Jenna Bush Hager says son Hal ‘constantly lets me down’

Jenna Bush Hager has noticed a pattern in 4-year-old son Hal’s book-reading routines.

“You know how he makes fun of me all the time?” Bush Hager, 42, asked cohost Hoda Kotb during the Friday December 22 broadcast of Today with Hoda and Jenna. “You know how my favorite book is about a mother who loves her son? Last night he said, “Daddy is going to read this book.”

Bush Hager – who shares Hal and daughters Mila, 10, and Poppy, 7, with husband Henry Hager – was confused by her son denying her story time.

“He said, ‘No, this is my special book with daddy,’” Bush Hager added as Kotb, 59, burst out laughing. “And guess what, Hal? Two can play that game, little friend. …And then I hear Henry [reading], ‘Mommy says to baby giraffe: I love you so.’ And I’m, like, [annoyed].”

She continued: “But here’s the deal. You know, he’s gaslighting me. Guess? “We’ll see” is my way of getting back at you, little friend.”

Earlier in the Today In this segment, Bush Hager and Kotb discussed how mothers often use the term “we’ll see” when their children ask for a new request.

‘We’ll see’ is an absolute no,” Bush Hager noted. “Let’s just translate it for the children watching with their parents: ‘We will see’ means never, no. “Can we have a cookie?” We’ll see, Hal.”

Bush Hager also added that a mother who answers “maybe” is a more favorable outcome. “When you get a ‘maybe,’ things look better,” she said. “A ‘maybe’ is half and half and a ‘maybe’ is really just a maybe.”

Bush Hager regularly talks about motherhood during Today broadcasts, including a recent admission that Mila, Poppy and Hal often call her “Jenna” instead of “Mom.”

“I take it as a compliment because it’s my name,” she joked during a November episode Today.

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Bush Hager’s cohost Kotb often relates to her confessions about her parenting as a mother of two. (Kotb shares daughters Haley, 6, and Hope, 4, with ex-fiance Joel Schiffman.)

“With Jenna, I learned not to sweat the small stuff,” Kotb shared exclusively We weekly in May 2019 of Bush Hager’s Best Parenting Tips. “She says, ‘Don’t worry, you’re not a bad mother because you forgot or because you didn’t.’ I think she reminds you that we are all a little flawed. Don’t worry, don’t try to get everything right, because you won’t get it right anyway.”