diff --git a/R/parallel-taskq.R b/R/parallel-taskq.R
index 369b757b0..c718b0bb6 100644
--- a/R/parallel-taskq.R
+++ b/R/parallel-taskq.R
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@
 PROCESS_DONE <- 200L
 PROCESS_STARTED <- 201L
 PROCESS_MSG <- 301L
+PROCESS_OUTPUT <- 302L
 PROCESS_EXITED <- 500L
 PROCESS_CRASHED <- 501L
 PROCESS_CLOSED <- 502L
@@ -50,7 +51,9 @@ task_q <- R6::R6Class(
         state = "waiting",
         fun = I(list(fun)),
         args = I(list(args)),
-        worker = I(list(NULL))
+        worker = I(list(NULL)),
+        path = args[[1]],
+        startup = I(list(NULL))
       )
       private$schedule()
       invisible(id)
@@ -62,15 +65,49 @@ task_q <- R6::R6Class(
         if (x == Inf) -1 else as.integer(as.double(x, "secs") * 1000)
       }
       repeat {
+        pr <- vector(mode = "list", nrow(private$tasks))
         topoll <- which(private$tasks$state == "running")
-        conns <- lapply(
+        pr[topoll] <- processx::poll(
           private$tasks$worker[topoll],
-          function(x) x$get_poll_connection()
+          as_ms(timeout)
         )
-        pr <- processx::poll(conns, as_ms(timeout))
-        ready <- topoll[pr == "ready"]
-        results <- lapply(ready, function(i) {
-          msg <- private$tasks$worker[[i]]$read()
+        results <- lapply(seq_along(pr), function(i) {
+          # nothing from this worker?
+          if (is.null(pr[[i]]) || all(pr[[i]] != "ready")) {
+            return()
+          }
+
+          # there is a testthat message?
+          worker <- private$tasks$worker[[i]]
+          msg <- if (pr[[i]][["process"]] == "ready") {
+            worker$read()
+          }
+
+          # there is an output message?
+          has_output <- pr[[i]][["output"]] == "ready" ||
+            pr[[i]][["error"]] == "ready"
+          outmsg <- NULL
+          if (has_output) {
+            lns <- c(worker$read_output_lines(), worker$read_error_lines())
+            inc <- paste0(worker$read_output(), worker$read_error())
+            if (nchar(inc)) {
+              lns <- c(lns, strsplit(inc, "\n", fixed = TRUE)[[1]])
+            }
+            # startup message?
+            if (is.na(private$tasks$path[i])) {
+              private$tasks$startup[[i]] <- c(private$tasks$startup[[i]], lns)
+            } else {
+              outmsg <- structure(
+                list(
+                  code = PROCESS_OUTPUT,
+                  message = lns,
+                  path = private$tasks$path[i]
+                ),
+                class = "testthat_message"
+              )
+            }
+          }
+
           ## TODO: why can this be NULL?
           if (is.null(msg) || msg$code == PROCESS_MSG) {
             private$tasks$state[[i]] <- "running"
@@ -97,9 +134,10 @@ task_q <- R6::R6Class(
               class = c("testthat_process_error", "testthat_error")
             )
           }
-          msg
+          compact(list(msg, outmsg))
         })
-        results <- results[!map_lgl(results, is.null)]
+        # single list for all workers
+        results <- compact(unlist(results, recursive = FALSE))
 
         private$schedule()
         if (is.finite(timeout)) {
@@ -129,9 +167,11 @@ task_q <- R6::R6Class(
         state = "running",
         fun = nl,
         args = nl,
-        worker = nl
+        worker = nl,
+        path = NA_character_,
+        startup = nl
       )
-      rsopts <- callr::r_session_options(...)
+      rsopts <- callr::r_session_options(stdout = "|", stderr = "|", ...)
       for (i in seq_len(concurrency)) {
         rs <- callr::r_session$new(rsopts, wait = FALSE)
         private$tasks$worker[[i]] <- rs
@@ -173,7 +213,10 @@ task_q <- R6::R6Class(
       file <- private$tasks$args[[task_no]][[1]]
       if (is.null(fun)) {
         msg$error$stdout <- msg$stdout
-        msg$error$stderr <- msg$stderr
+        msg$error$stderr <- paste(
+          c(private$tasks$startup[[task_no]], msg$stderr),
+          collapse = "\n"
+        )
         abort(
           paste0(
             "testthat subprocess failed to start, stderr:\n",
diff --git a/R/parallel.R b/R/parallel.R
index 57221100f..0445e50a9 100644
--- a/R/parallel.R
+++ b/R/parallel.R
@@ -143,6 +143,12 @@ parallel_event_loop_smooth <- function(queue, reporters, test_dir) {
 
     updated <- FALSE
     for (x in msgs) {
+      if (x$code == PROCESS_OUTPUT) {
+        lns <- paste0("> ", x$path, ": ", x$message)
+        cat("\n", file = stdout())
+        base::writeLines(lns, stdout())
+        next
+      }
       if (x$code != PROCESS_MSG) {
         next
       }
@@ -178,6 +184,11 @@ parallel_event_loop_chunky <- function(queue, reporters, test_dir) {
   while (!queue$is_idle()) {
     msgs <- queue$poll(Inf)
     for (x in msgs) {
+      if (x$code == PROCESS_OUTPUT) {
+        lns <- paste0("> ", x$path, ": ", x$message)
+        base::writeLines(lns, stdout())
+        next
+      }
       if (x$code != PROCESS_MSG) {
         next
       }
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-parallel-stdout.R b/tests/testthat/test-parallel-stdout.R
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..77ac0fa3d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-parallel-stdout.R
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+test_that("stdout/stderr in parallel code", {
+  skip_on_covr()
+  withr::local_envvar(TESTTHAT_PARALLEL = "TRUE")
+  out <- capture.output(suppressMessages(testthat::test_local(
+    test_path("test-parallel", "stdout"),
+    reporter = "summary"
+  )))
+  expect_true("> test-stdout-2.R: This is a message!" %in% out)
+  expect_true(any(grepl("test-stdout-3.R:  [1]  1  2  3", out, fixed = TRUE)))
+
+  out2 <- capture.output(suppressMessages(testthat::test_local(
+    test_path("test-parallel", "stdout"),
+    reporter = "progress"
+  )))
+  expect_true("> test-stdout-2.R: This is a message!" %in% out2)
+  expect_true(any(grepl("test-stdout-3.R:  [1]  1  2  3", out2, fixed = TRUE)))
+})
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-parallel/stdout/DESCRIPTION b/tests/testthat/test-parallel/stdout/DESCRIPTION
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..95f688e6e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-parallel/stdout/DESCRIPTION
@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+Package: setup
+Title: What the Package Does (One Line, Title Case)
+Version: 0.0.0.9000
+Authors@R: 
+    person(given = "First",
+           family = "Last",
+           role = c("aut", "cre"),
+           email = "first.last@example.com",
+           comment = c(ORCID = "YOUR-ORCID-ID"))
+Description: What the package does (one paragraph).
+License: `use_mit_license()`, `use_gpl3_license()` or friends to
+    pick a license
+Encoding: UTF-8
+LazyData: true
+Roxygen: list(markdown = TRUE)
+RoxygenNote: 7.1.1
+Suggests: 
+    testthat
+Config/testthat/parallel: true
+Config/testthat/edition: 3
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-parallel/stdout/NAMESPACE b/tests/testthat/test-parallel/stdout/NAMESPACE
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..6ae926839
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-parallel/stdout/NAMESPACE
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+# Generated by roxygen2: do not edit by hand
+
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-parallel/stdout/tests/testthat.R b/tests/testthat/test-parallel/stdout/tests/testthat.R
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..abb06112c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-parallel/stdout/tests/testthat.R
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+library(testthat)
+library(ok)
+
+test_check("ok")
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-parallel/stdout/tests/testthat/test-stdout-1.R b/tests/testthat/test-parallel/stdout/tests/testthat/test-stdout-1.R
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..c051c2dfc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-parallel/stdout/tests/testthat/test-stdout-1.R
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+test_that("this is good", {
+  expect_equal(2 * 2, 4)
+})
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-parallel/stdout/tests/testthat/test-stdout-2.R b/tests/testthat/test-parallel/stdout/tests/testthat/test-stdout-2.R
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..3096c244e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-parallel/stdout/tests/testthat/test-stdout-2.R
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+test_that("this messages", {
+  message("This is a message!")
+  expect_true(TRUE)
+})
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-parallel/stdout/tests/testthat/test-stdout-3.R b/tests/testthat/test-parallel/stdout/tests/testthat/test-stdout-3.R
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..a2ba80df2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-parallel/stdout/tests/testthat/test-stdout-3.R
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+test_that("this prints and skips", {
+  print(1:30)
+  skip(paste("This is", Sys.getpid()))
+})