Hoda Kotb Hilariously Shares Accidental Bedtime Routine With Her Daughter That Totally Backfired

Hoda Kotb is sharing her latest parenting fail! 

On Monday’s Today with Hoda & Jenna, the co-anchor and Jenna Bush Hager were discussing Katharine McPhee’s recent parenting blunder, which involved putting her and David Foster’s 2-year-old son’s iPad in the oven.

While the snafu wasn’t as serious, Kotb admits that she recently started a nighttime routine with her 4-year-old daughter, Hope, that may be hard to break.

“Hope has this thing where she likes ‘something special’ before she goes to sleep,” Kotb shared. “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.'”

The 59-year-old mommy shared that she only believed that it would be a one-time thing, but her sweet little girl had other plans the next night.

“Can I have something special that I’ve never seen before?” Kotb revealed her daughter asked. 

“By the way, I am constantly rummaging for ‘something special,'” Kotb shared while laughing. “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 rings. And I go, ‘Something special.'”

Hager, who is a mother of three, totally understood her friend and co-host’s pain, as she quipped that Kotb started “something terrible.”

Hager then went on to jokingly pick up a mug, a piece of gum and notepad from their table as suggestions for Hope’s goodnight gifts.

Hager then offered that Kotb trade in physical things for mantras. However, Kotb knows her daughter is not going to fall for that.

“I give her a million mantras. We do all that stuff. It doesn’t work. She wants to have something,” she said.

Kotb, who is also the mother of 7-year-old Haley, shared that it’s only a matter of time before her oldest daughter gets wind of the “something special.”

“I know, because she does say, ‘Why did Hope get something?’ And not just something — ‘something I’ve never seen before,'” she said.

Ultimately, Hager suggested that her pal go into her drawers and start finding random things for her girls to have before bedtime. 

In August, Kotb announced that she is coming out with a book inspired by Hope — who faced a scary medical emergency in March —  titled Hope Is a Rainbow. 

“It was based on my daughter, who, of course, I dreamt of her and hoped for her and her name just fell in. And it just reminds me, and she reminds me that hope’s around every corner. No matter what you go through, no matter what hardship you endure,” Kotb said. 

The book is all about the importance of optimism and having a positive outlook. 

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