All the Presidents Children

By: Carol Silva

This week a Dix Hills 5-year-old, was invited to play baseball on the south lawn of the White House. Shay Rubenstein was chosen to represent New York in the annual T-Ball Tournament - and president Bush sat 2 rows in front of Shay's Dad.

But kids are nothing new to the White House. And I'm not just talking Easter Egg Roll.

A Young Tad Lincoln herded goats into a White House sitting room. Quentin Roosevelt rammed his wagon into a historic painting. John Kennedy Jr. had to be scooped out of a hiding place in his father's desk. Amy Carter famously brought a book to a state dinner.

And teenager Susan Ford staged a mini-revolt there. Susan dodged the Secret Service for a brief taste of freedom on the streets of Washington.

Malia Obama turned 10 last week, and her sister Sasha is 7.

Should their father, Barack, win the election, they'd be the youngest kids in the White House since Amy Carter arrived at age 9. They would become the subjects of anecdotes that wind up in history books. Their fashion faux pas, the first braces on their teeth, even their first boyfriends could also be documented forever. Their parents' choice of school - public or private? - would be debated. Even "Saturday Night Live" could make fun of them like they did Chelsea Clinton's adolescent looks when she was 13.

But whether it's the Obama girls or John McCain's older kids - the next presidential progeny will also have an unparalleled view of history.

President Jerry Ford's daughter Susan Ford Bales says, "Sure, maybe a few times I wished my father was just a congressman. But in fact I wouldn't trade it for anything. The travels, the people you meet. From movie stars to heads of state. It was like, 'Oh my gosh, look who I'm meeting now!"'

Ford's advice to the next president and his wife: "Keep being a parent. Keep loving your children and keep being available to them." She remembers that when she needed something from her parents, she could interrupt them at any time - and did. Like the time her dad was meeting with Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. "I walked in and said: 'Hi Mr. Secretary. Dad, I need my allowance and Mom doesn't have any cash."' The leader of the free world obliged.

The most pressing issue for White House children has to be security. "Way back into the earliest days, the children of presidents have been targeted," according to Doug Wead. He is a former aide to President George H.W. Bush and author of "All the President's Children."

Wead says Jackie Kennedy was so concerned about keeping her kids safe and out of view that she organized kindergarten for Caroline inside the White House. And when President Kennedy allowed those famous photos of Caroline and John in the Oval Office to be taken, Wead says, it was against his wife's edict. Conveniently, she was out of town!

Presidential children have constant Secret Service protection. Susan Ford had it even as a vice president's daughter. That's after it was discovered the Symbionese Liberation Army, (the group had already kidnapped newspaper heiress Patty Hearst,) had listed Ford as a target.

But there was that one day when Susan popped out of the security bubble. The White House gates were open for her mother to drive in, and Susan whizzed out in her own car, unchaperoned. "Everybody tries it. It becomes a challenge and you want to succeed," she says. She picked up a friend, drove to a supermarket parking lot and called to say she was all right. (I wonder if she got grounded!)

But there were plenty of perks. Ford had the unique privilege of holding her senior prom in the East Room.

Malia and Sasha Obama have a ways to go before their proms. First, their parents would need to decide: Public school, or private?

Jimmy Carter famously sent Amy to public school. The choice was again debated when Chelsea Clinton came to the White House at 13. Some argued it was a great way for the new president to learn about the state of public education. Ultimately, Bill and Hillary Clinton chose the elite Sidwell Friends private school. Tuition there now runs about $27,000.

Malia and Sasha Obama are in the private University of Chicago Laboratory Schools right now. That's where Michelle Obama is on the board. The Obamas haven't said where they would send their children should he win. Michelle Obama recently told "The View," "I try not to be obsessive about it...we've got a lot of work before it's a reality."

The Obamas have also been including the girls in their public life more and more. Their photos have been in campaign ads. They've been on stage for some rallies and speeches. Malia had an interesting answer when asked how she deals with the crowds. Her mom says Malia believes, "Those people aren't there to see me. They just think I'm cute. So I just wave and smile, and then I'm out of there."

But John McCain is reticent about discussing his seven children from two marriages, especially his son Jimmy. Jimmy is a Marine corporal who returned from Iraq earlier this year. The public sees little of the McCain kids except for Meghan, 23, who blogs from the campaign trail on McCain Blogette.

The senator has three older children in their 40s. Douglas and Andrew - are his two sons whom he adopted from his first wife, and there's Sidney, the daughter they had together. Then with Cindy McCain, he has Meghan, Jack, Jimmy, and their youngest, Bridget, adopted from Bangladesh as an infant.

Bridget told a young reporter for Scholastic News in December that her favorite subject at her private school in Phoenix is history, and that she loves playing sports. She says, "We are a normal family just like everyone else."

Many presidents haven't been young enough to have small children in the White House. A young family like the Kennedys or Obamas is rare. Long time White House curator Betty Monkman says, "A young family creates a whole different atmosphere." Monkman remembers Amy Carter having friends over to carve pumpkins on Halloween, playing in her special tree house designed by Dad, or collecting money around the White House for the March of Dimes.

Monkman also remembers a historical scavenger hunt that her staff designed for Chelsea and her friends from Little Rock on the night of the Clintons' inaugural ball.

She says both Amy and Chelsea "were normal, active kids. They were able to come and go and have a life." Chelsea, she notes, was active in ballet and with her church youth group, and the media generally left her alone.

Of course, there was the time Mike Myers referred to Chelsea in a sketch on "Saturday Night Live" as not "a babe." There was an angry reaction, and then an apology by the comedian.

Then there was a bit of a flap when Amy sat while reading at the state dinner. "She didn't attend any formal dinners after that.

Jenna and Barbara Bush were19 when their father became president. Boy, did they chafe at their Secret Service protection. But all that security could prevent Jenna (now 26 and married) from brushes with the law against underage drinking.

There was a different kind of trouble - prankster trouble back in the Lincoln days. Tad Lincoln once hitched two goats to a chair and barreled into a sitting room where his unamused mother was giving a tour. Teddy's son Quentin Roosevelt ran his toy wagon straight through a priceless painting of a first lady; another time he nearly toppled a 350-pound bust of Martin Van Buren. No word on his antics at Sagamore Hill in Oyster Bay.

John Kennedy Jr. so liked the hiding place in his father's desk that he had to be removed occasionally by an aide before important business could be done. And sister Caroline (now vetting vice presidential prospects for Obama,) is much more tight-lipped at 50 than she was as a child. Back then reporters asked what her father was doing one day. She replied, "Oh, he's upstairs with his shoes and socks off, not doing anything."

And there was Alice Roosevelt, who got into so many shenanigans that her father, Teddy, seemed to give up. The President who lived in Oyster Bay is quoted as saying,  "I can do one of two things. "I can be president of the United States, or I can control Alice."