First family delights crowd, faces challenges

President Obama’s wife and daughters sport stylish coats that had fashion-watchers talking during the swearing-in at the U.S. Capitol. Life in the White House, however, comes with unique issues for Malia, 14, and Sasha, 11.

WASHINGTON — That’s how it goes with kids. You hardly notice how fast they’re growing up, then suddenly big sis is nearly as tall as Mom and the little one is a tween, gently sassing Dad.

On the inaugural platform again four years later, a more mature Malia Obama, 14, and Sasha, 11, smiled, sometimes giggled, and chatted with their cousin Avery Robinson as they awaited their father’s arrival.

Sasha bounced on her feet a bit as if chilly; later at the parade she danced in her seat to the beat of passing drummers. Malia, rivaling her mother’s 5 feet 11 inches, looked poised in calf-high black boots. They whipped out smart phones in the reviewing stand to take photos.

Both appeared relaxed and oblivious to their global TV audience, unaffected by their rare status, unfazed by the fuss over their father.

Meanwhile, fashion-watchers were tweeting about the girls’ coats in vibrant purple. For the record: Malia wore a J. Crew ensemble, Sasha’s was Kate Spade, and First Lady Michelle Obama was in a Thom Browne coat with a navy print like a man’s silk tie.

Such attention to the Obamas’ clothes, their Hawaiian vacations, their hair — Michelle lit up Twitter last week by adding bangs — will continue as they charge into a time of turbulence for so many U.S. families: the teen years.

In the second term Sasha, who arrived in the White House as a second-grader, moves on to high school. She expressed her preteen spirit Sunday, when her father took his official, private oath of office. After giving Dad a “Good job!” she added a reminder of his flubbed words four years ago. “You didn’t mess up,” Sasha teased the Commander In Chief.

For Malia, the milestones to come are many — she’ll be hitting the years when teens start driving, dating, and applying to colleges. How normally can any of this go at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.?

Life in the White House is bound to feel different to a teen who wants to be her own person than it does to a second-grader.

That’s the struggle for White House youngsters, said author Doug Wead, who has interviewed 19 sons and daughters of former presidents and wrote about them in All the Presidents’ Children.

“When your mom’s the First Lady, and all your classmates are oohing and ahhing over her, it’s hard to compete with that,” he said. “At any given time, half the country hates your father and half the country loves him. It’s hard to establish a separate identity.”

There’s been speculation that Mrs. Obama, who turns 50 next year, may design her own transformation in the second term, when she’ll be freed from worries about her husband’s re-election. Will the first lady who dubbed herself “mom-in-chief” add to her portfolio of family-centered causes? The White House isn’t saying.

Some feminists want to see the Harvard Law School grad take on a more forceful public role. Not all her fans are so sure.

“I like the roles she’s taken on with troops, with health, with children,” said W. Faye Butts, 68, who traveled from Macon, Ga., for the inaugural. No need for more: “She has a family to raise, that’s her first priority.”