WASHINGTON -- First lady Abigail Adams famously urged her husband, President John Adams, to "remember the ladies." As Mother's Day approaches and Americans honor their moms, there's no better time to remember the first ladies (and their children) who once called the White House home.
Click through the slideshow to see first ladies and their children throughout history. Story continues below.
First Families Mother's Day
To kids, it doesn't matter whether she is the first lady (or the president herself) -- Mom is just... Mom.
Michelle Obama has been open about "the stresses and the pressures" of White House life, telling Vogue, "Our No. 1 priority is making sure that our family is whole."
To keep family life as normal as possible, the first lady has instituted strict rules:
- When the girls go on trips, they write reports on what they have seen, even if their school does not require it.
- Technology is for weekends. Malia may use her cellphone only then, and she and her sister cannot watch television or use a computer for anything but homework during the week.
- Malia and Sasha had to take up two sports: one they chose and one selected by their mother. “I want them to understand what it feels like to do something you don’t like and to improve,” the first lady has said.
- Malia must learn to do laundry before she leaves for college.
- The girls have to eat their vegetables, and if they say that they are not hungry, they cannot ask for cookies or chips later. “If you’re full, you’re full,” Mrs. Obama said in an interview with Ladies’ Home Journal. “I don’t want to see you in the kitchen after that.”
While living in the White House, Hillary Clinton similarly tried to make a regular routine for daughter Chelsea. The pair occasionally snuck out of the White House to explore Washington -- "We would put on hats and sneak out for walks on the Mall" -- and when Chelsea got sick, the first lady cooked eggs for her.
Laura Bush's daughters Jenna and Barbara were in college when George W. Bush became president, but they were frequently targets of tabloid speculation. The former first lady addressed this in 2001, telling CNN, "It's difficult. But also, I think people know that half of what's in the tabloids is not true. I hope people read that with a grain of salt."
In the 1960s, Jackie Kennedy reared small children in the White House. She once quipped that her primary job was "to take care of the president," but "if you bungle raising your children, I don't think whatever else you do well matters very much."
Throughout American history, only one baby has been born to a president in the White House. Which president and first lady? Grover and Frances Cleveland in 1893.