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CNN Anchor Campbell Brown Says Moms Just Can't Do it All
Filed under: Work Life, Celeb Parents, Mommy Wars, Breast-Feeding, Books for Parents
Campbell Brown says having it all is impossible. Credit: Getty Images
But Brown, host of her eponymous news show, had a different message: "It's not possible" to do it all, she said. "There is no such thing as balance."
The journalist's realization came during her debate trip. A snowstorm held up the breast milk she shipped and it did not make it home for her newborn son, according to an interview she did with Julie Menin's Give and Take talk show. Brown, a first-time mom, cried over the news. Then, she laughed at herself for thinking everything could be perfect.
The story speaks volumes motherhood's impact on women in the workforce.
In her book "Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation," legendary journalist and mom Cokie Roberts tells the story of the women of American Revolution. In the absence of husbands, fathers, and brothers, these women helped build the great democratic experiment by starting civic groups, running businesses and tending farms, all the while fulfilling their duties as mothers. Engaging in life outside of motherhood was not a recipe for failure. Rather, it was expected and essential to the success of the country.
Campbell Brown, now a mother of two, is an inspiration for women, especially because of her success in a male-dominated industry. But there is an air of failure in her story. Instead of measuring our success by the ounces of breast milk we pump, let's learn a lesson from our founding mothers and see the strength in our efforts. Motherhood is not the time to make yourself crazy by chasing the elusive balance. Nor is it a time to throw up your hands and say you can't do it. Motherhood is the time to recognize that it's never about perfection. Just like we tell our kids, we should pat ourselves on the back for doing the best we can.
Related: Salute to Women in the News.
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ReaderComments (Page 5 of 5)
8-17-2009 @ 2:17PM
freel said...Ms. Brown is way too far to the left for me. CNN is trying to get back to the center politically to regain ratings, but Campbell has not gotten the message.
Maybe there is a future for her on MSNBC.
Reply
8-17-2009 @ 2:08PM
sally said...BALANCE ONLY HAPPENS ON PAPER. All this balance yak yak, doesn't make one seem more thoughtful or wise or intellectual, and it is a coverup for what is really happening, esp when it comes to children. The children are being raised by strangers with no emotional or maternal bond. Check out the Italian study on these emotionally vacant little souls. They found that the kids grew up to be striving, non-empathetic, souless and very sad people.
BUT, don't worry one of your grey haired new mothers will say the study was wrong and she is proving it.............lol. Cover that gray with color and keep on misleading the women of America.
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8-17-2009 @ 2:13PM
Dandee said...In my opinion, Campbell Brown was not a journalist. She was just another voice put on the air to say all those wonderful things about Barack HUSSEIN Obama. Now that mostly all of us are seeing right through that man, she may as well just stay home and do what ALL MOTHERS are supposed to do, LOVE AND CARE FOR THEIR CHILD/CHILDREN!
Reply
8-17-2009 @ 2:21PM
Alakatt said...Ms. Korrs got it more right than most. Brown has built a fairly successful career in the media although she isn't the 'star' I'm sure she thought she would be. She shows undisguised bias in most reports and frankly she's a little hard to take. Motherhood is not for the faint of heart. It's also not for older women who are career oriented. Perhaps she should have taken all that into consideration before she decided to travel, breastfeed and still try to keep her job. She was probably not a bad mom, just an absent one. That never works out well.
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8-17-2009 @ 2:23PM
sally said...Balance.........sigh Let me see if I understand this balance problem. Wait tell you are late 30's, and OMG that clock ticking your chances for a live birth is ticking, so we are supposed to have the type of relations with a husband, the one without the birth control, to get PG.
OK, that done, now spend 9 months yak yaking about how this unborn will be a time grabber, so the Balance yak yak starts. OK, that figured out, baby put on some list at some nursery, and pre-school, there, that done. Now the baby is here, Oh, the joy! Now it is time to dump him/her off at the baby sitter and then that gruesome ride into the city for some really important job.
Is that the way God meant it to be? God gives you a beautiful love that is the ultimate fulfillment and you take His gift and dump him into the arms or crib of a stranger. Mommy where are you? Oh, I am at the office , because I now have my token kid and my career, I am a success.
Save your hate for insight, I don't believe you.
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8-17-2009 @ 2:35PM
Linda said...the best thing I did was quit my job and stay home and take care of my family. Now the kids are nearing graduation and I went back to work. I don't regret taking 15 yrs off. I'd be home still if this job hadn't have fallen into my lap and made it possible to start putting college money away.
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8-18-2009 @ 3:34PM
Beth said...I raised my girls in the 80's and 90's on my own. Worked full time. Tough, expensive, but not impossible to find after school care and summer care. My daughters did well in school, played sports, participated in school activities. Sometimes we ate pretty late, but we still ate as a family. Spent Sundays at my grandmother's having big family meals. Hope they remember it as fondly as I do. Nothing is a perfect balance, but that wouldn't be as much fun anyway.
Reply
8-24-2009 @ 1:47PM
Sharone said...C'mon folks it's so easy to put woman down, but most people 4get about women that have no choice but to do it all, because of absent Father's, I'm sure you are not putting them in this category or are you?? None of us have the right to pass judgement on how a Mother handles her life as a Mother, unless there is some form of abuse, then we have an obligation to step in and if we know about abuse and look the other way then we are in the same category, sorry I kind of went in another direction and off the subject...take care
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