Campbell Brown
"It can be tough when you've got two under two."
by Amy Reiter
July 2, 2009
Campbell Brown greets me over the phone so warmly, she could be mistaken for my best friend. "Hey!" she exclaims, with a light Southern lilt. It's that friendly approachability, along with a passion for getting to the heart of the news and some seriously killer cheekbones, that has propelled Brown from the field, where she's reported on the Iraq War, the Bush White House and Hurricane Katrina, into the anchor chair on her own eponymous news hour. (Campbell Brown airs weekdays at 8 p.m. on CNN.)
After taking a couple of months off following the birth of her second son, Asher, in April, Brown returned to the show in June with a renewed commitment to delivering more news and analysis, fewer soundbites, less shouting, and the sort of balanced take you'd expect from a program that was, until recently, subtitled, "No Bias, No Bull." "We pack in as much actual news as we can, rather than just giving one perspective," she says.
So how does she manage to tackle world issues on a daily primetime news show and raise two very young children (her older son, Eli, is just eighteen months old)? In the midst of a hectic workday, Babble caught up with the Louisiana native, who lives in New York City with her husband, Republican consultant Dan Senor, to discuss the challenges and rewards of having two under two, her mixed response to missed bedtimes, and why waking up with her baby at four a.m. is "heaven." — Amy Reiter
Welcome back from maternity leave. Was it hard to come back?
With two, everything's a little more challenging. My girlfriend just had a baby and was complaining of exhaustion with one child, and I was like, "Try two! You don't even know what it means."
So it's been a big change, going from one to two?
"God bless technology for allowing me to be online and still be with the kids."
Absolutely. You go from a zone defense to man-on-man. There's never a moment when you can say, "Okay, we can relax." Two weekends ago, my sons were both napping at the same time, which almost never happens. And my husband and I looked at each other like, "Ah! We've got twenty minutes to ourselves!"
And you probably spent it unloading the dishwasher.
That's the problem. When you get those moments, you never just sit down and relax and appreciate them.
Have you restructured your work schedule to accommodate the new demands at home?
I have a really supportive work environment. My morning conference call is from home. And God bless technology for allowing me to be online and checking in at home and still be with the kids. When I come in, late morning, I'm gone for the rest of the day — I don't get to put them to bed at night — so I try to take a little extra time to be with them in the morning. Then my husband gets his time with them in the evening, putting my older son down to bed, giving him a bottle. The mornings are my time, having breakfast and playing and watching Sesame Street; you savor those moments. You really try to carve those out and protect them. And when the baby goes down for his nap, that's when I get on the phone or the computer and scramble.
Are you on call, too?
In the news business, you're always on call, because events are so unpredictable.
©2009 Amy Reiter and Babble
About the Author
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Amy Reiter has written for Glamour, Marie Claire, The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, Time Out New York Kids and Wine Spectator, among other publications, as well as the anthology "Maybe
Baby." A former editor at Salon, she lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two children. |
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