Michelle Obama Shares How She and Her Family Are Self-Quarantining

From Oprah Magazine

• Former First Lady Michelle Obama opened up to Ellen DeGeneres about how her family is staying busy while self-quarantining amid the coronavirus pandemic.

• "When times are bad, having each other, having your health, we can do with a lot less. And I think that's an important lesson I want my kids to understand as they get out there in the world," she said.

The Obamas are managing to stay busy while self-quarantining during the coronavirus pandemic.

Per People, former First Lady Michelle Obama shared with Ellen DeGeneres how she and her family, including former President Barack Obama and their two daughters, Sasha and Malia Obama, are faring while spending more time at home.

"We're just trying to, like, structure our days," Michelle said when DeGeneres, who's been calling her famous friends to see how they are holding up during this unprecedented time of self-isolation and quarantining, asked how her family was staying busy. "I mean, everybody's home. The girls are back because colleges are now online. So they're off in their respective rooms doing their online classes and I think Barack is—I don't know where he is. He was on the phone on a conference call. I just got finished with a conference call."

Michelle added that in the midst of a still somewhat-structured scheduled, the family continue to get together for time in front of the television screen.

"We're just trying to, ya know, just keep a routine going. But we also got a little Netflix and chilling happening," continued the former First Lady.

She also stressed that even amid the uncertainty and stress surrounding the current global pandemic, there are certain benefits and lessons to be learned while spending more time at home with loved ones.

"I feel for all the folks who are going to suffer because of what's going to happen to the economy and we have to be mindful about what we're going to do to support those folks when this quarantine are over and people are looking at what's left of their businesses and their lives," she explained. "And that is a negative but on the positive side, I know for us, it's forced us to continue to sit down with each other, have real conversations, really ask questions and figure out how to keep ourselves occupied without just TV or computers."

She also offered a critical lesson. "When times are bad, having each other, having your health, we can do with a lot less. And I think that's an important lesson I want my kids to understand as they get out there in the world. Be grateful for what you have and be ready to share it when the time comes."