Nevine Coutry is the founder of the UK’s first dating app for single parents, ‘Playdate’. After divorcing her ex-husband in 2016, Nevine found herself as a single parent to her 3 year old son. Nevine tried all the mainstream dating apps looking for a new partner but would often get ghosted after mentioning her son or her divorce.It wasn’t until a couple years later at a friends’ birthday party that Nevine met a single dad, and they hit it off immediately. They joined family units and Nevine became a step-mum. Although their relationship didn’t work out, the experience left Nevine feeling so enriched by the Blended experience that she decided to create her dating app.Nevine’s story is a chance to hear what happens when Blended families don’t quite work out as planned, as Nevine says in the episode, it’s bittersweet but she would do it all over again.If you’re excited to be a part of the Blended community, make sure to follow @Blended on Instagram.

TW: Mentions of self-harm and suicideToday we welcome the wonderful Louis Weinstock to Blended. Louis is a psychotherapist, hypnotherapist and coach who has 20 years experience in guiding adults and children through some of the toughest challenges life can throw at us: loss, trauma, divorce, burnout and breakdowns.Louis is also a published author, his book ‘How The World Is Making Our Children Mad and What To Do About It’ gives children the tools they need to look after their mental health in an increasingly turbulent world of climate change, social media and war. Today's chat is all about finding the balance of using social media in between different households and how we can help our children deal with trauma by helping ourselves first.Louis has such a calm, warm energy and has such an easy way of opening up deep topics, which hopefully makes it feel relevant and you can take some tips that can help you and your family. To find out more about Louis’s book ‘How The World Is Making Our Children Mad and What To Do About It’ ‘click hereTo find out more about Louis’s charity ‘Apart of Me’ click hereIf you’re excited to be a part of the Blended community, make sure to follow @Blended on Instagram. My book How To Build A Family is available now, and you can pre-order The Family Tree here: https://bio.to/KateFerdinand

Hey guys! Loads of you have been getting in touch with questions about Rio and I so it only felt right that I got him back on the podcast.We set the record straight on how we met, and as you’ll hear he didn’t make the best first impression… We also chat about how we’ve blended our lifestyles, how we resolve arguments (sort of) and there’s a bit of banter too. Safe to say Rio left the studio feeling like I’d taken the mick out of him but we do actually answer these questions honestly and we hope you find them interesting! If you’re excited to be a part of the Blended community, make sure to follow @Blended on Instagram. My book How To Build A Family is available now, and you can pre-order The Family Tree here: https://bio.to/KateFerdinand

Here’s something very special for all the Blended listeners. A few weeks back, I did a live show with the amazing host of the Motherkind podcast, Zoe Blaskey. If you haven’t heard of the Motherkind podcast before, it’s basically a show where wellbeing experts help you find your calm, happy place in the madness of modern mum life.So today we’re sharing an episode of Motherkind where Zoe chatted to Reshma Saujani. Resham spent the last 10 years telling girls to lean in and fight to get to the top; however, after her experience parenting and working during the pandemic her message has changed. Find out what she now has to say during this powerful episode.If you’re excited to be a part of the Blended community, make sure to follow @Blended on Instagram and you can pre-order my book How To Build A Family here https://lnk.to/HowToBuildAFamily

Hi guys, I’ve got something very exciting to share with you today, it’s been a long time in the making, but I’m so excited to say that my brand new book ‘How To Build a Family’ is out tomorrow - I can’t quite believe it!How to Build a Family is a nurturing handbook that I wish I’d been given when I started out my journey in a fully blended family. As well as my experiences, and those of other blended families, it has advice and tips from experts you’ve heard on the show like Julia Samuel and Lisa Doodson. My goal in writing this book is to encourage, inspire and support families everywhere.In today’s podcast I also talk about my other new book ‘The Family Tree’ which will be coming out on the 8th of June (quite the author I know). The Family Tree is a reassuring picture-book adventure that will help blended families feel seen and celebrated, offering gentle conversation starters for the youngest readers.I hope you find these books refreshing and useful, as always thanks for your amazing love and support, I can’t wait to hear what you think of them!You can pre-order both books by clicking on the link here: https://bio.to/KateFerdinandIf you’re excited to be a part of the Blended community, make sure to follow @Blended on Instagram.