Alina Furman, founder and CEO of baby wellness company Kahlmi, discusses the cultural origins and widespread practice of infant massage in Eastern Europe.
Opinion
Furman: Motherhood constrained her business growth compared to childless founders
“And I could never grow to the extent that I would really want to, if I was like a male or a single female and I could work kind of just like nonstop. So I really always tempered my ambitions because I had to, and I had to balance it with having two kids.”
Assertion Supported
Furman: Postpartum sleep deprivation mirrors tactics used in wartime torture
“When you're not, when you're sleeping in 2:03 hour increments, that's a form of war torture that people use still to this day. Sleep deprivation is a very common form of torture.”
Insight
Furman: Nursing mothers are evolutionarily set up to be primary caretakers
“I feel like a little bit women are, From an evolutionary standpoint set up to be the main caretaker, unfortunately, because if you're nursing”
Insight
Furman: Mothers lack cognitive bandwidth to simultaneously run businesses and parent
“The guy, the men who it's hard for them because they feel, you know, guilty as well, because they want to be with their kids or, but you know, with women, it's like, you're literally thinking about your kids like 24 hours a day too, because, so you have to som…”
Insight
Furman: Five hours of daily work is insufficient for scaling startups
“My husband goes to work and he sometimes he has his own business so he can be at home too, but he has eight clean hours of unpolluted time. And even though my kids are 10 and 14 now, You know, I still have all my days are like, okay, you have set up your appoi…”
Insight
Furman: Hyper-parenting and screen time create a cauldron of family anxiety
“And we had a lot of benign neglect, which was great, you know, because I think we need more of that. But now everyone's so hyper parenting and like they're on their kids, yet the kids are always on screens and we're always on screens. So it's like this cauldro…”