Dating as a Single Parent When Your Kids Come First
The single mum who built the dating app she couldn't find
Nevine Coutry grew up in Egypt, in a conservative family where divorce was taboo and making a marriage work was the woman's job. In 2016, with a three-year-old son and no plan for what came next, she ended hers. Her mother told her to stay. She calls leaving the best decision she ever made.
She was raising her son alone in London and running a marketing business for travel and tourism clients when Covid shut it down. The idea she had carried since the divorce finally got her full attention. She had tried the mainstream dating apps and hated them. Babysitters to book and pay for. Dates who cancelled, or went quiet once she mentioned her son. So she built Playdate, the UK's first dating app for single parents, which launched in 2021.
Nevine is now founder and CEO of Playdate, where around 70% of users are men. On The Dad Project with Naroop Jhooti, she says what she most wants single parents to hear: "It's never too late to find love again."
Find Playdate at gotoplaydate.com
Quotes
"Everyone keeps telling me, oh, you're so strong and like you're such a strong woman. I had no other choice but to be strong."
This Episode Is About
Dating as a single parent, from both sides. Nevine Coutry, a single mum, and host Naroop Jhooti, a single dad, compare notes on The Dad Project. Nevine talks about leaving her marriage against her family's wishes, losing her business in Covid and her savings to a phone scam, and building Playdate through all of it.
From there it turns to the questions most single parents sit on quietly: when to tell a date you have kids, when to introduce them, what to do with the guilt of a night out, and whether you can trust anyone again. Naroop brings the father's side, including the one thing that worries him about another man coming into his daughter's life.
Who This Episode Is For
- Single dads thinking about dating again
- Men coming out of a long marriage with no idea how dating works now
- Separated parents working out when to introduce a new partner
- Anyone dating a single parent and trying to understand their life
- Parents who feel guilty wanting something for themselves
What You'll Takeaway
- Happy parents raise happier kids
- Wanting a partner beats needing one
- Tell a date about your kids straight away
- Introduce a partner only when you're serious
- Daytime coffee dates suit single parents best
- Honest dating profiles beat impressive ones
- Your kids want you to be happy too
