From the Newsroom to the Nursery…this Mom’s got it going on!
Throughout a news anchor’s career, they find themselves front and center delivering stories—same as parents. The differences are—one is on camera with breaking news, and the other is on the couch with nursery rhymes.
Julie Oberlander, anchorwoman and mom, has more than one skill that overlaps in these roles. “What you see on TV is what you get,” Julie says. “I don’t think I’m any different in real life.”
Whether she’s in the newsroom or the living room, Julie is managing timelines, communicating with her team, and using her creative thinking skills as she works to solve the challenges set before her.
All her TV training and experience comes in handy for parenthood.
DEVELOPING HER SKILLS OVER TIME
Julie grew up in Deadwood, and after college she joined the KEVN Black Hills Fox news team as a general assignment reporter—following everything from fires to courtroom agendas. Over the past 12 years she developed her broadcasting skills and added news anchor and producer to her roles at the station. Simultaneously over the past three and a half years, Julie has been developing her mom skills, with her two boys, toddler Luke and newborn Jonathon, and her two fur babies, Tucker and Cisco.
INNOVATION AND CREATIVE THINKING
In the newsroom, you often have to think fast and adapt to what’s happening. Parenting is definitely like that. With a toddler and a newborn, life can get crazy, but Julie accepts the challenges and enjoys creative parenting.
Julie and husband Jeremy are teaching Luke about time and options. “I always tell people that I have a 3-year-old attorney living at my house,” laughs Julie.
“One day I told him ‘Ok Luke, you have five more minutes to watch your show and then it’s going to be naptime,’” Julie says smiling. “Thinking he was negotiating, Luke says, ‘How about three minutes and you set the timer.’” Julie said, “I was perfectly fine with that agreement. Setting a timer is an easier way to tell Luke that the time is up, rather than it always being mom telling him.”
Raising children is no different for someone in the public spotlight than it is for anyone else going through the ups and downs of parenthood. “Luke can be stubborn, he has tantrums, and he was really difficult to potty train,” Julie shares.
“Potty training was our biggest challenge last summer. We were at our wits end, and knew if he didn’t get potty trained he wouldn’t be able to go to preschool,” shares Julie. So they got creative.
They found the one thing they could use that Luke would do anything for. For their son, it was all about the Kindle games and the games on Jeremy’s phone. Luke wanted to play those things so badly, he cooperated when it was potty training time and the rest, as they say, was history.
MANAGING TIMELINES
In TV news, you live by timelines, and at home Julie manages timelines, too.
Where the office is timed to a T, life is usually a little less rigid—especially with Julie and Jeremy’s schedules. As a firefighter, Jeremy works a 24 on-48 off schedule while Julie works the weekday, evening news—heading to the office later on in the day. Coordinating childcare is a weekly chore, but she gets it done, and everyone gets to work and preschool on time.
But more than all of the above, there are feelings no one ever prepares for; they just happen when you become a parent.
“My success is secondary to making sure my children have a great life,” Julie said. “I want them to be healthy, happy, and be productive members of society. My faith is very important to me, and I hope I pass that along to them.”
On TV and off, Julie keeps the script rolling with the dreams and aspirations for her family leading the way. n A child’s perspective is the best part of being a parent. It makes you realize what’s important in life.
By Jenna Carda
LUKE’S STORY
“He really wants to live on a farm and drive a tractor— that’s what Luke wants to do with his life. He loves John Deere, and he loves tractors; so, we would be much cooler parents if we lived on a farm.” At the John Deere headquarters museum, Julie and Jeremy were asked if they were a farming family since Luke knows so much about tractors. “I had to say nope, I’m a news anchor and Jeremy’s a firefighter.”
Both Julie and Jeremy have activities that they get to do with Luke, which makes it fun for all of them. Jeremy is a hobby beekeeper. “Luke has a little beekeeping suit that he gets to wear to go look at the bees so he doesn’t get stung.”
Never under estimate how brilliant your child is. “I think kids are a lot smarter than what we give them credit for, even when they’re very young.” Julie Oberlander