As a mom of three little ones, the wife to a busy NFL legend and a tireless advocate for the autism community, Kylie Kelce doesn't naturally get a lot of time to herself.
And that's exactly why she carves out a few moments of silence in the mornings.
"Sometimes I have Lauren, our babysitter, come a little bit early just so that I can go and get coffee by myself. I don't want to go into the coffee shop and sit. I want to get my coffee and sit in the car in silence," Kelce tells TODAY.com while visiting Studio 1A to spread the word about the Eagles Autism Foundation.
"Sometimes I get all the way to coffee and all the way back without turning on the radio and I don't even notice because it just feels good to be sitting in silence with your thoughts and a really nice cup of caffeine."
Yes, Kylie. Silence is golden. Or maybe in this case, it's kelly green.
Off-season chaos
Kylie's husband, Jason Kelce recently retired after 13 seasons as the center for the Philadelphia Eagles. Until now, her life as a mom has been divided into the football season and the off-season. Now that Jason is no longer playing professional football, he may have fewer practices, but he has more demands on his time.
"Once off-season hits, it's sort of a free-for-all. And right now, even though he's retired, we're still in our rotation of off-season," she explains.
Kylie says she actually has an easier time planning around Jason's highly scheduled days in-season, but in reality, she knows to expect him to be busier during the off-season.
"It's really chaotic, but it ends up being a well-orchestrated chaos," she says, citing help from her parents, who live nearby, as well as her beloved babysitter. "The key is that the kids don't cry when we leave, and so the guilt is less."
Even with support, Kylie and Jason — who have daughters Wyatt, 4, Elliotte 3, and Bennett, 1 — have had a rough winter.
Wyatt began going to school this past September, and Elliotte started school just a few weeks ago. "They're like Petri dishes," she says. "One has a stuffy nose, all three wake up at different times ... so I don't think I've gotten a full night's sleep in a few months."
But each time she is in the middle of a tough parenting season, Kylie reminds herself that she survived previous tough seasons. She tells herself: "I did it last time. I can do it again." She jokes that labor and delivery works in much the same way. "Every time I've gone into the birthing room at the hospital, I'm like, 'Here we go. I did this. I did this and it wasn't that bad."
Finding her mom tribe
"My mom tribe is growing because my friends are in the phase of life where we're all having babies," Kylie shares, adding that they act as essential emotional support for one another.
"Sometimes you need to say the miserable parts out loud. It's not all rainbows and butterflies. It's a beautiful thing, raising children. But it's hard."
She notes that social media often demonstrates unrealistic standards, like immaculate nurseries and perfectly-behaved children. But that's not real life.
"It's OK to sit in the chaos. It's OK to feel those moments when it's hard because I think it makes the sweet parts even sweeter," she says. "Those hard parts are the isolating parts because as moms we feel guilty about it. We feel bad that we even think that there's a negative side to parenthood."
Kylie admits that she regularly wonders, "'Was I even supposed to be a mom? Was today the day I messed it up?'"
"I think that is what like the mom tribe is about, that we’re all in this together," she says. "Because it’s not what social media shows. You really should acknowledge your feelings about how hard it is because it really it makes it that much better."
Uncle Tim
Kylie's lifelong passion for supporting the autistic community began when she was a child.
Growing up, she had a neighbor named Tim who happened to be autistic. "He was my neighbor but we called him my brother," she recalls. These days, Tim still lives next to Kylie’s parents and her kids call him “Uncle Tim.” She says with a smile, “They think Uncle Tim is one of the funniest human beings they’ve ever met.”
Being friends with Tim "was a learning experience I didn't even know I was having. I'm so fortunate to have had him in my life, to have learned about the autism community through him."
Influenced by her interactions with Tim, Kylie became a 1:1 classroom instructional aid after college, working with kids who had autism and Down syndrome, among other things. She channels this passion into helping the Eagles raise awareness — and funds — for innovative research and care programs. She has also auctioned off an Eagles jacket and co-hosts an annual summer fundraiser.
Though Kylie is thrilled to kick off Autism Awareness Month with TODAY, she's also looking forward to changing into sweats and reading a book when she gets home.
"If I'm going to be in the public eye, I want to make sure it's meaningful," she says, "and then I can control the narrative. Whatever gossipy stuff wants to happen, fine. But at the end of the day, my quotes are my quotes, what I say is what I say and how I live is how I live. And so I want to make sure that all of that stands true to who I am. And so doing something like this, highlighting the Eagles Autism Foundation, is an awesome perk."
