Jenna Bush Hager argued that moms should have “low expectations” in order to be “grateful” on Mother’s Day.
The “Today with Hoda & Jenna” co-host – who shares Hal, 3, Poppy Louise, 7, and Margaret “Mila” Laura, 10, with husband Henry Hager – said during Monday’s episode of the talk show that one of her kids wasn’t too enthused about the holiday this year.
“You never know how Mother’s Day is going to go. You have to have low expectations and then you’re just grateful you get to enjoy it,” Bush Hager, 41, remarked to co-host Hoda Kotb.
“The kids cut me some flowers, which I thought was really sweet. Henry got me some Mexican food for dinner, which I love. And then Henry was like, ‘Who wants to say a toast for mommy?’”
Bush Hager noted the day was “really fun,” but admitted that her eldest child, Mila, had no interest in toasting her mom.
“Mila’s like, ‘Meh, Happy Mother’s Day Mommy.’ Nobody really wanted to, which is fine,” Bush Hager recalled.
“Poppy actually said a beautiful prayer. She was like, ‘The moment you were born, changed my life.’ Which is true,” she continued.
She and Kotb both said they “feel grateful [they] get to be mothers,” as they acknowledged the holiday can be difficult for people for a variety of reasons.
“It can be complicated,” Bush Hager said.
“So maybe just find the joy in it.”
As for Kotb, she celebrated Mother’s Day just a few months after her youngest daughter, Hope, was hospitalized.
“Hopey and Haley— you made me what I had always dreamed of becoming— a mother,” the TV personality captioned a series of Instagram snaps on Sunday.
The journalist – who shares daughters Hope, 3, and Haley, 6, with ex Joel Schiffman – also paid tribute to her own mother, Sameha Kotb.
“And to my mom— nothing was even possible without your love xoxo,” she wrote.
Kotb’s youngest mini-me was hospitalized in February following a health scare that prompted her to take a leave of absence for a few weeks from the “Today” show.
Luckily, Hope has since returned home, and is “vibrant and brilliant” after the “really scary” incident.
