Laura Bush on Michelle Obama's WH Visit

First Lady Laura Bush in Panama City on Nov. 21, 2008. Mrs. Bush is in Panama on her final solo overseas trip as First Lady to visit to attend the announcement of U.S.-Panama Partnership for Breast Cancer Awareness and Research.

(Tito Herrera/AP Photo)

Laura Bush's Advice to Michelle Obama

Mrs. Bush reflected on her own children's lives.

"We really wanted Barbara and Jenna to be able to have a totally normal life, to not take advantage of the so-called podium that they might have, because we wanted them to get to be high school, college-age kids, which they were when we moved there," she said.

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"So it's, you know, it's really a balance as you work through the whole idea of how your family can accommodate the publicity and the klieg lights that are on the president of the United States."

Mrs. Bush said if she was asked for advice, she would urge anyone occupying the White House with children to "err on the side of privacy for children. I think it lets children grow up and make childish mistakes, which, of course, they will out of the limelight. And I think that's really the best."

Watch Cynthia McFadden's interview with first lady Laura Bush Monday on "Nightline" at 11:35 p.m. ET.