Ronda Kaysen: Here's a surprise: Marian Robinson likes living in the White House. The First Grandmom may have been dragged to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue "kicking and screaming," as her son said, but now you can't tear her away.

The 71-year-old mom to the First Mom had never left her South Side Chicago neighborhood and never planned to. But that was before her daughter and son-in-law landed in the White House. Now, four months into her new life, Mrs. Robinson is finding it to her liking. She shuttles the girls to school and playdates, helps with their homework, attends class presentations, and babysits when the Obamas go out.

But she's also become something of a fixture in D.C. She entertains visitors from the windy city. She frequents the Kennedy Center, often sitting in the president's box and chatting with performers. She samples the local eateries and attends White House dinners and concerts hosted by Michelle.

Marian is so busy that Michelle has to coordinate her social calendar with her mom's, and the Obamas have even had to hire a babysitter to watch Sasha and Malia. (She was lured to Washington to watch the First Girls, after all.)

"She has a very full social life, so much so that sometimes we have to plan our schedule around her schedule," Mrs. Obama said at a lunch she hosted recently, the New York Times reports.

This is a far cry from the work it took Michelle to bring her mom to Washington. Michelle was so stressed that her mother wouldn't follow her to the White House that she called on her brother to help sway the retired bank secretary. "My sister said, 'You've got to talk to Mom; she's not moving,'" Michelle's brother, Craig Robinson, said.

Marian told Essence magazine that the secret to her happiness was her daughter. "I really am" happy, she said. "You want to know why? Because my children are good parents. It makes it very easy to be a grandmother when your children are good parents."

Ronda Kaysen is a freelance writer. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, BusinessWeek.com, Architectural Record, Huffington Post, New York Observer and AM New York. She lives in Brooklyn with her family.