Two TV journalists on returning to work while children are still small
In a 1996 interview, Latvian Television staff members Arta Andersone and Ingvilda Strautmane discussed combining work and family. The conversation ran in the SestDiena supplement's "Private Life" section, and the newspaper Diena is now republishing it.
Two Latvian Television employees, Arta Andersone and Ingvilda Strautmane, spoke about returning to work while their children were still small in an interview published on 2 November 1996. It appeared in the "Private Life" section of the SestDiena supplement and was prepared by Anda Klotiņa. The newspaper Diena is now presenting it again as a look back. Both women work at Latvian TV, both have been through a divorce, and both have children and new families.
Balancing work and family
Ingvilda Strautmane said that anyone who imagines combining work and family is easy is mistaken. In her words, the experience nevertheless teaches you to respect another person. She added that life is also hard for people who have nowhere to go after work and lack that other part of life which has to be balanced against a job. For people without a family, or with an unsuccessful one, she suggested that work may be an escape and a way of smothering complexes created by private life.
The demands of journalism
Arta Andersone expressed the view that journalism is one of the professions in which a woman with a family cannot work with a hundred percent commitment. She clarified that she meant journalism that demands regular analytical work. Andersone recalled a period when her family life was going badly. She realised then that she came to work and got so much done because the job served as a cover. She went to work both to rest and to enrich herself, but inside she felt great disharmony.
Strautmane said she had a similar period. While working in radio news, she effectively lived at work from morning to evening, and there were also night broadcasts.
