misty who accompanied her to Camp David and took up residence in her doll house.
Nancy Reagan rode a tandem bike with her son, Ron Jr., on the south grounds of the White House in 1981.
The Reagans had two children: Ron Jr. and Patti. Nancy Reagan was also stepmother to two children from her husband's first marriage, Michael and Maureen.
They didn't always have the easiest relationship. In 1984, Nancy Reagan told columnist Betty Beale that Michael had been estranged from the family for three years, The Washington Post reported. In 1992, Patti wrote a tell-all memoir detailing "her father's emotional abandonment of her, her mother's cruelty, and the family's bitter rivalries, uncontrollable rage, and dark secrets."
Barbara Bush's grandchildren made appearances at holiday events like the White House Easter Egg Roll.
President George H.W. Bush and Barbara Bush's five children were adults with kids of their own when they moved into the White House in 1989.
Their grandchildren joined them for Christmas every year, dressing as elves and helping decorate the National Christmas Tree.
Hillary Clinton wrote an open letter to the press urging them to respect her daughter Chelsea's privacy as she began college at Stanford University in 1997.
"I remember well my own college years: the good, the bad and the ridiculous," Hillary Clinton wrote. continuing: "I can't imagine having any of those private experiences, all part of finding myself, being interrupted by the bright lights of cameras — and not because of anything I was or did but because of my parents' occupations. I hope Chelsea's college years will be her own, too."
Bill Clinton was president from 1993 to 2001 — his daughter graduated from Stanford that same year.
Laura Bush's twin daughters, Barbara and Jenna, were also in college during their White House years.
Barbara attended Yale, while Jenna attended the University of Texas at Austin.
While they didn't live in Washington full-time, the sisters did occasionally bring boyfriends to the White House to meet their parents.
"I think it was intimidating to them," Barbara told Access Hollywood in 2022.
Michelle Obama's mother, Marian Robinson, moved to the White House with the Obamas to help with first daughters Sasha and Malia.
Robinson took the girls to and from school, took them to playdates, and helped them with homework, The New York Times reported in 2009. As they got older, Robinson taught them how to do their own laundry, she told CBS News.
In a 2015 appearance on "The Rachael Ray Show," Michelle Obama said that Malia's Secret Service detail taught her how to drive "because they wouldn't let me in the car with her."
Melania Trump delayed moving into the White House in 2017 so that her son, Barron, could finish out the school year in Manhattan.
While President Donald Trump was inaugurated in January 2017, Melania didn't move in with Barron until that June.
Barron was the first boy to live in the White House since John F. Kennedy Jr.
Jill Biden's children are all grown, but she's an involved grandmother.
The Bidens hosted their oldest granddaughter Naomi's wedding to Peter Neal at the White House in November 2022.
The New York Times reported that Naomi and Neal were living at the White House while they were engaged. They wed on the South Lawn of the White House and held their reception in the State Dining Room.
The first lady also brought her granddaughter Finnegan to the coronation of King Charles III in May.
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