Hoda Kotb recently faced a parenting dilemma when her 6-year-old daughter, Haley, expressed her desire to wear a crop top. On Monday's episode, the 58-year-old TV personality shared the candid moment with her co-host Jenna Bush Hager.
Recounting the incident, Hoda revealed, "Haley wants to wear a midriff. She asked me about a midriff...
“She was walking down the street and she goes, 'Hi mom,' and she pulled [her shirt] up halfway. I go, 'What are you doing?' She's like, 'Nothing,' and she's giggling out of her mind."
While Hoda acknowledges the importance of instilling confidence in one's own skin, the request for a crop top felt unfamiliar. "I said no. No, we're not doing that," she shared, breaking from her usual parenting philosophy.
Hoda further explained: "I often wrestle with making your kid in charge or in control and then saying no... sometimes it has got to be no."
As a mother of two, including 3-year-old Hope, Hoda has embraced the joys and challenges of parenthood. Earlier this month, she opened up about her journey to adoption during an interview on the Just B with Bethenny Frankel podcast.
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Reflecting on her initial hesitation to voice her desire for children, Hoda said: "I remember never saying out loud that I wanted kids, never, because it was too late... For girls that it's too late for, you don't say it because if you say it, you're expressing something that you're never going to get."
However, Hoda's life took a remarkable turn when she reached out to an adoption agency. The moment that forever changed her life arrived when she received a phone call.
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"I took a yellow pad out, and I wrote, '11:55. This is the moment everything changes.' I knew it," Hoda shared, recounting the pivotal conversation with Ashley, the woman at the adoption agency. "And I took a deep breath and dialed the number, and I said, 'Ashley?' and she said two words to me. She said, 'She's here.'"
Expressing the profound impact of that moment, Hoda likened it to the miracle of childbirth. "I don't know what birth feels like, and I bet it was amazing, but this was really close... I remember that feeling like it was yesterday."
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