Former President Barack Obama is preparing to release his new memoir “Promised Land” this week. In anticipation for this, Obama opened up about his “largely absent” father impacted the way he parented his daughters Malia and Sasha, as he vowed to always be there for them.

Obama took to Instagram to post a throwback photo of himself with his wife Michelle and their daughters along with the dedication to his book, which reads, “To Michelle – my love and life’s partner and Malia and Sasha – whose dazzling light makes everything brighter.”

“The fact that my own father was largely absent from my childhood helped shape my ideas about the kind of father I intended to be,” Obama wrote in his caption. “When Malia was born, I made a promise to myself that my kids would know me, that they’d grow up feeling my love keenly and consistently, knowing that I’d always put them first.”

“While serving as President, I made sure to have dinner with Michelle, Sasha, and Malia every evening by 6:30,” he added. “We’d eat some good meals and catch up on our days. That was one of the best parts of living above the store, as I sometimes called it. Seeing them grow up into the intelligent, strong, and compassionate young women they’ve become has been the greatest joy of my life. I’m reminded constantly that there’s no place in the world I’d rather be than with Miche and our girls—and it’s why I’ve dedicated my memoir to them.”

 

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In an excerpt from Obama’s memoir, he talked about the toll his presidency took on his marriage to Michelle.

“Despite Michelle’s success and popularity, I continued to sense an undercurrent of tension in her, subtle but constant, like the faint thrum of a hidden machine,” an excerpt obtained by CNN. “It was as if, confined as we were within the walls of the White House, all her previous sources of frustration became more concentrated, more vivid, whether it was my round the clock absorption with work, or the way politics exposed our family to scrutiny and attacks, or the tendency of even friends and family members to treat her role as secondary in importance.”