TODAY’s Jenna Bush Hager is making a strong case for hands-off parenting.
“I want free-range kids. You know, wild and feral. I want feral children,” Jenna announced on Tuesday’s show.
Jenna explained that when she and her twin sister, Barbara, were growing up in Texas, their mom and dad let them run around their neighborhood unchaperoned. That taught them independence at a young age.
“They were laissez-faire in that we had freedom, which I appreciate,” Jenna said.
Jenna, who shares children, Mila, 9, Poppy, 6, and Hal, 2, with her husband, Henry, noted that she’s a “very strict mother," so they’ll still have to play by her rules.
Last month, Jenna and TODAY co-anchor Hoda Kotb unpacked “feral girl summer,” the latest trend sweeping TikTok. According to Jenna it speaks to the “wild child that lives inside all of us.”
“This is the summer who doesn’t care, you can go crazy, you can be undone and wild and free,” Hoda said. “It’s the opposite of Hot Girl Summer.”
Hoda added that the concept makes her think of Anne Lamott essay about self love.
“(It) talks about how you spend your life talking about ‘how will I look in this bathing suit?’” Hoda shared. "‘How will I carry myself?’ She says ‘One day don’t you just want to be free and feel the water on your body. To just enjoy, to close your eyes, pop out of the ocean and not worry what somebody thinks looking at you?’”
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