Michelle Obama: '120-percenter'

by Mark Silva

"I personally... know the challenges of leading a busy life at work and at home, trying to do a good job at both -- and always feeling like you're not quite living up to either -- and trying not to pit one against the other, really trying to balance it so that... I call myself a 120-percenter.''

This was Michelle Obama, first lady, mother of two, pre-dawn walker of a new puppy, spokeswoman for volunteerism, one of Time's "100 most influential people,'' talking at a forum today in Washington.

"If I'm not doing any job at 120 percent, I think I'm failing,'' she allowed. "So if you're trying to do that at home and at work, you find it very difficult and stressful and frustrating.

"And even though my current life, trust me, is very different than it was and for most people -- and I do know that; I know that right now I am living, as challenging as it may seem, in a very blessed situation, because I have what most families don't have, is tons of support all around, not just my mother but staff and administration.

"I have a chief of staff and a personal assistant, and everyone needs that -- that's what we need,'' Obama said to laughter and applause. "Everyone should have a chief of staff and a set of personal assistants.''

In her lifetime, she said the idea of one breadwinner getting a family through the week has gone the way of modern economics:

"One income really doesn't always cut it anymore.''

In order to help families juggle the 120-percent demands of their work and home life, she said, the nation needs to embrace more flexible work schedules, work-site child-care, paid leave for birth or adoption and for serious illnesses.

(First Lady Michelle Obama apeared at the Time 100 Gala, a celebration of the magazine's "100 most influential people in the world,'' Tuesday in New York. Photo by Evan Agostini / AP. Obama visited the Sesame Street set for a taping of a Public Service Announcement with Elmo as part of Sesame Workshop's Healthy Habits For Life initiative, the same day, in New York. AP Photo / Sesame Workshop, Richard Termine)

"Things are very different for working families than when many of us were growing up,'' Obama said at the Corporate Voices for Working Families forum at the Mayflower Hotel. "I talked about this a lot on the campaign trail.

"When I look back on my childhood and the life that my parents provided, working-class folks with not a lot of money, my father was a blue-collar city worker who worked a shift job. But because he earned enough as a shift worker without a college degree, he could still support a family of four on that salary. And because he could, with that salary, support us -- we rented a home, we didn't live lavishly -- my mother was able to stay at home. She could afford to make the choice not to go to work while we were growing up. That was how families balanced back then.

"But things are very different today,'' she said. "One income really doesn't always cut it anymore. And that's in my lifetime. In most families, both parents have to work, and even if people want to make the choice to stay home. And again, there is no subjective analysis or -- of what is better. But people can't make the choice. It's even harder for single parents, and there are millions of them all across this country who are trying to build a life for themselves and their children, and they find in an economy that's tough that they're not just holding down one but they need a couple of jobs just to make ends meet.

"Twenty-two million working women don't have a single paid sick day. That means they lose money any time they have to stay home to take care of their kids.

"You know, imagine making that choice. And we do it all the time. And even when I had sick leave, I found myself, you know, hoping that the kids would stay well, just I couldn't afford to take the day off because there was a meeting, or something was going on. So your whole life is just contingent upon everything working perfectly. So imagine families who don't have any sick time. So if somebody gets sick, they have to take time off, and they lose the money that they can't afford...

"We need to discuss flexible work hours that give employees greater ability to attend to important family responsibilities like child pick-up, something as simple as that; doctors appointments for those not just with kids, but for people with elderly parents. We're finding more and more that families are in that crunch, as well.

"We need to discuss paid leave for birth or adoption of a child and when there's a serious illness that arises.

"We need to discuss quality on-site child care, something that keeps many of us up at night as families; you're just wondering where are we going to put our children where we feel like that they're being safe -- that they're safe and being loved. That will relieve many of the stresses that parents feel on the job throughout the day.

"These types of policies can be the key to whether a family remains economically viable or slips into financial uncertainty.

"I expect this day to be the first of what will be for me many conversations that I'll get a chance to participate in. We need to find ways to encourage other employers to follow your lead and adopt work-life policies that afford employees flexibility and much-needed support. We want to work together to make clear that, again, investing in these types of policies pays off for employers as well as the employees.''

So with that, I will stop and do what I love to do best, which is listen and learn. So thank you for having me. (Applause.)

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