In celebration of Mother’s Day, TODAY hosts Savannah Guthrie, Hoda Kotb, Jenna Bush Hager, Dylan Dreyer, and Sheinelle Jones came together to toast the joys and challenges of being working mums. During Friday’s broadcast, viewers got a glimpse of their heartfelt conversation as they reflected on motherhood, balance, and the daily juggle between career and family. But behind the scenes, TODAY.com was granted exclusive access to the unfiltered, candid moments that didn’t make it to air — moments filled with laughter, tears, and the kind of honest connection that only fellow mums can truly understand.
“True story, I called my mom the other day and I said, ‘Thanks, Mom.’ And here’s why,” said Sheinelle, a mom of three.
“When we were younger, there were three of us. So much laundry. And it was always downstairs in different piles. And we would play on them. We’d run and jump in them with no thought of, ‘Maybe I should put them in the wash and not roll around in them.’ And I’d say, ‘Mom, is my red shirt up yet?’
“And now I realize as an adult, no, the shirt didn’t just magically come up the stairs into my drawers. She did that. You know?” Sheinelle said. As the mother of 14-year-old Kayin and 11-year-old twins, Clara and Uche, she said she realizes now that she didn’t fully appreciate all the little things her own mother did for her in childhood.
She has been working diligently to instill a sense of household responsibility in her children. Sometimes those lessons have worked better than others.
For example, Sheinelle has been teaching her kids how to do their own laundry. But when several rolls of toilet tissue fell into the washer and 11-year-old Clara neglected to look inside before throwing her clothes in, she ended up with soggy, tissue-covered clothes. But Sheinelle told Clara to solve her own problem, and she did. (With the help of a TikTok hack, of course.)
“And so I think about all these moms who, maybe somebody’s not saying, ‘Thank you,’ or, ‘Good job,’ or, ‘We see you. We appreciate you,’” Sheinelle said. “But to whoever you are this morning, I’m sure you are doing a great job, and thank you for what you’re doing.”
