Hoda Kotb hilariously revealed her latest self-proclaimed parenting fail on Monday, Oct. 9.
The mother of two told her TODAY with Hoda & Jenna co-host, Jenna Bush Hager, about the new bedtime routine she accidentally started with her younger daughter, Hope.
"Hope has this thing where she likes 'something special' before she goes to sleep," Hoda explained. "She's in bed, I leave, I go to my room. I literally rummage around, I find an old bracelet. I go, 'Here, "something special."'"
Hoda giggled as she said Hope, 4, thanked her, but the next night Hope asked again: "Can I have something special that I've never seen before?"
"Oh, no," Jenna replied. "You've started a terrible thing. This is not good!"
Jenna began grabbing items off of their table for Hoda to bring to Hope, offering up items like a Hoda & Jenna notecard, a piece of gum or a pink Hoda & Jenna mug.
"By the way, I am constantly rummaging for 'something special,'" Hoda said with a laugh. "You know what I did? I took an old little zippy earbud case and shoved coins in it last night — coins and some old plastic ring. And I go, 'Something special!'"
Jenna then asked Hoda if she wishes she never started the trend.
"Yes! Yes! Every night, it's a lot of pressure," Hoda responded.
Jenna added she thinks it's weird how a cute trend she thinks will happen once happens over and over again in her home. "They're the smartest kids — and manipulative," Jenna said with a grin.
"They never forget," Hoda agreed. "And look at me — I'm foraging around my apartment trying to find something."
Jenna then suggested Hoda try to trade in "something special" for a mantra that she only tells Hope.
"She's going to want the things," Jenna realized, shaking her head.
Hoda replied: "I give her a million mantras. We do all that stuff. It doesn't work. She wants to have something."
Jenna said pretty soon Hoda will be having to find two special things every night, once her older daughter, Haley, finds out.
Hoda laughed and said she's already preparing for it.
"I know, because she does say, 'Why did Hope get something?' And not just something — 'something I've never seen before,'" she said.
Jenna quickly offered an idea on where to find more items.
"Just go into any of your drawers and they're bottomless pits, filled with paper clips and hummus and stale chips, and all of that can be special if you make it special," Jenna said with a smile, as Hoda couldn't contain her laughter.
