If you think you’re busy, try walking in WBTV’s Molly Grantham ‘s shoes for a day. The vivacious late news anchor, self-proclaimed “cork dork” and mom of two is going, going, going from dawn til dusk (and beyond).
“My recurring wish is to have 28 or 29 hours, every other day,” she tells us. “Every day is wildly different. For instance, this past week I traveled to Kentucky, met the greatest athlete of all time (who is a horse), attended a Gaston County senior prom, had my heart broken when listening to a mother talk about her son who died hours before of cancer, researched repeat offenders clogging our Mecklenburg County criminal justice system, wrote them letters in jail and was hanging with former-Carolina-Panthers-current-Baltimore-Ravens superstar Steve Smith, Sr. as he made a dream come true for a local 18-year-old girl. I also heard my 18-month-old say ‘I love you’ for the first time and watched my proud 5-year-old perfect her cartwheel. So, the following day is a random day. The day before and after were quite different. It’s a slice of something … Bottom line is, it’s all nutty.”
Take a look at a day in Molly’s life:
7:01 a.m. … Check my phone for the first time (right after hugging Parker).
First I look at overnight texts, then WBTV emails, then quick Facebook scan to make sure nothing major happened in the 4-6 hours I’d been sleeping. In these first moments I don’t worry about Twitter or Instagram. The whole thing takes no more than two minutes and I’m still laying down in bed. Parker is standing beside me pulling on my arm that’s not holding the phone. She is telling me one of three things in these first morning minutes: 1) about her dreams, 2) to hurry up and get to her little brother’s room so “we” can get him out of his crib or 3) asking if she can start a new LEGO set.
7:04 a.m. … Change my 18-month-old son Hutch’s diaper.
7:06 a.m. … Walk downstairs carrying him. Parker leads. I walk straight to the coffee pot. The timer on machine from the night before has it made and ready. If I forgot, my husband has been up before me and has it made.
7:07 a.m. … Put Hutch down. Pour hot, liquid drug into a 20-oz. Yeti mug.
7:08 a.m. … Hutch has waddled to refrigerator while I poured coffee so Parker and I are now listening to him pound on the door with both fists, babbling gibberish. It translates to “Feed Me, Momma.”
7:15 a.m. … Breakfast time! Coffee for me. Cereal, fruit, microwave pancakes, orange juice and/or milk for kids. Or, whatever we find. This morning Hutch had a banana, blackberries and a piece of cold pizza. He was thrilled.
8 a.m. … Playtime! From 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. is my time with the kids. Sometimes we do cartoons, but often coloring or dance parties or LEGO sets or Fisher Price musical instruments. I have found I don’t mind playing with dolls or doing a make-believe tea party at 7:30 a.m. because I know I CAN’T do it later. I also have my phone with me these entire two hours. I try not to respond and interact with it too much, but I will glance at headlines throughout the morning. I’m not great about totally ignoring it in the first few hours. There are often lots of headlines and/or texts coming in that can dictate the rest of my day. Also, a few mornings of the week I’ll take some time to post an update about one of our #MollysKids on my Facebook page. Sometimes the timing of posting those updates becomes critical and they have to get out, because the child is going into a particular procedure, or it helps the family to have the information put out publicly at a particular time.
9 a.m. … By now, Parker and I have to be dressed so I can take her to pre-school (she has to be there by 9:30). I usually keep Hutch in his pajamas either out of laziness or time. At 18 months I feel like it’s still acceptable to wear what you slept in out in public. As for me, I wear whatever the heck I threw on to try and cart the two of them out the door. The only necessary item I must have with me every morning as we head to school — besides the kids — is my filled Yeti. As for my beauty routine … um … making sure I washed my face from the makeup I had on the night before. If it’s a good day, I’ll find lipgloss or Chapstick in my bag on the way to preschool.
9:25 a.m. … Hutch, the Yeti mug and I leave to take Parker to school. We are always late. I am never once dressed nicely. Jeans, flip-flops or cowgirl boots, pen stuck in my hair as a clip. I love sunglasses and hate during rainstorms when I can’t justify them as an acceptable accessory. Parker’s sweet teachers — they really are the sweetest ladies — have made smiling comments about how “casual” I am during drop-off and how “opposite” that is to what they were seeing the previous night on the news at 11 p.m. I’m okay with this. We laugh together. What you see is kinda what you get with me and I promise you, the day I start thinking I have to dress up and put on make-up to do errands or take the kids somewhere … the day I start worrying more about a “TV image” over real life … is the day I’ll leave my job.
(But I can’t lie. There are some darn adorable mommies dropping off their kids who look picture-perfect as they head to yoga class right after leaving their kids. It can be hard to sometimes not feel like a bit of a failure in the “cute mom” area when watching other parents who seem to have it all together in preschool drop-off lines. I make myself shake off that thought by reminding myself that with our family’s warped schedule, I went to bed way later than them and choosing to shower would take 20 minutes out of the precious morning time with Parker and Hutch.)
10 a.m. … This is “life time.” Errands. Appointments. List checking-off. Hutch is with me. He rolls really well. Sometimes I use the time on the computer if I’m behind in contacting people or need to write something about one of our #MollysKids or a WBTV story. Any given day is different in this two- or three-hour period.
Noon … Our nanny (whom we have come to consider a family member — she’s an amazing grandmother-type woman the kids dearly love) comes. That’s when I’ll usually shower, get ready for work, make Kraft macaroni & cheese or a turkey sandwich at home for lunch, or, on a good day, have a lunch scheduled with friends. There are always lots of phone calls in this time. And texts. And sometimes emails. I don’t know why so many. But I often have a mental list of people I want to chat with or respond to or — many times need to immediately write back if they’re writing with a timely situation that needs to be instantly addressed. Today was a good day because I was able to spend half an hour on the phone with my sister-in-law in D.C. We went over some family vacations and logistics, but also just caught up. I love that.
1:15 p.m. … Parker gets picked up. About once a week a surprise her and pick her up, but most days it’s her nanny. Depending on the day of the week there will also be soccer practice or ballet and tap lessons after school. She’ll then head there.
1:45 p.m. … Head to work. I grab coffee from Dunkin Donuts at Morehead and Freedom on the way to the station (it’s right at the bottom of the hill from WBTV Studios). I try to get to work every day by 2.
3 p.m. … We have a daily editorial meeting to talk about what we’ll start working on for the 11 p.m. show that night, and I need a little time to prepare for that discussion. Afternoons vary everyday. Today, for instance, I had the 3 p.m. meeting then an interview with a defense attorney at 3:30 p.m. at his office uptown. The photographer and I left the 3 p.m. meeting a little early to get to the law office on time.
4:35 p.m. … Get something together to report for the 5 p.m. news. The producers of the shows are awesome and know we’re all pulled in multiple directions. They often get the facts and stories together, especially when it’s a crunch-time day. I love our producers. At some point in there I’m running into our small and unimpressive “make-up” room to do my own hair and make-up.
5:30 p.m. … Every day I anchor the 5:30 p.m. news, and then go live at 6:11 p.m. with a tease to what we have coming up at 11 p.m.. Then I tape promos at 6:35 p.m. that will air on WBTV that night during primetime shows. Those promos are also for the 11 p.m. show. Our 11 p.m. show is the #1 late news show in the market. We take it really seriously.
7 p.m. … Dinner time … maybe. Every night differs. If I’m in a rush after the 6:35 p.m. promos with another interview set up or tape to log, I’ll grab something on Freedom Drive or in the FreeMoreWest neighborhood (Rhino Market, Picante, Showmars, etc.). If I think I can get out by 7 p.m. and will have a full hour, I try to get home to help my husband put the kids down to bed.
8 p.m. … I have to be back in the newsroom. At some point, Paul Cameron and I meet with our 11 p.m. producer. His name is Brian. We go over stories and what has changed since 3 p.m. I usually talk with the three 11 p.m. reporters we have (Coleen Harry, Sarah-Blake Morgan and Alex Giles) about what they’ve found and where things stand. They’re all incredibly talented — I just like to be there for them in case they have any questions or need any assistance.
I also do lots of social media in these hours. Sometimes for my pages, sometimes for WBTV News pages. I have to follow Twitter closely at night. Lots of national and local news comes across there first. Twitter is good for those alerts about something that might have just happened … but Facebook is my favorite. I love it. Really do. I love the people on my page and like to share cool stories there I see happening in our community. A lot comes across my desk and into the WBTV newsroom. Writing about some of those stories — whether they make it “on TV” or not — is a true personal joy. I also showcase and feature our #MollysKids on Facebook, so often at night I’m getting in touch with families who have reached out to me about their child. Sometimes those stories are uplifting, sometimes those stories are indescribably heart-wrenching. All are important.
10 p.m. … Paul and I tape more promos. By 10:15 p.m. we are buckling down into the 11 p.m. scripts and show. If at any given time something then happens between then and 11 p.m., we work with Brian (who’s great) at changing the show to get the most important and most recent stuff on first.
11 p.m. … We’re live. We’re done at 11:35pm. Paul, Brian and I meet to debrief on what was good, bad, smart, something to change for tomorrow, etc. I can’t emphasize enough how every night is different. It depends what has happened during the day, what I have on my personal plate and what the world then throws out there as a headline.
12:30 a.m. … Workday over. Sometimes. Sometimes it’s closer to 2:30 a.m. I can’t drink on working nights, but Saturdays and Sundays are beautiful things. I know it seems weird to work from 2 p.m. until after midnight. But it is what it is, and at this point, I wouldn’t change any part of that time slot. We’ve built life around it in other ways, and it all seems to work. Post-it notes left at home and text messages help immensely. It’s all a balance of give and take.
SIDEBAR: I hate the word “BALANCE.” Nothing in life is actually 50/50. Don’t you think? Some days it’s family 90, work 10. Some days work 90, family 10. “Balance” is one of those things I always hear women say they’re working for, but even if they’re doing everything super well they still feel like one area is lacking in some way.
Weekends are for: Family. Good food. Often times events and charity fundraisers where I’m helping as emcee. And if I’m really lucky during summer, a quick trip to the beach. Toes in the sand re-energizes and makes Monday not feel quite as bad.
