Room to grow! Al Roker had his son, Nick, who has special needs, in mind while setting his 2020 goals.
“I want to be more patient, I think,” the weather anchor, 65, said on the Today show on Thursday, January 2. ”Especially toward the end of the week after I get a little tired, I tend to get a little short with Nick. I’m trying just to be a little more patient with people.”
Hoda Kotb disagreed, gushing about the meteorologist’s relationship with his 17-year-old. “Al and I had the chance to celebrate New Year’s together and one of the things Joel [Schiffman] and I both marvel at when it comes to you and your family is you and your son, Nick,” the Where We Belong author, 55, shared. “I know there are a lot of great father-son relationships out there — there are probably a kazillion people watching right now — [but] watching Nick rest his head on your shoulder may be one of the most beautiful sights that I have ever seen.”
The Oklahoma native, who shares Haley, 2, and Hope, 8 months, with the financier, 61, added, “Joel and I often talk about you and your son because he’s an incredible kid. We’ve watched him grow over the years. He has an issue that he deals with, and you guys have figured [it] out. … When I watch you with him, I always think you have infinite patience.”
While Roker joked that Kotb was just catching him on “good” days, he said he does “want to be a better person” for his teenager. He explained, “As a lot of parents who have kids with special needs [know], they can try your patience. Not that they mean to or anything like that. … The thing I love about him, that I admire about him, is that he just kind of attacks it head-on. He’s very goal-oriented, and he’s a great kid.”
In May, the New York native told Guidelines that Nick was “somewhere on the spectrum and may be obsessive-compulsive.” He added, “Nick blossomed, far more than [my wife] Deborah [Roberts] or I could have ever expected, given his original iffy prognosis. I can’t begin to take credit for who Nick is and who he might become. All sorts of specialists can tell you about limitations for this and that. Nick never got that message.”
