Parenting in Digital
Newsrooms
Tips, Tricks, and Hacks to make work and life
the best they can be
#ONA19Parents

Psst. Over here. This is important.
To promote the most honest conversation,
this session is *OFF THE RECORD*
Feel free to social big thoughts and good
moments with #ona19parents but please, no
identifiers

Get fresh
Eat
Drink
Be merry
But keep all food and drink in this room

Block 1: Work
Parental Leave
Returning from Leave
Advice for parents who manage parents
Managing work travel
Advice for being managed as a parent

Parental Leave Policies
What is your company’s policy?
● What would you change, if anything?
What were some of the challenges you had
negotiating leave/using your leave?
● How did you overcome those challenges?

Re-Entry
● How did you prepare to go back to work?
● What were those first few days like?
● How did you manage your workload?
● Did you change your schedule?
● Did you change responsibilities?
● What helped you return to work? What made
it harder?

Parents managing parents
● How do you help the parents on your team
thrive?
● What are some of the challenges you face in
managing parents?
● How do you, as a parent, use your experiences
to guide the parents on your team?

Work travel
● Do you take the family with you? Leave them
at home?
● How do you communicate while on the road?
● How do you negotiate work travel at your
workplace?
● What are some of the challenges you face as
a traveling parent in digital news?

Being managed as a parent
● Is your manager a parent? Does that change
how you talk to him/her?
● What are some of the challenges you wish
your supervisors understood about your
family situation?

Block 2: Life
Self care: Managing yourself as a manager with kids
Talking Trauma: How to cope with tragedy
Single parents: when it’s all up to you
Self care: Finding your work/life chemistry

Self Care: managing yourself as a
manager with kids
● What are some of the ways you carve out time
for self care?
● What does self care look like to you?
● How do you encourage your team to care for
themselves?
● Do you practice what you preach?

Talking Trauma: How to cope with
tragedy
● Describe a traumatic event in your newsroom.
How did your managers respond?
● What would you change, if anything?
● What language do you use with kids to talk
about difficult things in news?
● How do you manage your mental health in a
tough news cycle?

Single Parents: When it’s all up to
you
● What are some of the things you wish your
co-workers and bosses understood about
your situation?
● How do you organize and manage your work
and home lives?

Finding your work/life chemistry
● How do you define your job?
● What are some of the challenges you face in
finding the right chemistry?
● What could your managers/employers do to
help you find that chemistry?

Block 3: Stages
Prospective parents
Infants and Toddlers
Elementary School
Middle/High School

Prospective Parents
● What are some of the things you worry about
in terms of work and responsibilities?
● Do you know your company’s leave policy?
● Do you have parent-mentors in your
newsroom?

Infants and Toddlers
● How do you manage child care? Who does
that work in your house?
● Does your kid understand what you do for a
living? How do you explain it?
● Has having a little kid changed the way you
work or your work schedule?

Elementary School
● How do you talk to your kids about what you
do for a living?
● What news do you let your kids watch/read?
● How do you manage summers with your work
schedule?

Middle School/High School
● What are some of the challenges you face
with your child?
● How are you preparing for college or
post-high school life for your kid and for
*you*
● How do you talk to your kids about social
media, especially if you use it for work?

Continue the conversation
● Join us on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/344180556487717/
● Network: find a mentor here!!!
● Stay tuned for a blog post
It takes a village. Let’s support each other.

Thank you!
Be sure to visit the many ONA19 exhibitors in the third floor Exhibit Hall.
Stephanie Backus Megha Satyanarayana
Continue the conversation at #ona19parents