Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist - TODAY Presents: The Parent Chat with Dylan Dreyer – Erin Andrews

Episode Date: April 2, 2026

Hey Sunday Sitdown fans! As a bonus, we’re giving you a special preview clip of our new podcast series, The Parent Chat with Dylan Dreyer. In this episode, Dylan sits down with Erin Andrews for a conversation as raw and real as it gets — from her long journey to motherhood through IVF and surrogacy to the messy, beautiful reality of raising a toddler while working one of the most demanding jobs in sports broadcasting. Erin opens up about mom guilt, the pressure to pretend you have it all together, and why she made a promise to herself to just be honest with people. Because as both women agree — putting that wall up all the time is exhausting. To listen to the full conversation now, just search ‘The Parent Chat with Dylan Dreyer’ wherever you’re listening. Follow now for new episodes every Thursday. https://swap.fm/l/tpwddfdew Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey everyone, it's Dylan Dreyer from the Today Show. Excuse my voice today. Spring allergies are in full swing and I am definitely feeling it. I'm so excited though to let you hear a little bit of my new podcast. It's called The Parent Chat. It's a judgment-free zone where I get to talk with other parents and friends about the wild, wonderful and yes, messy world of parenting. You're about to hear the first few minutes of my conversation with Aaron Andrews on the roller coaster journey to motherhood. I hope you enjoy it. It's so great to talk to you. I feel like also being a mom. in this world of social media where you're working, you're traveling, you're trying to do it all. And somehow you do figure out how to do most of it all, right? But what is the best part to you of being a mom to Mac? Well, it's amazing you said all those things because what I'm trying to work on with myself is not think how much of a failure I am. And I've heard from multiple women, this is going to happen forever.

He just started saying, mommy. it went from mama, mama, mama, to mommy, mommy, and that gets me. Yeah. And I didn't think I would be such a softy, Dylan. But yeah. I'm not a softy either. Oh my gosh. It takes a lot to make me cry.

I'm not an emotional person. But when it comes to my kids, all of a sudden, just these different emotions just hit you. Every single day, everything they do. He's really big into, like he loves when he wakes up in the morning and after we get him already, he loves to run to the TV and he lays there like, oh, slug, as they say in a Christmas story. He lays there and he wants you to like tickle him. And then I do the he and he starts laughing. And he's like, Mommy, mommy. And then I stop and then he points because he's like, do it again. He knows. Yeah. It's a crazy age at two, but it's also really, really fun when people

say they can react and interact with you. I notice I get emotional when I think about, oh, when Calvin was a little baby and I loved when he was that age, but like I love him at this age now. Like you think you're going to miss where they were before, but every day just gets better and better. Yeah, it does. Although a lot of people said to me, when he hits two, you're going to know. And holy cow, I did. Whoa, baby. And it just came like a tornado. I know. It's like a defiance. You know, they're testing those boundaries. They're kind of pushing your limits. Looking at you when they do it. They know exactly what they're doing. And for me, there have been times where Oliver needed to eat a green bean, right? And he, I don't really care that much if you eat this green bean. I don't really love green beans either. But I made the statement, you can't leave the table until you eat that green bean. And now I have to stick to it because otherwise everybody says, if you pull back, they're going to know that they can take advantage of you. I mean, so what kind of... So I'm going to ask you the questions. Welcome to my podcast. What do you do? You said eat the green bean, screaming ensues, and we're in our own home, so it's okay. What do we do?

doing now? What if he is absolutely like, no, mom, I'm not having the green bean. Tell me what to do. It's hard because I, again, don't care that much. He went to his room with the green bean in his mouth, kept his green bean in his mouth for an hour, and then eventually came down crying because he still had the green bean and now it's just disgusting at this point, but I'm holding my ground. Like, I am not letting this go. He did eventually eat the green bean, but it was, I don't think it was worth it because I don't know what lesson he learned from it, except that I'm evil. Half the time I don't really know if I'm doing the right thing in all these situations. That makes me feel better because that's where I am right now.

It's really trying with my husband, myself. We have help because I wouldn't be able to have, you know, a job, multiple jobs without that. And I have found trying to let's all three figure out, well, four, how we want to do this. How do we handle him? and then, you know, I kind of came into a situation where I went away for three days to work and I came back and we changed some things. So then I got frustrated. I'm like, wait a second. We're changing. These are the rules. Yeah. And I've noticed, is this therapy? Am I going to lay on this couch? I can be if you want it to be. I need help too. I've noticed that my feelings about it is more like,

it's about myself. Am I handling this right? I know he's supposed to be acting like this because he's too. I just want to handle it the right way. And now you're telling me there's no right way. So what are we doing here? I don't know if there's a right way. And I find half the time, especially as things happen later in the day, like the whole brushing your teeth before bed. That happens very late in the day when I've been up since 4 o'clock in the morning. And now I'm losing my patience. So I'm trying to balance all the load that I have every day from working all day, I feel this. I'm planning the meals, doing everything else around the house, and trying to be a calm mom in the evening.

So I'm not snapping and I'm not yelling. But it's a tough balance. How do you do it? What are you thinking to yourself when you feel like you're about to snap? I try to take a breath. I try to just like, they'll see me take a breath where I'm like, guys, just make this easier for me. Help me out here. Like the problem is all three of them are like, they're wild together.

So then if one does something and then Calvin's the one who. typically follows the rules, but he'll egg everyone else on to make them do the bad things that he doesn't want to do. And I mean, sometimes I just have to yell. Sometimes I have to say, like, I'm not going to yell right now because nobody wants to hear that, but like, let's go. Like you just, there has to be some rules. I feel like there has to be some strictness so that they know who's in charge. Otherwise, I mean, little do they know they could walk all over me and I will let them do whatever they want. But at some point, you have to take charge and be the one in control. I feel like an absolute moron even complaining to you because you have three and I have one.

It's all, it's all the same. It's, that's what everyone tells me when I say that to them. And then I found myself the other day complaining to one of my good girlfriends and she's like, yeah, my kids leaving home next month. And I was like, then you have no control over your kids. You know, that's a lot to deal with. But I think the part I'm navigating and you're a wonderful resource person to talk to is just, look, I do believe that, listen, we should be able to have our job. jobs, be able to hold it down, be moms, be, you know, whatever we need to be in our home. But it's really, really hard. Yeah.

Really hard. Mm-hmm. And thank God everybody else. I know. I think it's just hard for everybody. Yeah. I read an article where you were quoted in it. We're saying, you know, it's almost embarrassing sometimes to admit that you have a nanny.

Yeah. My nanny. My baby nurse taught me that. I mean, and it's wild because my oldest, we've had our nanny since he was three months old. Sure. Because I do work full-time. Like, you need, my parents don't live close. My mom's in Florida.

My brother's in Oregon. My other brothers in Florida. My in-laws are up in Boston. It's like, it used to be where you lived in a community. You lived in a neighborhood where your family was close by and you had people that could watch your kids for you. Trust me, I would love to not have to pay somebody to help me watch my kids. But at the same time, I couldn't have the career I have.

And I love my job. I've been doing it like half my life. I've been doing this job, you know? And you should. You should be able to. And I want my kids to see me working hard and making the sacrifices, yet cooking dinner or doing what I can at home. But I do think there's nothing wrong with having a village to help you get it done.

Yeah. My baby nurse, shout out to Nanny Connie, love her so much. We had Mack after trying so hard. And then right away, it was football season. It was time to go. And I was obviously being asked about having a baby and how do you do it and keep it all together. I'm like, I'm not. Yeah.

And Nanny Connie had said to me, it's okay to admit you have help because it's worse to paint this picture for people like, I'm doing it all. I can't do it all. There's no way. And nobody should think you are doing it all because then it's unrealistic expectations for the mom who's sitting there struggling because we're all struggling. Thanks for listening. You can listen to the full interview with Erin and other episodes on my show, The Parent Chat with Dylan Dreyer. New episodes are available every Thursday, wherever you get your podcasts.