On 21st March, the parent company Match.com, Plenty of Fish and Tinder launched an exciting new dating app for guess who? Single parents, to help them on their quest to find true love.
What does it mean to be a single parent who wants to date - a whole damn lot. There's so much to deal with in the process.
Aimlessly planning babysitting, schedules around school activities, bed times, not to mention the tough decision of whether you should mention that you even have kids or not - as, as my friend once strategically pointed out that I should never mention my little tribe in my dating profile.
So, when news about Stir was going around the editing community - I was excited to learn more about the new, innovative dating app. Would it make the possibility of finding someone a little easier for me - a single parent to one?
When I took a closer look inside the app, what I found was actually warming. Parents can compare their schedules and match via questions based around personality and values. Things that mean a lot to us as individuals.
The company said Stir aims to help single parents by focusing on the specific dating needs of single parents that aren't typically addressed on mainstream dating apps.
Dinh Thi Bui, vice president of new verticals at Match Group, told CNN Business.
"Every year, we survey and interview singles, and every year, we find the same recurring theme: single parents are having a hard time dating,"
"They felt stigmatized in the dating world, like it is a turn-off to disclose they have children. We also saw that single parents naturally gravitate towards other single parents because they didn't have to explain their constraints as they were in the same stage of life."
Bui also mentioned that the idea for the app came about as a result of his sister, who has two children and didn't feel comfortable signing up for a dating service after she heard about the specific challenges single parents face online.
"I saw these challenges she faced getting back into the dating world, and I wanted to build a supportive community that catered to single parents like her and make it easier for them to connect without fear of judgment," he said. "The members don't have to second guess if it will be an issue to disclose they have kids, or that they might have to cancel a date because they couldn't find a babysitter."
For many single parents Stir might actually be the route to dating that they've been waiting for. I for one will be giving it a go. I'm looking forward to being able to give full disclosure about my children and what I want out of dating - and hopefully connecting with someone who possesses the same values. Wish me luck.
Stir is available for download via the apple app store and google play.