I’m a CBS Morning Anchor and a Tween Mom—This Is What My Week Looks Like

Anne-Marie Green wakes up at 2 a.m. every morning to commute to the CBS studios in New York City.

At this point in her life and career, CBS anchor Anne-Marie Green is both reflective and making her own rules. She’s thoughtful about her career goals, the impact her voice can have as a public figure, her parenting style, and more.

Green, 52, is not only a veteran broadcast journalist who anchors multiple hours on CBS News live and on streaming, but she’s also a wife and mother to a 12-year-old daughter. Juggling three full-time roles is made more complicated by the fact that Green wakes up at midnight to commute from Philadelphia to New York City to be on air at 4 a.m. and she’s asleep by 7 p.m. each night.

Right now, Green is spending a lot of time reflecting and setting her own standards.

“When ‘Lean In’ came out, I remember thinking, How much more can I lean in? I'm exhausted, right? So I just came to a point where I was like, are you gonna spend the rest of your life worrying about what you haven't achieved, worrying about the 10 pounds that you didn't lose?” she says. “This whole life is gonna go by and you're gonna have your joy always tinged with a little disappointment. You just gotta release. I'm not 100% successful at that. And I second guess myself all the time. But I have tried to remind myself that you have to tune into your inner voice.”  

Here's what a week in her hectic, happy life looks like.

Monday

What I have come to accept is that a consistent work-life balance is not a thing. To me, it’s more like standing in the middle of a see-saw. Sometimes one side is higher than the other, sometimes you’re perfectly balanced. You may look like a hot mess with your legs up and down and all over the place but as long as you don’t fall off, you’re winning.

2 a.m.

I’m doing my makeup. My biggest challenge is covering my hyperpigmentation which is called eczema. Though most women get it when they’re pregnant, I somehow got it before, and I’ve been battling it ever since.

4 a.m.

Monday morning show at 4 a.m. It’s followed by a 7 a.m. show and then another show on the stream that goes from 9 a.m. to noon.

I have a couple of hours between the 4 a.m. and 7 a.m. shows and I usually cut out a little bit of time to meditate and breathe deeply. Box breathing is my new jam. It drops your heart rate quickly and just gives me a chance to reset before the rest of the day.

Then it’s research, research, research. There are usually as many as 10 guests each day so I try to be well-read on every topic.

I try to run home from the train station every day to get a little cardio in. With such a tight schedule I gotta get it in where I can fit it in.

3:30 p.m.

At 3:30 p.m. I'm speaking via Zoom to my mentee. He’s hoping to develop a podcast.

I think as my career has gone on, I feel more of an obligation to speak more openly about issues of race, and issues concerning women than I have before. I have an obligation to speak because when I speak, maybe I will empower someone else to speak. It's a chain reaction and that's how you change things. It's hard to think of myself as a role model because I'm still trying to figure it all out…but I do feel that I can send out a ripple that can touch someone that will hopefully inspire them to send out their own ripples.

5 p.m.

Tonight we're having family time. It's an ice cream treat for our straight ‘A’ student. I’m incredibly proud of my daughter. Things always come easy for her but she works really hard.

Tuesday

Michael George updates us on the situation in the Middle East at 4 a.m.

I do 30 minutes of indoor working out every day, usually using the Tempo system. I absolutely hate going to the gym and I’m too exhausted once I come home to go back out again, so this has worked out perfectly for me. 

This is new for me. For most of my life, I’ve felt like my body is always fighting against me and that no matter how many hours I spent on the treadmill I just couldn’t keep weight off. The scale was always my “north star.” But I think the pandemic shifted my focus. Right before the lockdown, I was so sick, I passed out—on two occasions! Very embarrassing and scary. I did a bunch of tests and it turned out I was just plain old sick and needed to rest.

When doctors say, “Drink more water,” that is not just a suggestion. I think dehydration played a big role in it all. Guzzling coffee and Diet Coke. Now my North Star is health and science-based practices. I’m obsessed with my gut biome. I feel responsible for the health and welfare of those critters living off me. I’m all about the probiotic life!

Wednesday

Meeting with my executive producer as we prepare for the 9 a.m. show. He’s basically telling me why certain guests were booked and what he hopes the focus of the conversation will be.

5:30 p.m.

Everyone in our house eats differently. The option of making one meal and eating together is not realistic. I usually say we are foragers. I grew up in the era of having to eat everything on your plate. As a child, I came up with all manner of creative places to hide food so it would look like I had cleared my plate. I’m just not doing that.

When we are hungry, we eat. I want my daughter to be proactive about the food she consumes. We make sure the choices at home are healthy and check in to make sure she’s eating. I talk about why I’m making the choices I am and encourage her to try new things. That’s it. No force-feeding.

I decided, for me, there are some things I'm not going to fight with a child about if she is not sick and she is succeeding in the most important sort of aspects of her character and who she is, and she's good in school, then I'm not gonna fight about (finishing) that last piece of chicken. I’m not going to spend the time that I do have in a wrestling match with a child when I can spend that time talking about a new book that she read, and what she thinks about those characters…I want to have better conversations with her.

It’s a treat to work with Meg Oliver and Elaine Quijano. Both of these women have children and we share a lot about that elusive work-life balance. Meg stepped away from TV to raise her children and jumped back in a few years ago. With a job like this, you are always trying to find that sweet spot where you are fulfilled at work without giving so much you have nothing left for your family. It can be hard. The job can be all-consuming. Even when you are not at work you are reading and researching.

Most people don’t do journalism—they are journalists.

7 p.m.

Quick shoot at International Wings for a segment.

Thursday

2 p.m.

Never enough sleep. I usually pass out on the train home.

Friday

3:30 p.m.

Today I was just too tired to lift weights after I got home so instead it’s Supernatural on Oculus. Still a pretty good workout. I try to do 30 minutes of exercise outside and 30 minutes inside every day.

4:30 p.m.

During the week I usually get a couple hours to spend with my husband. Even for just watching TV. He can sometimes make his own schedule and goes out of his way to make sure that he spends time with me before I go to bed, which is usually around 6:30 p.m.

10 p.m.

A night out with my girls for a little getaway and a fun burlesque show! I never really had a “girl crew.” As an only child, I often drift towards solo endeavors to find peace. It’s not good. These women have taught me to value the safe space a good group of women can create. We are all moms and initially connected when our kids were all young and we couldn’t go anywhere.

A number of us don’t have family close (my family is in Canada) so we’ve developed into a little “framily”— friends who are family. Not only can I lean on them for last-minute childcare, but we also support each other when it comes to challenges like being a wife and a mother and still carving out a space for ourselves. It’s a low-pressure bunch of people who just want each other to win. Also important: All the husbands get along.

Saturday

Family time at a bowling alley in South Philly. Like most parents of a tween, we are always trying to figure out how to get her off her devices. We are not super strict about her iPad time. I think electronic devices can be a great tool for learning, but it puts pressure on us as parents to find alternatives that are more alluring. Today it is bowling. We still had to endure some minor groaning and resistance, but she had fun. I’m not terrible, but I’m not great either. I told my daughter I let her win!

Sunday

Sunday is hair day. We have come a long way. I don’t know how to do hair. I can do my own, but that’s it. For years, it was a terrible experience for both of us. She has a sensitive scalp and more often than I care to admit, these sessions would end in both of us teary-eyed and yelling. ( I literally would pour a glass of wine when it was all over.)

Then my husband did something I will love him forever for: He hired someone else to come to our home and do my daughter’s hair. I admit I was hurt. It felt like a failure.

I'd imagined a special experience that only the two of us would share, like mothers and aunts and grandmothers doing hair in the kitchen. I imagined an opportunity to give her really important messaging about the way she looks, and the texture of her hair to counter other messaging that she may get outside. These sessions were supposed to allow mother and daughter to bond. Instead, I had let it turn into an anxiety-filled core memory.

But then… I watched my daughter in the hands of an actual professional. She was calm, her hair looked better and we were not fighting. Ah-ha moment!

I’m good at a bunch of stuff but I suck at stuff, too, and that’s alright. I’m alright. I also suck at keeping the house clean. My husband found someone to help in that area as well. God bless that man!

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