Jenna Bush Hager has been candid about her “laissez-faire” upbringing, saying she’s grateful her parents gave her and her twin sister Barbara the freedom to roam their neighborhood unsupervised.
The Today star, the daughter of former President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush, reflected on her childhood in Texas on Tuesday’s show as she spoke about the challenges of raising children who are independent but who are also themselves follow the rules.
Bush Hager, 40, explained to her co-host Hoda Kotb, 57, that her parents are “strict about a lot of things” but have had a “hands off” approach when it came to her and her sister playing outside.
“They were laissez-faire in that we had freedom, which I appreciate,” she said. “I want to be like that. I want free range children. you know, wild, wild I want wild children.”
Jenna Bush Hager, 40, reflected on her childhood in Texas on Tuesday’s Today Show
Bush Hager recalled how her parents, former President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush, let her and her twin sister Barbara run around the neighborhood unsupervised
Bush Hager shares three children – Mila, nine, Poppy, six, and Hal, two – with her husband, Henry Hager.
“You want kids not to need you all the time,” she explained.
However, she admitted it was difficult to strike a balance between being a “very strict mother” and wanting to have “wild children”.
Bush Hager added that she could also relate to Jay Z and his daughter Blue Ivy after a video of them sitting courtside in game five of the NBA Finals went viral this week.
“They were laissez-faire in that we had freedom, which I appreciate,” she said
Bush Hager noted that her parents were “strict about a lot of things,” but they had a “hands off” approach when it came to playing outside
With the camera on the rapper and his daughter, he pulled her in for a hug and kiss, which she initially tried to shrug off.
Bush Hager recalled having similar experiences with her own father growing up in the public eye.
“We used to go to baseball games all the time, and my dad would kind of get called,” the former first daughter explained, saying she gets “embarrassed” at times.
“He taught me how to score — because I think he wanted me to close it,” she added, pretending to close her lips. “Those nights under the baseball lights were some of the best memories of my life.”
i want to be like this I want free range children. you know, wild, wild I want wild kids,” Bush Hager told her co-host Hoda Kotb
However, she admitted it was difficult to strike a balance between being a “very strict mother” and wanting to have “wild children”.
Bush Hager and Kotb are all about the “feral girl summer” trend, celebrating wild and free.
It’s the opposite of “Hot Girl Summer” coined by Megan Thee Stallion in her 2019 song of the same name.
Today hosts discussed the trend on the show last month, with Bush Hager saying it embraces “the wild child that lives in all of us”.
“This is the summer that doesn’t care, you can go mad, you can go undone and be wild and free,” Kotb explained, saying the concept reminded her of an Anne Lamott essay.
Bush Hager shares three children, Mila, nine, Poppy, six, and Hal, two, with her husband, Henry Hager
“You want kids not to need you all the time,” the mother of three explained
‘[It] talks about how you spend your life talking about how I’ll look in this bathing suit? “How will I carry myself?”
“She says, ‘Don’t you just want to be free one day and feel the water on your body?
Bush Hager added that it reminded her of Mary Oliver’s poem “I Worried.”
“You spend all your time worrying about how you look and then towards the end of your life you realize what a waste that was,” she explained. ‘And you go into the water and you’re free.’