Stories of Motherhood and Home (from “Stories From a Stranger with Hunter Prosper”)

IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson

In this episode of 'Stories From a Stranger,' host Hunter Prosper conducts intimate interviews with four women exploring the profound themes

Key takeaways

• Michelle Obama emphasizes that the most valuable gift a parent can provide is presence and love rather than material wealth.
• Rosabella shares her journey of using a private investigator to reconnect with her biological mother and sister in Ukraine.

Main topics

• Motherhood
• Adoption and Reunion

Notable quotes

The best thing you can give them isn't clothes and shoes. It's love and your presence.

Conclusion

A deeply moving exploration of how maternal connections and family roo

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) We wanted to share something special with you this week, an episode of another podcast from Higher Ground, Stories from a Stranger, which features portraits of strangers connected by love, loss, regret, inspiration, family connections, and more. Host Hunter Prosper shares raw, intimate, long-form conversations with real people. It's a show that inspires empathy and connection, proving that every stranger has a story. In this episode, Hunter interviews four powerful women about their relationships with their mothers and their experiences as mothers themselves. My sister was a guest on this episode and spoke with Hunter about how beautiful it has been to watch her daughters grow. They also reflect on the wisdom of our mother, Marion Robinson, who told my sister, come home, we'll love you here, which has always helped to ground her. Okay, I've said enough. I really think you'll enjoy this episode. You can watch and listen to more stories from a stranger wherever you get podcasts. Speaker 4 (1:03) Parenting is the hardest and most important job there is. Yeah. Speaker 3 (1:08) The best thing you can give them isn't clothes and shoes. It's love and your presence. That's right. Speaker 3 (1:20) No one will love you like your mother. As an only child raised by a single mom, I've grown to understand all the hard work and sacrifice she had to make to help me become the person I am today. Today, I am speaking to four powerful women about motherhood. Every stranger has a story. Let's start listening. I'm Speaker 1 (1:36) Hunter Prosper, and this is Stories from a Stranger. Speaker 3 (1:56) So Mrs. Obama, what I do is I travel the world and I interview strangers showing that we're more alike than we are different. Speaker 1 (2:02) I Speaker 3 (2:02) just want to create a sense of connectedness through our emotions. Experiences, I think, are uniquely yours. Like why you felt love, pain, joy. Speaker 4 (2:10) I Speaker 3 (2:10) don't know, but you felt it and I have too. And so that's kind of the goal of this show. And it's always been the goal, just to create that connectedness, knowing you're not alone. So my question for you is, what's the most beautiful thing you've been told? Speaker 4 (2:23) The most beautiful thing I've been told. Well, there are a couple of answers. Speaker 4 (2:33) You know, when it comes to one of the things that's the most important to me, which is being a good mom, you know, having my daughters who are now adult women themselves telling me that they look up to me, you know, that they that they that they value what I've given them as a mother. Speaker 4 (3:01) that they can recite back to me, you know, wisdom and philosophy and insight. You know, they can be very articulate and clear about what I mean to them, right? And it's that bond with my children that is probably the most beautiful thing. And it's almost anything they say to me. As a mother, you know, I take it in and now that they're older, they can articulate to me and I can see it in them. I can see it in the way they carry themselves in the world, the way they solve problems. You know, I think there's beauty in watching, for me, in watching my children become uniquely themselves and Speaker 3 (3:50) to Speaker 4 (3:50) know that I've had a part in that. So it's not so much of what they have said to me. but it's the many things they say and the way they live out their lives. Speaker 4 (4:03) But in the same vein, when I think of the things I've learned from my mother, that my mother has said to me, you know, in The Light We Carry, the second book that I wrote, I had an opportunity before she died. There's a chapter where I really share some of her wisdom. I mean, the purpose of the book was to, after COVID, to share some of the things that got me through. some of the tools that I used. And a lot of those tools came from the lessons that my mother taught me. And one of them that seems to resonate with people is... come home, we'll love you here. And where that came from was that, you know, growing up as a working class kid, a black kid on the South side of Chicago, you couldn't always be guaranteed that people would show you the love and respect that you deserved because of the assumptions that we make about people because of race, because of socioeconomic. status. Sometimes you don't get the benefit of the doubt. And my mom was trying to prepare us for some of the unkindnesses that could happen to us out in the world. And she wanted us to be armored up for that, to not let that negative energy crack the shell of love that she and my father poured into us. Speaker 3 (5:33) So Speaker 4 (5:33) one of the things she would tell us is that, yeah, you're going to meet people out there. that you don't agree with, that don't like you, you know, that teacher who has a bad attitude, you know, who exhibits a level of unfairness to you. You're not there. You don't go to school to get love from your teacher. You know, she said, you go to school and you get whatever she has to teach you. If she's teaching you math, you get the math from her. You know, when you need love, you come home, you know. At this table is where you find your love and you get your foundation and you get your ballast. And I take that with me wherever I go. And I think it has guarded me in some of the most difficult times of my life when you're in the public eye and you're getting a lot of energy, a lot of it love, but some of it not so good. I think that that has allowed me. to stay strong in the headwinds of negativity because I'm not looking for love outside of myself, outside of my family, outside of the world that I know loves me and knows me. You know, I get filled up at my own table and that gives me the strength and the courage to go out there bravely and face whatever there is. And I think that those words are so wise, you Speaker 3 (6:59) know, Speaker 4 (6:59) so beautiful. Speaker 4 (7:02) So empowering. So lasting. And so Speaker 3 (7:06) succinct. Speaker 4 (7:07) It Speaker 3 (7:07) didn't have to be this giant poem. It's this beautiful sentence. Speaker 4 (7:11) My Speaker 3 (7:11) mother is the most important person in my life. Not just woman. It's always been her and I. It's just her and I against the world. Her baby bear and her against the world, as she would say. So I appreciate you shedding light on motherhood. Your mother, what's her name? Speaker 4 (7:26) Marion. Speaker 3 (7:27) What Speaker 4 (7:27) was Speaker 3 (7:28) Marion's smile like? Speaker 4 (7:29) Oh, her smile. Her smile was quiet. Her laugh was big. My mom loved to laugh. And she found everything, every word we said to be funny, interesting. I mean, I think I always say that I found my voice at my table because I had a mother and a father who loved what we had to say. who were curious about our thoughts and ideas. And with that curiosity and that love came lots of laughter. It was deep. It was real. She was a happy person, a happy spirit. We didn't have a lot. My dad was a working class city worker, and my mom stayed at home. So he raised... He supported a family of four on his city salary. So you think small apartment, rarely did he have the resources to buy a car, a new car. We took one vacation. We didn't have the latest or the newest, but there was laughter. And a lot of that laughter came from my mother. Yeah. Speaker 3 (8:45) I had lost my grandfather. And I think about him. Every day of my life. Speaker 4 (8:51) Yeah. Speaker 3 (8:53) How often do you think about your mother and how has her presence made you who you are today? Speaker 4 (8:58) There isn't a day, just like with your grandfather, that goes by that there isn't, you know, that I don't operate with the hope that I'm making my mother proud, right? I mean, it's my mother, but it's also... The people that my mother represents, you know, the elders, the people who sacrificed and, you know. Speaker 4 (9:28) put themselves last. You know, the people who are looking to us for hope, you know, the people who never saw us before doing the things that we were doing. They didn't think they'd live to see the day. You know, I get up every day thinking about making them proud, you know, showing them, you know, that their investment wasn't in vain. Yeah. Speaker 3 (9:54) Yeah. I could talk to you for hours, I'm sure, but I just have one more question for you. What advice do you have for someone who wants to be a parent but is scared that they're not going to be enough? Speaker 4 (10:05) And Speaker 3 (10:05) I only Speaker 4 (10:06) ask Speaker 3 (10:06) you that because I'm kind of at a stage in my life where, Speaker 4 (10:09) thinking Speaker 3 (10:09) about it, if we're lucky and if my right now fiancee would love to have a big family if possible. But I often ask myself, am I ready to be a father? Speaker 4 (10:21) Am I Speaker 3 (10:21) able to? put them in the best position to be little humans on this earth. What advice do you have for people like me? Speaker 4 (10:28) To remember that material things is never what a child needs. I mean, a child needs the basics, yes. It's wonderful if a child has enough to eat, a roof over their head. But I think we place too much emphasis on the stuff. Speaker 4 (10:51) Do they have their own room? The newest clothes. The newest clothes. Can I put them in the best schools? Our parents probably didn't have the luxury to think that way, but they became parents anyway. And they gave us what was most important. They gave us, they saw us. They gave us time. They gave us their wisdom. I don't remember anything my parents ever bought me. But I remember all of their words and I remember their love and I remember their attention. But the other thing I will say is that parenting is the hardest and most important job there is. And it's useful for you and your future partner to think about your why. Why do you want to have kids? Because I think your why will guide how you parent. And my why, my mother's why, was that she didn't just want children. She didn't want mini-me's. She didn't want little people that would love her unconditionally. Because you parent very differently when you want something from your child. But if you parent from the position of, I brought a life into this world, and it is my responsibility to make sure that they are independent. thoughtful, kind contributors to this humanity. There's a totally different way that you parent when you're thinking about creating a whole person and not someone there to make you feel better. So I would say you don't need stuff, but you should have a really clear reason for why you want to parent and then implement that every minute of their lives. You don't wait until they're seven or you do that the minute they arrive on this planet. You start thinking about who you want them to be. Speaker 3 (12:51) Yeah. The best thing you can give them isn't clothes and new shoes. It's love and your presence. Speaker 4 (12:56) That's right. We didn't have much of anything. We had we had hardly anything, but we had a lot. So, you know, you don't need to have the perfect job, the perfect house, but you do need to have clarity and maturity, you know, and, you know, and a willingness to set boundaries and with love, you know, and if you've got that, your kids are going to be great. Speaker 3 (13:21) Yeah. Speaker 4 (13:21) Yeah. Thank Speaker 3 (13:22) you. At the end of all of my episodes, I ask the name. So I know your name, but for posterity's sake. For the record, Speaker 4 (13:29) my name is Michelle Obama. Speaker 3 (13:31) Hunter. Speaker 4 (13:33) Pleased to meet you, Hunter. Pleased Speaker 3 (13:34) to Speaker 4 (13:34) meet you. Thank you so much. Speaker 1 (13:36) I'm a big fan of furniture that's just as practical as it is good looking. For example, Kelly and I just went on Wayfair and got ourselves this incredible extendable dining table. Right now, it's in our breakfast nook and it seats four people perfectly. But if we ever need some extra space, we can very easily just pull apart the two ends. and add panels to make it seat up to eight people. We got it in the walnut varnish, but it also comes in natural wood and black. And that's one of the things I appreciate about Wayfair. You can find thousands of options across every style and budget, and then use the filters, customer photos, and reviews to figure out what's actually going to work in your space. They have more than 20 million verified five-star reviews. So when you're making a bigger purchase like a dining table, you can feel a lot more confident about what's showing up at your door. Transform your space with pieces that hold up to real life. Join Wayfair Rewards today and get 5 % back on every purchase. Head to Wayfair.com or shop the Wayfair app for all things home. That's W-A-Y-F-A-I-R.com. Speaker 1 (14:54) Lately, I've been thinking about the moments that change you. Not the big dramatic stuff, the small ones. Like when you catch yourself about to say something reactive and you just don't. It's not something that happens overnight. It's something that you build one moment at a time. That's what growing feels like. And that's why I'm excited to tell you about Grow Therapy. Grow connects you with thousands of licensed therapists across the U.S. With virtual or in-person sessions, nights and weekends, you can search by what matters, your insurance, specialty, identity, availability, book in minutes, and start in as little as two days. That's much faster than the national 48-day average. There are no subscriptions or long-term commitments. You just pay per session. Plus, over 230 million people nationwide can use their insurance on Grow. So chances are you