For Laura Alima, Baltimore is a sweet place to live with an even sweeter gig. Alima and her husband, David, co-founded The Charmery together and continue to stir up new flavors of ice cream and sorbet for their customers all the time.
The Alima family lives in Baltimore City with their two children, Maggie (10) and Max (7).
What do you love about being a parent?
Being a parent is so dynamic, but I love those moments where your kids just make you laugh. I feel like as adults you don’t get those spontaneous belly-laugh moments, but I find myself so amused by my children. The funny things they do or say come out of nowhere and it catches you off guard, and your only response is to laugh.
What do you love about what you do with The Charmery?
The Charmery ended up being a dream for us. I could spend as much time working on and in the business of The Charmery because, to me, it’s not working—it’s just the way of our life, continuing to build what we imagined so many years ago. I always wanted to own my own restaurant; I just didn’t know what type of restaurant it was going to be.
How do you balance the time you spend keeping things running at The Charmery with family life?
We learned early on to have distinct separations between Charmery life and home life because the idea of multitasking both is nearly impossible.
What has helped you maintain that balance?
Two things—that are very much not just one or two things. From a Charmery perspective, we have an amazing team of people that work with us that uphold the vision and values that we started with.
On the other side of things, we have an amazing personal village that we can look to help us out when we need to be at work at odd times— just an amazing network of baby-sitters and family.
What is something you hope your children learn from you?
I hope our children learn from us [about] being kind and respectful to people around you and to follow their dreams.
What is something you wish you knew as a new parent?
To know how to ask for help—that will make your life easier as a parent. When we had our daughter, we were just about to celebrate our one-year Charm-iversary, so David and I were still very much part of the day-to-day life of the business, and I remember having a baby wrap. It was one of those really long wraps, and I had zero idea how to put it on or use it, and I remember feeling so overwhelmed by the idea of figuring out how to use this thing [that] I took it down the street to where there was a baby shop in Hampden, and the woman working there showed me how to use this baby wrap. Immediately, instead of no arms, I had two arms again, and so Maggie would just work with us for her first five months of life.
Family Favorites
Meal: Takeout from Nana. The kids like the chicken tacos.
Dessert: Milkshakes at The Charmery. This time of year, we also like going to Tropicool for snowballs.
Local Spot: Govans Library (Enoch Pratt Free Library)
Vacation Spot: Rehoboth Beach
Family Activity: Going out to the movies
Last Movie Seen: “Inside Out 2”
