FLOTUS on parenting: ‘You have to practice letting go’

Michelle Obama is quick to calm parents concerned about sending their kids off to college: “Look, when they get to be 17, you’ll be like, ‘Bye, Felicia.’”

The first lady dropped the popular phrase — which is from the Ice Cube-starring 1995 movie, “Friday,” — during a Tuesday appearance on the daytime talk show, “The Real.”

“They get to a point where they’re ready,” Obama said amidst laughs during a question and answer session filmed at the White House earlier this month with the hosts of the show along with an audience of college hopefuls.

{mosads}“Look, the best thing my parents did for me was to nurture me, and hold me tight, and then let me go. And then support me in letting me go,” the first lady told a mom in the audience who had asked for her guidance for parents getting ready to ship their children off to school.

“And by that I mean, I talk to parents about this all the time. You let them practice now, and then you have to practice letting go.”

Obama, 52, appeared on “The Real” as part of her Reach Higher and Better Make Room initiatives, aimed at getting young people to continue their educations past high school.

“I loved my kids at every age,” said the mother of Malia, 17, and Sasha, 14, “but watching them become independent, you know, mature, poised adults who are now like my friends…” she continued, drawing “awwws” from the hosts.

“No, let’s not go there,” Obama exclaimed with a slight smile. “We’re not that close.”

“But that has been one of the best things to experience,” Obama said, “and you don’t get that if you’re trying to hold them too tight.”