Hoda Kotb shared a parenting revelation that made her cry.
"I learned a life lesson this weekend, ready? This one's a good one," Hoda told Jenna Bush Hager during TODAY With Hoda & Jenna on Feb. 26.
"We were at a birthday party and it was at a real, grown-up gymnastics thing ... It was a big deal," said Hoda, whose two daughters are Haley, 7, and Hope, 4.
"Hope, my youngest, was clawing to get up on the vault and when you stand on the vault, you leap and pitch yourself out into this big vat of those big, squishy bricks," she said. "It's for grownups."
Hoda watched Hope struggle to pull herself onto the vault and wished the employee supervising the activity would help her daughter.
What happened next showed her that Hope didn't need anyone's help.
"Hope grabs on, latches on, pulls herself up on that vault, is standing up — she's scared to be high up — I watch her fling her body into that big whole vat of those squishy things and I started weeping," said Hoda. "I was screaming for her up there."
Later, Hoda told her daughter, "Hope, I saw what you did, that was amazing" and Hope replied, "I just imagined, mom, that down there, there were all the mermaids and I was going to swim with them, so I jumped."
Hoda realized her girls were way more capable than she presumed.
"It struck me in that moment, as I was watching both my girls — I was watching Haley rock climb — I want them to do their thing, but there's a part of me that's always like, ugh."
"Helping," interjected Jenna, who has three children.
"It just reminded me: Kids can do so many things without us," replied Hoda, adding that parents sometimes need to be reminded, "Get out of the way ... I was forced out of the way, that was the only way it worked. And now she felt brave ... and I could have inadvertently taken it away by just trying to be helpful. Stop helping, everybody!"