When Zoe Desmond’s son Billy was one, she and his dad decided to go their separate ways.
Zoe was plunged into single parenthood with all of its logistical, social and emotional challenges.
“I knew no other single parents at all, so my whole world sort of turned upside down,” she said.
“I felt very overwhelmed, being the mum of a one-year-old and trying to kind of hold it together by myself.
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“And I also found it very, very lonely and isolating because I didn’t know anyone else who was in the same situation.”
Zoe, now 41, wanted to connect with other single parents to arrange play dates and days out, and to ask for advice and support.
But she was disappointed to find there wasn’t really a solid online community where she could meet other single parents in her area.
The ideal solution was Frolo, an app Zoe created which allows single parents to connect with one another both digitally and in the real world through chats, meetups and access to support and guidance, and two years later Frolo is set to extend into dating.
(Image: Frolo)
“The last thing I [was] looking to do was to create a business because, really, I was just trying to keep my life together at the time,” Fulham-based Zoe said.
“But [the thought] just wouldn’t go away [that] if this existed, it would be such a game changer.”
Frolo Community now has around 30,000 registered users in the UK and Ireland, and Zoe says it has “completely transformed [her] life”.
“Weekends are full now. They’re full of all of this extended family that I now have because of Frolo, so I could not be more passionate about the Frolo community, what it’s given to me and what I see it giving to other people,” she says.
“I get feedback every single day about how much of a lifeline it’s been, and people really do say that it’s saved them.”
‘If I put up photos of my kids on my profile, or even say I have kids, is that automatically going to go against me?’
The next step for Frolo is Frolo Dating, a new subsection of the app which is set to launch in the coming days for single parents looking for love.
Zoe says that single parents are often at a huge disadvantage on the dating scene and particularly on dating apps, being told that their kids …….
Source: https://www.mylondon.news/lifestyle/i-fed-up-people-tinder-22257493