Reimagining Family Management for the Modern Parent

The theme for this International Women’s Day is to inspire inclusion. When I hear the word inclusion, I hear I am not included and someone has to work to include me. Include me across my identities - as a woman, a woman of color, a mother, a mother of little kids, an immigrant. 

We need systemic change for this to truly happen. While we have made significant progress with more family friendly policies and tech driven solutions, we’re not there yet. It’s 2024 and we still need to inspire inclusion. I didn’t want to wait. I started by asking how I can include myself? What’s holding me and other women back? How do I want to be included? What do I want to be included in?

Social networks play a big role at work and life. Career growth is not just based on merit or completion of challenging projects. There’s a lot of social influence - are you in the right rooms with the right people? Many times women are held back because they don’t have the time for happy hours or other work socials. Even if they have the time, they may not be fully present because of their mental load. Once you become a parent, other social networks start to play an important role to gain access to approaches to parenting, when after school care booking opens up, the best Montessori school in your neighborhood, where kids learn ballet or what the local soccer league is.

I launched Parenting Partners to create a digital village of curated products, services and information to reduce the time spent on research. The platform helped parents proactively plan for the next stage in their child’s development financially alongside a directory of products and services across various areas of parenting.  

In December of 2023, I was introduced to Satyashree Srikanth, who started Minerva with the mission to alleviate the mental load of parenting, give time back to busy parents and elevate everyday moments. If there’s a version of love at first sight for founders, we felt that. She and I met and realized we can deliver on our shared vision better together. 

With multiple experiments, I learned that for parents to be successful in both their roles as parents and professionals without sacrificing their sleep or health, there needs to be a partner who can help personalize a plan, research, organize and execute on the home front. Armed with tons of learnings and a deep commitment to make parenting easier, I am thrilled to join forces with Shree as a cofounder, to create a product that will simplify family life. Shree and I are both mothers, who have tried to do it all. We are blending our experiences from the tech and finance industries to bring Minerva to millions of families. 

Introducing Minerva

We provide busy parents with a dedicated local assistant who can be their go-to for everything family and home - from juggling calendars, to planning summer camps, making medical appointments and creating custom travel itineraries.

For true systemic change, many players have to change how they operate, from corporations to governments to society in general. While we wait for these players to adapt to modern parenting, let’s take our own action today. 

I will continue to share my thoughts on finding the balance as parents between time and money, work and kids, delegation and more on the family budget. 

Uma Sekar

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