Jenna Bush Hager has revealed that she won’t be giving her 10-year-old daughter, Mila, a cell phone “for a long time” because she wants her to “live in this world.”
The Today host, 41, opened up about her stance on Tuesday’s show as she and Hoda Kotb chatted with their guest Matthew McConaughey about parenting in the age of social media.
McConaughey, 53, and his wife, Camila Alves, 41, waited until their son Levi’s 15th birthday before featuring him on Instagram in July.
“I’m so interested in your family and social media, because every kid you see has a phone in their hand and is trying to fight their way through that hornet’s nest,” Kotb, 59, told the actor.
Jenna Bush Hager, 41, revealed on the Today show Tuesday that she won’t be giving her 10-year-old daughter, Mila, a cell phone for a “long time”
“I want her to live in this world,” the mother of three said of her eldest child
“You waited until your child was fifteen. How did that conversation go? Because I imagine he wanted it early on.”
“Oh, he wanted it early — probably when he was 12, definitely 13, definitely 14. And we waited until he was 15,” said McConaughey, who also has a 13-year-old daughter, Vida, and a 10-year-old daughter. -old son, Livingston.
“We tried to look at the downs and downs. We said, “Look, this isn’t like sending your kid to college, it’s like sending your kid out into the world with a bunch of strangers. Some you’ll know, some you won’t; some will be honest, some will don’t; some will give you a thumbs down no matter what you said – they’re just trolling. Does that affect you? It will affect you. It affects me!”
Before his teenage son made his social media debut, the dad gave him some sage advice.
“The most important thing was this: live your life, Levi, and if you do something that you think is worth sharing, share it. Don’t wake up every morning asking, ‘What can I do to get a good share?'” McConaughey said.
The Today stars agreed that “it’s not living” when you’re consumed by social media.
“We talk about this all the time because we’re basically following your lead,” Bush Hager told McConaughey. “I have a ten-year-old. She won’t even get a phone for a while.”
“She knows that,” the mother of three added. “But I also want her to live in this world.”
The Today host opened up about her stance as she and Hoda Kotb chatted with their guest Matthew McConaughey about parenting in the age of social media
McConaughey, 53, and his wife, Camila Alves, 41, waited until their son Levi’s 15th birthday before featuring him on Instagram in July
“Get the identity live first,” McConaughey advised. ‘This is the moment when the children form their identity. If you join social media too early, the world will tell you and strangers will tell you who you are. Do you have to have confidence in yourself? Should you not feel (confident about yourself)? That’s the tail wagging the dog.’
Bush Hager said she also wants her daughter to spend her time pursuing her interests instead of staring at a screen all day.
“I don’t want her just scrolling. I want her to write or read songs,” she explained.
“Attention span is a big thing. They tell you that if they get into it too early, their attention span gets way too short,” McConaughey noted.
Bush Hager also has an eight-year-old daughter, Poppy, and a four-year-old son, Hal, with her husband, Henry Hager.
Earlier this year, the former first daughter opened up about her strict rules on screen time in her household.
‘My children don’t have electronics during the week. Sometimes they can watch a television show, but no, they don’t own any electronics. They don’t understand it,” Bush Hager said. ‘And recently my eldest (Mila) said, “I’m a bit sad, except on weekends!”‘
“If you do something that you think is worth sharing, share it. Don’t wake up every morning asking, “What can I do that will be a good part?” McConaughey said to his son
“I don’t want her to just be scrolling,” Bush Hager said of her daughter. ‘I want her to write or read songs’
Bush Hager and her husband, Henry Hager, are also parents to an eight-year-old daughter, Poppy, and a four-year-old son, Hal
She explained that her daughter Mila had reached the age where she started texting her friends, and she was tasked with monitoring their conversations.
“I get the text on my phone, which is very annoying and strange, but I also like it because it helps me know what’s happening,” she said.
And while Mila can’t wait to have access to electronics on the weekends, her mother noted that it doesn’t actually make her as happy as she thinks.
Bush Hager recalled how Mila recently told her she was feeling “sad” but didn’t know why.
‘It turned out she had the stomach flu, so that was probably the reason. But I said, “Today you have to use electronics. Do you feel like that’s it?” And she said, “Yes, sometimes I feel sad on the days that I have it. It’s not that fun,” she said.
Bush Hager explained that monitoring her children’s use of electronics keeps them from becoming overwhelmed by them.
“I think if you give the limit, you don’t get it five days a week. You only get it two days a week,” she said. ‘And then when you use it, it’s like eating sugar. If you give it up and then eat it, you’ll get a stomach ache.”