Former White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Being First Mom in Role and Raising Kids While Serving

Breaking Barriers as the First Mom in the Press Secretary Role

People frequently ask about the challenge of balancing two demanding roles: serving as White House Press Secretary while being a mother. Sarah Huckabee Sanders became the first mom to ever serve as White House Press Secretary, a distinction she holds with great pride. During her tenure, she faced the unique challenge of managing both professional responsibilities and parenting preschool-aged children.

Bringing Children Into the Service

Rather than keeping her professional and personal lives completely separate, she made a deliberate choice to involve her children in the experience. She wanted her kids to understand why their family was serving, why they wanted to be part of the administration, and why working for the president mattered. To accomplish this, she tried to take her kids with her as much as possible, hoping they could see firsthand the significance of their family's service and look back with understanding about how important it was for them to be there and be involved.

The Unpredictability of Preschoolers and Press Corps

The results of bringing young children into such a high-stakes environment were mixed. Working with preschool-aged kids, she notes, is inherently unpredictable—much like working with the White House press corps. This parallel proved unexpectedly valuable. The experience of managing her household became excellent practice for managing the pressures of the White House. Both environments required similar skills: getting comfortable saying no repeatedly and patiently answering the same question over and over again. The transition from her house to the White House, she discovered, wasn't as jarring as it might have been precisely because of these shared challenges.