Enlarge By Jewel Samad, AFP/Getty Images Malia Obama, 10, and Sasha, 7, at the Lincoln Memorial inaugural celebration for their father Sunday. INAUGURAL PARADE INAUGURAL PARADE PLANNING: For director, Inaugural Parade a 'staggering task' ANNOUNCER: The parade's voice for the 14th time HISTORY: Parade grows from modest roots TICKETS: Inaugural Parade tickets sell out in less than a minute Enlarge By Tim Dillon, USA TODAY Bush twins Jenna, left, and Barbara, then college freshmen, stand behind their father during his inauguration in 2001. At right are first Lady Laura Bush, former first lady Barbara Bush, former president Bill Clinton and former vice president Al Gore. WASHINGTON  At 9, Amy Carter warmed hearts as she walked down Pennsylvania Avenue with her parents. At 12, Chelsea Clinton won cheers from revelers at an Inaugural Ball. Presidential children are magnets for attention on Inauguration Days, as Americans get to know a new first family or chart the changes in youngsters from term one to term two. TELL US: What does the inauguration mean to you? New heights of cuteness are likely Tuesday with Barack Obama's two daughters, Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7, in the inaugural spotlight. Will their outfits set trends for the tween set? Will they eat peanut butter sandwiches or fancy food? Will they dance with Daddy at an Inaugural Ball? Will they look back on the experience as fun? For presidential families, inaugurations are joyous occasions usually undisturbed by controversy or criticism. They're also complicated. For kids, the pressure is on to look adorable or (if they're older) at least presentable, behave well and generally advance the image of the picture-perfect first family. Yet so much can go so wrong. Young children operating on minimal sleep can get sick or cranky. Grown children might drink too much or argue over who sleeps in the Lincoln Bedroom. Robert Lincoln, 18, lost a satchel containing the only copy of his father's inaugural address during their journey to the capital in 1861 (it was eventually found in a hotel baggage room). "There's always a lot of stress," says Doug Wead, author of All The Presidents' Children. At the same time, he says, the visiting relatives and friends cramming the White House make it "really fun. It's like a 24/7 Christmas thing. It's ongoing. It never ends." Lynda Johnson Robb was 20 when her father, Lyndon, was inaugurated in 1965. She describes a blur of activities, crowds and logistical hassles getting from place to place. "We were immensely proud and excited, but we were overwhelmed. It was long hours," she says. "It was a very joyous, happy occasion, but a very rushed occasion. You were just panting." Malia and Sasha Obama have sparked intense interest among Americans. Their move to a new school was followed so closely that the Obama team released photos of them getting ready for their first day. Obama has called the issue of choosing a family dog "major" and said it generated "more interest on our website than just about anything." Their own schedule During the inauguration whirl, like many young children before them, the Obama girls will follow an abbreviated schedule. Michelle Obama has tried to make the week "as fun and comfortable" as possible for her daughters, transition spokeswoman Katie McCormick Lelyveld says. That means arranging kid-friendly activities such as the free children's concert Monday night at the Verizon Center, complete with Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers. It also means letting the girls off the hook for ceremonial duties and making time for them to hang out with their cousins and friends. Tonight's Inaugural Balls start around the time the girls usually go to bed. "If they make an appearance, it will be short," Lelyveld says. Chelsea Clinton, in a simple black dress with a sweetheart neckline, her hair piled on her head, attended the MTV Inaugural Ball in 1993. Chants of "Chelsea! Chelsea! Chelsea!" erupted when she joined her parents on the stage. The 12-year-old spent some time at the MTV bash after her parents left for 11 more balls, but not much. By 9 p.m. she was back at the White House for a small gathering of Little Rock friends and children of incoming administration officials, says former chief usher Gary Walters, whose job was to run the White House household staff and operations. Walters says Hillary Rodham Clinton had asked for a party that would help Chelsea and her friends get to know the White House. The result was a "history scavenger hunt." The kids were divided into groups and sent to search for a yellow bird in a painting, an apple in a small kitchen and the like. Then they retired to the State Dining Room, complete with Corinthian columns and Lincoln portrait, for a pizza buffet. Chelsea Clinton declined to be interviewed about her inauguration experiences, as did Amy Carter and the Bush twins, Barbara and Jenna. Walters observed presidential children at close range for decades. He says they often enjoy watching the Inauguration Parade. The reviewing stand in front of the White House is heated and stocked with hot chocolate, Fruit Roll-ups and other snacks. However, the parade didn't prove compelling to the 7-year-old Bush twins when their grandfather, George H.W. Bush, was inaugurated in 1989. Walters says their mother, Laura, brought them inside the White House at about 3 p.m. — right in the middle of the frantic changeover from one first family to another. "The idea is that when a new president moves in after the Inaugural Parade, he moves into his own home. All the clothes are hanging, the boxes are put away. There's an awful lot of activity between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m.," Walters says. About 90 people were moving furniture all over the White House when the Bush twins arrived. "I didn't want them in the middle of that," Walters says. "I sent them with the chief florist down to a floral shop. I asked the florist to help them learn how to put some flowers together." Walters says he counseled the White House staff to be prepared Tuesday in case Malia and Sasha get cold or bored. "On that day and in those circumstances, you have to be pretty creative," he says. "You never know what's coming your way." There was, for instance, the blankie emergency. Jack Carter, 61, was 29 when his father took the oath of office in 1977. He recalls a potential crisis when it turned out his son Jason, then 18 months, had lost his baby blanket somewhere between the Capitol swearing-in ceremony and a post-parade reception at the White House. "I thought this was really going to be rough," he says, but the White House staff "got him another blankie, and he acted like it was his own." Carter says Jason fell asleep on a bench under a portrait of John Kennedy. Crisis averted. Walters says it was no accident that the White House had baby blankets on hand. One of Jimmy Carter's daughters-in-law was due to have a baby in February, and the staff had stocked up on everything that might be needed if she delivered early. Family duties and celebration In earlier times, inaugurations sometimes were shadowed by the deaths of children. Benjamin Pierce, 11, was killed in a train crash a few weeks before his father, Franklin, took the oath in 1853. He was the third of the Pierces' three children to die; his parents were desolate, his mother convinced the deaths were God's punishment for Franklin's political ambitions. Anna Harrison refused to attend her husband William's 1841 inauguration. She had lost three adult sons in the previous three years and was in mourning. Back when women bore so many children they often were sickly in later years, presidential daughters sometimes filled in as inaugural planners and hostesses. Adult sons and daughters also have been sources of emotional support over the years. In 1945, newly sworn in for his fourth term as president, Franklin Roosevelt confided to his eldest son, James, that he was chilled and in pain but would not skip a White House buffet lunch for 1,000 people. "The people elected me their leader, and I can't quit in the middle of a war," he told James, according to Paul Boller's account in Presidential Inaugurations. He then asked his son to fetch a bottle of bourbon he kept in his room, saying that would enable him to get through the event. James poured half a tumbler, which his father "drank as if it were medicine," Boller writes. A few weeks later, FDR died of a cerebral hemorrhage. Wead writes that Inauguration Day 1969 was a chance for one child to help another. Waiting for Richard Nixon to be sworn in, Luci Baines Johnson told Julie Nixon that she and her sister Lynda had become much closer in the past year with their husbands both serving in Vietnam. "Don't let all the attention drive a wedge between you and Tricia," she advised Julie. For most presidential children in their teens and older, inauguration week is a mix of family duties and giddy celebration. Robb recalls campaigning for her father on weekends in 1964 and "doing our part supporting our parents" at the inauguration. Her escort was a White House aide she was dating at the time. She wore "a beautiful white dress with a long coat" for the ceremony and went to all the Inaugural Balls with her date. "You don't get to do a lot of dancing," she says. "We would get to a place. The room would be very, very crowded. You would all go and stand on a platform. Everybody could see you and wave. Then we would get down on the dance floor just cheek to jowl, twirl around a few times, get into a car and rush to another one." The Bush twins were 23 for their father's second inauguration in 2005, and considered fair game by reporters. Late-night comedians, harking back a few years to the pair's widely reported underage drinking, made jokes about lost memories and designated drivers. The Associated Press distributed a photo of Jenna yawning after her father's address. The media also put the twins' wardrobe choices under the microscope, right along with their mother's. Washington Post fashion writer Robin Givhan praised their ball gowns and said Jenna's trousers were "a thunderclap of modernity" at the swearing-in. Wead says inaugurations often are emotional peaks for the children of presidents, before the realities of governing and public opinion set in. "The real suffering for these kids is the treatment of their fathers," he says. Even when they disagree with their fathers' policies, as did children of Franklin Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan, Wead says, the rough and tumble still hurts. "The media give them the inauguration. There's no criticism there," Wead says. "It's the one moment where their daddy is loved by everybody. And it never happens again." Jack Carter remembers an exhilarating walk down Pennsylvania Avenue after his father was sworn in. With Jason on his shoulders, he took in the crowds, the mood and the architecture. "It was very much like going through Rome," he says. He ended the day with visits to several Inaugural Balls. "It was a blast," Jack says. "I had been on the road for a year and a half campaigning for dad, since late spring of 1975. And this is what we wanted. We were there, we knew a lot of the people, it was a big party, and they were celebrating our family." Guidelines: You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. 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