Jenna Bush Hager is getting real about being a parent and raising children.
During a recent episode of the Today show, Bush Hager recalled a revelation she had a few years ago while celebrating Halloween with her family, which includes husband Henry Hager and their three children, Mila, 11, Poppy, 9, and Hal, 5.
“I had this really crazy realization maybe two years ago. We’d always had Halloween with our family and family friends,” Bush Hager, 43, explained, before her oldest daughter, Mila, hit her with a statement that initially took her by surprise.
“Mila, my daughter was like, ‘I want to go trick-or-treating with other people,’” Bush Hager recalled. “At first, I was like, ‘Wait — what? Like, how dare you.’”
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But after taking a step back, Bush Hager faced a harsh truth, that a parent’s goal is to raise well-rounded, independent and confident children.
“I realized: I’m not going to be in all my kids’ memories … we should make our kids feel confident so they can go and be their own people,” Bush Hager shared.
And many fellow parents agreed in the comments.
“So hard, but so important!” one commenter wrote.
“Beautifully said❤️,” shared another fan.
“Definitely needed to hear this today navigating the pre-teen years!” a fellow mom added.
In 2023, Bush Hager told People that her most important job of all the jobs she holds is being a mom.
“It goes so fast,” she said of making her time spent with her kids count. “I have a 10-year-old. It feels like she was born yesterday,” she said of Mila at the time.
“So I want every moment with them to be precious. And I want them to feel my presence not just to think that ‘Mommy’s home and she’s tired again.’”
And the love for her kids and for creating last memories with her kids while she still can was the inspiration behind her latest children’s book she wrote with her sister, Barbara Bush, titled I Loved You First.
Bush Hager told Hello! that she wants “[love] to be the last thing they hear before they go to bed, but also I want to cheer up and to feel that before I go to sleep.”
She added that she believes their book is a “sort of mediation on parental love” and “how much we love our kids.”
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