Hoda Kotb Reveals the Bedtime Ritual She Accidentally Started with Daughter Hope, 4: 'It's a Lot of Pressure'

Bedtime at Hoda Kotb's home has gotten a bit tricky.

On Monday's episode of Today with Hoda & Jenna, Kotb told co-host Jenna Bush Hager about a nighttime routine with her youngest daughter, Hope, that began with good intentions but quickly turned into a challenging situation for her.

"Hope has this thing where she likes 'something special' before she goes to sleep," Kotb, 59, explained, according to Today.com. "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.' "

Kotb said Hope, 4, then made the same request the next night, asking, "Can I have something special that I've never seen before?"

Bush Hager, 41, immediately clued into the fact that what seemed like a sweet mother-daughter bonding activity was actually a bit of a parenting nightmare.

"Oh, no. You've started a terrible thing. This is not good!" she replied, before grabbing items off the table for Kotb to give to her daughter, including a piece of gum and a Hoda & Jenna mug.

"By the way, I am constantly rummaging for 'something special,'" Hoda acknowledged with a laugh, as she continued her story. "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!' "

Bush Hager then asked her friend if she wishes she had never started the ritual.

"Yes! Yes! Every night, it's a lot of pressure," Kotb admitted.

The former first daughter — who has three children of her own — sympathized, noting how a cute trend she thinks will happen only once can live on and on in her house.

"They're the smartest kids — and manipulative," she joked of daughters Mila, 10, and Poppy, 8, and son Hal, 4.

After Kotb lamented that she now spends every night "foraging around her apartment" when it's time for Hope to go to bed, Bush Hager suggested switching "something special" to a mantra that she only tells Hope.

However, Bush Hager quickly realized, "She's going to want the things."

"I give her a million mantras," Kotb replied with a sigh. "We do all that stuff. It doesn't work. She wants to have something."

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Bush Hager then pointed out that Kotb's bedtime troubles could potentially double once her older daughter Haley, 6, finds out her sister is getting a new treasure from their mom each night.

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

Bush Hager's final advice for her colleague? Turn anything she can find into "something special."

"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," she declared.

While Hope has her mom stressing over their bedtime routine, the little girl recently supported Kotb at a special event. Last week, the TV star was invited to speak at her high school's 60th celebration.

She told Bush Hager during their show's Oct. 4 episode that she spoke to the audience at her alma mater about "one of the best calls I ever got in my life" when she learned she would be adopting Hope. "The woman on the other end at the adoption agency said, 'She's here.' And I thought, 'She's here,'" Kotb said.

At that moment, her daughter ran up to the stage to cuddle with her mom. "And so when I was at my reunion, I said, 'And she's here.' Little Hope came buzzing up on the stage, not afraid of anything, wearing my old high school cheerleading uniform," she recounted. "It was one of those kind of 'pinch-me' amazing moments."