"You have to have boundaries, you have to have those limits, and your kids won’t like them,” she said.
Savannah Guthrie and her husband, Mike Feldman, are parents to an 8-year-old daughter, Vale, and a 6-year-old son, Charley. The couple believes in tough love and setting boundaries for their kids. “I’ve never subscribed to that old-fashioned notion of ‘Wait until your father gets home’,” the 51-year-old told TODAY.
“You’re not parenting if your kid hasn’t called you mean — that’s how you know you’re doing it right,” she shared. “I don’t like hearing it, but you have to have boundaries, you have to have those limits, and your kids won’t like them. So sometimes you have to let them think that you’re mean,” she explained. The kids always make sure to make their beds every morning which Guthrie believes is important. She tells them that she is "not judging on perfection, I’m judging on effort." They also have to scrape their dinner plates clean and take them to the sink. The third grader and the kindergartner are also taught the importance of manners and need to ask to be excused before they get up from the table. “I feel so happy and blessed,” she said. “They’re great kids. And it’s my job to just help them uncover that and not get in the way.”
Hoda Kotb praised her TODAY co-anchor's parenting telling the outlet in 2022 that Guthrie explained mental illness to her oldest in a kind, empathetic way. “She said to her daughter, ‘Some people get injuries that you can see. They break their arm or stub their toe, and some people have injuries that you can’t see, they’re on the inside’,” Hoda said, adding, “I was like, ‘Oh my God, that is so brilliant. I was trying to write it in the note section on my phone'.”
The news anchor previously opened up about being a mom for the first time in her 40s. In an interview with Hoda Kotb for TODAY in 2018 she revealed that her journey to motherhood wasn't exactly easy. "The older I got, when that kept not happening for me, I was heartbroken for a lot of years," she shared. While she focused on her career for a long time she knew she also wanted to come home to a bigger family. "You work in a job like ours and it's so public, people think, 'Oh, my gosh, that must have been the thing that you focused on your whole life. That must have been your dream. That must have been the only thing you worked for'," she shared. "In the end, all I ever wanted was just to have a family."
And now the anchor couldn't be happier even on the tough days. "Someday, we're going to sit on our couch and be like, 'Remember that? It was so sweet. Even the tantrums were sweet'."
References:
https://www.today.com/parents/savannah-guthrie-mother-s-day-vale-charley-t128609
https://www.today.com/parents/moms/savannah-guthrie-opens-mom-vale-charley-rcna75793
Cover Image Source: Getty Images | Photo by Jennifer Graylock
