Jenna and Barbara Bush tell Chip and Joanna Gaines the ‘best thing’ their parents did for them

Jenna Bush Hager and her twin sister, Barbara Pierce Bush, want to pass on a life lesson from their own parents.

While in Waco, Texas to promote their new children's book, “Love Comes First,” the sisters sat down with Magnolia Network founders Chip and Joanna Gaines, who have endured a year of change with the oldest of their five kids, Drake, 18, going to college and their youngest, Crew, 5, starting kindergarten.

Jenna and Barbara said their parents, former President George W. Bush and former first lady Laura Bush, gave them room to grow when they left home.

“I showed some clips of y’all’s college experience. And I was like, ‘If you’re not like these girls, boy, don’t even come home,’” Chip Gaines said in an interview with his wife that aired Nov. 8 on TODAY.

“I think failure for kids is important,” Jenna said. “We always say that we think the best thing our parents ever gave us was the space to make a mistake.”

“Luckily, we were able to make mistakes,” Barbara said.

“Just stay out of jail. OK?” Joanna Gaines quipped.

“We didn’t spend a night in jail. We never spent the evening in jail,” Jenna joked. “Did you go to jail?”

“Yeah, but didn’t spend the night,” Chip Gaines replied.

The Gaines couple have also been married for 20 years, a union that grows because they continue to get along.

“Together we’re just better. We’re stronger. I think 20 years later we still really like each other,” Joanna Gaines said. “I still laugh at everything he does. I do roll my eyes a lot, ‘cause I sometimes am I like, ‘I can’t believe he said that out loud.’”

The couple recently finished renovating The Hotel 1928 in Waco, a project that will be chronicled in their new Magnolia Network series, “Fixer Upper: The Hotel.” With so much happening personally and professionally, they have finally been able to take a moment to soak it all in.

“It feels like we’ve built and built and built and tried and tried and tried and worked and worked and worked, even in the family sense,” Chip Gaines said.

“For the first time, really, in this entire process, I think Jo and I are, like, looking backwards. It’s just like, man, a lot happened. And you really didn’t get to stop and really smell the roses while it was occurring.”

This article was originally published on TODAY.com