Captain Carrot had a good question in another thread, and I thought we might get some answers if we gave it its own thread.
Any fans of White House minutiae that might know?
Dunno what the track record is like for former juvenile inhabitants of the White House, but this article contains a list of the rules that the Obama girls are expected to follow in their current home:
If nothing else, I bet they get assigned feeding and walking the new dog. 
Nice rules. However, why doesn’t Malia have to mow the yard and Sasha weed the Rose Garden? There needs to be some outdoor work.
Well, I’m a fan of parenting. I am pretty sure the Chief Executive and her husband decide what the chores are, not the White House Staff.
And I’d be stunned if the Obama urchins don’t get their own list. The two parents seem to have the concept of family and parenting firmly in their grasp.
I’ve often wondered if the White House is basically an mother-in-law apartment type of setup. It seems it would have to be, but how could they possibly accommodate the varied family setups available to any incoming President.
I assume there a whole “this is my home” part of the white house. Does it have it’s own yard? Is it possible to simulate a normal home environment? Or do they just kinda wander down to the kitchen when they want a snack?
Basically, everything I know about the living quarters I learned from West Wing.
It’s hard to make a kid do dishes on a good day, much less after a State dinner. 
ETA: whitehousemuseum.org domain name is for sale. Inquire now.
Evidently, there is plenty of room for the kids.
The Residence does have its own small kitchen separate from the main White House kitchen (it’s on the upper left in the floorplan that Auntbeast linked.
Remember, the bulk of the White House is the West and East Wing offices, and the public portions of the Residence used for official functions and meetings and whatnot. The upper floors of the Residence are the private areas for the family, and comparatively not that big.
I wonder if it qualifies as a home-based business.
I wonder what the Secret Service will think of that. Do they really want two little girls wandering around the grounds late at night?
Sure. But I’m wondering how that works logistically. We’re (CC and I) assuming they have housekeeping, a chief cook and bottlewasher, laundry services, etc. Maybe they do, maybe they don’t. But if they do, how do you look Mrs. Potts in the eye and tell her she’s out of a job because you want your girls to clean their own rooms and load the dishwasher after dinner?
I suppose this isn’t an exclusive “problem” for the First Family. What do wealthy people with domestic help do?
I’ve read a lot about the presidents and life in the White House over the years, and you know, I’ve never read about chores being given to First Kids. Plenty about their zany hijinks (Lincoln’s kids and Theodore Roosevelt’s kids were very high-spirited), but not about chores. Wouldn’t surprise me, though, that some have had them. Most good parents I know do assign chores, and I expect the Obamas will be no different.
I also heard that Ford’s two youngest, Steven and Susan (who were teenagers at the time) used to prank their Secret Service detail all the time.
True. Susan complained about how awkward it was as a teenager to have a USSS agent shadowing her on dates… and later ended up marrying one of them!
Not quite in the spirit of what I understand the OP to be asking, but what I read of the Obama household rules, and seeing pics of the pres-elect and Michele attending parent-teacher meetings the week he was elected, I thought what a wonderful example of parenting they presented. I hpe a good deal of America takes note.
And that leads to another interesting question … how much in the way of pure domestic chores should a child of priviledge do? Assuming that most presidential kids are unlikely to fall out of the demographic where they can afford to hire their own domestic help once they are adults, does it matter if they don’t know how to vacuum a floor or clean a bathroom?
Now, mind you, my pinko commie side is yelling YES, YES! dammit, EVERYONE should know how to maintain their own house (even if they don’t actually do so with any degree of competence - see, for example, me :o). But I’m having a hard time coming up with a logical justification for that feeling…
I’m confused - The first sentence seems to imply that they don’t get presents but Malia’s comment in the second sentence seems to imply that they do.
Seems to me they only get Christmas presents from Santa Claus, and not any with “from mom and dad” written on them.
I think that learning how to do domestic tasks is only one reason why children should do chores. The more important reason is so that they can contribute something of value to the family, instead of being time, money and energy sucking leaches. No matter what your social strata, I think that learning how to be a participatory member of a group instead of a tag-along or a moocher is an important thing. I think some of the greediness and ingratitude we see both in the malls and on television shows about the rich, young and beautiful can be traced back to their not feeling a part of their families so much as a beneficiary of them. No matter how much money you make, knowing that you’re responsible for something getting done that benefits other people, and knowing that from a young age, can contribute to a humbleness that makes people good people, even if it’s not entirely *practically *necessary when one is wealthy.
Plus, you just never know. I mean, *really *know. Something horrible could always happen to the portfolio, or you or your parent could go off the deep edge and sever your relationship and your financial connection. The world has a lot of formerly rich people in it.
Strictly anectodally, I can tell you that a guy I went to college with was from a wealthy family with domestic help, and he had no clue how to do his laundry. He paid girls to do it for him.
Oh, it could be a lot worse than that. Famed particle physicist Murray Gell-Mann never learned how to butter his own toast until he got to college. In a panic at finding it not already buttered, he tried it himself, and discovered that it wasn’t too hard.