Hoda Kotb found an epic way to lure her kids off the couch during the winter months.
On Dec. 18, the TODAY co-anchor remembered an afternoon where her daughters Haley, 6, and Hope, 4, were “sitting around and not doing anything.”
“You know that feeling when you’re looking around and everyone’s blobbing?” Hoda asked Jenna Bush Hager.
A laughing Hoda then shared how she scheduled a timer to go off every 15 minutes.
“So I said … ‘Every 15 minutes, we’re going to go outside. We’re gonna run to the end (of the street) tag this pole and come back,” Hoda recalled. She noted that everyone was barefoot and it was cold outside. Don't worry: They weren't in New York City.
“The kids were delighted!" Hoda exclaimed. She added that Haley and Hope would take turns staying back and would cheer the other one on.
Jenna said her husband, Henry Bush Hager, can relate to how Hoda was feeling. The TODAY co-host and Hager are parents of Mila, 10, Poppy, 8, and Hal, 4.
“Sometimes I just hear Henry say to himself, ‘Why don’t our kids ever want to do anything?’” Jenna revealed. That’s when Jenna said she will remind him that their children are “totally overscheduled” and are seizing the “opportunity to lounge around.”
Hoda often shares pearls of parenting wisdom on the show. In October, she recalled the "game-changer" advice she received from an expert on how to handle a child's big feelings.
“If your child says, ‘I’m scared, I’m scared! Something’s under the bed!’ Don’t go, ‘Look honey, there’s nothing, why are you scared, there’s nothing to be scared of,’” Hoda said. “The very first thing you should do … is validate your child’s feelings. ‘That must be scary.’ And then all of a sudden, the shoulders drop and you can have a conversation.”