Kids First Co-Parenting with Dr. Royster

Pioneering Co-Parent Communication: An Interview with Sol Kennedy founder of Best Interest

• Dr. Karalynn Royster • Season 1 • Episode 13

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A single notification shouldn’t hijack your nervous system. When co-parenting gets high-conflict, though, even a short text can set off a cascade of stress that steals focus from your kids. We sat down with founder Sol Kennedy to unpack Best Interest, the first AI‑moderated messaging app for co-parents, built from his own divorce and supported by Dr. Ramani’s expertise. Think of it as a calm, intelligent “shield” that filters inflammatory language into clear, actionable requests while preserving originals for records and reflection.

We explore how the app learns your context, aligns replies with your parenting plan, and compresses message floods into a single daily notification. Emergencies still break through, so you stay responsive without living on edge. For anyone using Our Family Wizard or Talking Parents, you can import conversations via screenshot and get immediate coaching. And when legal documentation matters, Best Interest exports unaltered messages with timestamps so judges see what was actually said—alongside your steady, concise responses.

Beyond the tech, this conversation dives into mindset: moving from reactivity and “evidence mode” toward agency, boundaries, and regulation. Courts are slow, costly, and often fuel a winner‑loser frame that fails kids. Reducing conflict at the source—messaging—creates space to parent with clarity, model calm, and protect your peace. We also share a practical tool for another flashpoint: screens across two homes. The Co-Parent Tech Agreement Kit gives you a decision framework, scripts, and a shared log to end the tug‑of‑war without power struggles.

If you’ve wondered whether one parent can make things better, the answer is yes. You don’t need your ex’s consent to start using Best Interest, try the free AI coach, or set limits that honor your bandwidth and your child’s needs. Follow, rate, and share the show with a mom who needs relief today—and tell us what boundary would bring you the most peace right now.

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CoParenting Beyond Conflict with Sol Kennedy Podcast

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SPEAKER_01:

Welcome to the Kids First Co-Parenting Podcast. The podcast for smart, intentional, millennial moms raising resilient kids after separation and divorce. I'm Dr. Carolyn Royster, a child psychologist coach, and a mom. After thousands of therapy hours with kids caught in the middle of high conflict households, I'm here to help moms like you do it differently. From peaceful co-parenting to total chaos, I've got you. Here we talk boundaries, regulation, and how to raise a great kid, even if your ex is beyond difficult. We blend science with real life, and as always, keep focused where it matters on raising great kids. This is Kids First Co-Parenting. Welcome everyone to the Kids First Co-Parenting Podcast. I am delighted to have with you today or with me today, Soul Kennedy, and he is the founder of Best Interest, which is the first AI-moderated messaging app designed specifically for co-parents. It's inspired by his own experience navigating a high conflict divorce. Backed by the leading psychologist Dr. Romani Dervasula, Best Interest shields users from toxic or abusive language and empowers healthier co-parenting. Welcome, Soul. I'm so happy to have you.

SPEAKER_00:

So happy to be here. Thanks for having me on.

SPEAKER_01:

Tell us a little bit about how that started, where it came from.

SPEAKER_00:

Sure. It's been quite a journey. As I'm sure many of your listeners can relate to, co-parenting is its own thing, right? We didn't know what we were getting into before we got into it. And now we're deep in it. We're like, oh wow. And that, you know, that was the experience that I had taking taking you back to 2020, right before the COVID lockdowns. It was about a week before the lockdowns, and we were separating. We decided to split homes and to start doing that thing. Obviously, it was an intense time added on to all the COVID whatnots. And we were having a really hard time, my uh co-parent and I, communicating. And with us, what came up was just a lot of just a lot of communication. I was, I was responding to and sending a dozen or mess more messages, you know, a day. Um, and it wasn't productive. It was we were talking around each other, over each other, and just causing a lot of pain to one another. And at the end of the day, we just weren't listening to one another. And so there was this moment that I remember very clearly of lying in my bed right before going to sleep. And there was that familiar ding. Co-parents who use Our Family Wizard will know that, of the Our Family Wizard, you know, message. And in that moment, I felt my body just like tense up, my heart started racing. And in that moment, I realized there has to be a better way. Like this, someone's got to fix this. And then there's a part of me that that thought, oh, well, wait, wait a minute. I'm I'm a developer. I've created companies before. What am I doing sitting on the bench waiting for someone else to fix this? I need to fix this. And the first iteration was actually I decided to hire a friend of mine to sort of be that mediator between the two of us to manage my inbox, tell me what I needed to respond to. I figured he doesn't have the same triggers I do, and that will, you know, make things easier. And I tried it, and you know, there were parts of it that worked and parts that didn't. You know, it was a little kind of weird and awkward and slow. But there was like that spark of, well, this is helping me feel a little bit better about these interactions. And so then when AI came into the picture, um, I started playing around with it. I was playing around with my kids to make stories. We were using it for storytelling before bed. And one night after I put my kids to bed, I thought, well, what if I fed some of these messages into the AI? Well, what would it say about what I'm receiving? And it was, as anyone listening, if you've tried using ChatGPT with some of these messages, it's so good at understanding us, at understanding what's going on and parsing through these sometimes very confusing messages. And here I was feeling alone and confused, and suddenly I felt like I had an advocate, someone, something that understood me and understood what I was experiencing, felt very validating. And I knew that that was what I needed to build with best interest was a system that could help co-parents feel less alone, could shield them from the abuse that they are experiencing, and also shield them from saying something that might end up causing them problems later in court or with custody and really protecting them. So that's really the the beginning of best interest.

SPEAKER_01:

Mm-hmm. That's incredible. And you hit the timing so perfectly with AI just exploding, right?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And what I really like about best interest, and tell me if I'm wrong, but it seems as though it remembers you. It like it knows your profile. It kind of knows your story, correct? Whereas with typical Chat GBT, if you don't have the paid version, every time you'd be putting in the context again, right?

SPEAKER_00:

Totally. And even with the paid version, you know, there's magic behind best interest in that we trained it on, we had a set of beta testers for about six months before we launched. And they allowed us to train on their data. And this then allowed us to inform the algorithm so that we were providing really helpful advice to co-parents, specifically for co-parenting. And so that's one of the key differences. And you can even, with best interest, you can actually upload your parenting plan. So it knows everything about your situation and makes sure that your messages are in alignment with your parenting plan, can be very supportive in that way.

SPEAKER_01:

If you are using something like Talking Parents or Our Family Wizard, this is a supplement to that as well.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it can be. A lot of our customers are using Talking Parents or Our Family Wizard, and you can actually just screenshot a picture of a conversation that you're having and best interest will parse it automatically. You don't even have to copy and paste. That's really advice on what's going on. So backing up for a second, too, just to describe for your listeners what best interest is. Please. It does a few different things, but primarily best interest, it's a co-parenting app that helps you, it protects you in your communication with your co-parent. And one of the ways that it can operate is that you can download the best interest app without getting your co-parents' approval, because we know some co-parents don't want to reduce the conflict, right? I think this is brilliant. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

So you can actually download best interest today and experience peace today just by downloading it. And you don't have to have your co-parent agree to use it. They continue texting you and it will flow through the best interest app. Additionally, either you need some extra help or you don't want to communicate directly through the app with your co-parent, there is a coach built in. And that coach is free. So you can actually start using this customized AI coach right from day one as well.

SPEAKER_01:

Brilliant. I mean, I often coach moms in my program to leverage AI and to use, you know, like put in that phrase that you want to say, put in that section of your parenting plan and ask it to be clear about it. The beauty of best interest is that it's all there. And I especially like that your co-parent doesn't have to sign off on it, as is the case with like talking parents or our family wizard. Usually it's ordered and you both have to do it, right? Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And we do have some users that that do get it ordered and that's starting to emerge. But, you know, the court system is slow. It's slow to adopt new technologies. I think in general, they're apprehensive about AI. And, you know, we've seen some of those headlines about the lawyer using AI and getting in trouble. Those types of wheels move very slowly, but you can actually use best interest without needing to go that route, and you can experience relief right away.

SPEAKER_01:

I think that's really, really amazing. What do you hear from folks about how this helps them? Or how has it helped you?

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

I imagine you're using it.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Well, it's it's helped me personally in a couple different ways. One is, you know, just on a personal level, I was going through so much pain. And to be able to take that pain and then turn it into a solution for other co-parents that are struggling has been really cathartic. I really appreciate that I've had this experience and that that allowed me to say yes to answering the call to serving co-parents in this way. Really meaningful to me. This feels like the first company that I've created that feels like a true vocation.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

That I'm really making a difference in the world. And, you know, backing up to what you were saying about hitting this at the right time, when I was visioning best interest, co-parenting and AI had never come together before. That was just something that would happen in the future. And once we launched, obviously we've changed the game. You know, our Family Wizard is starting to come out with some AI features. And I think there's a realization, oh, this could be really useful. But best interest was there at the very beginning. And we've allowed that's allowed us to sort of carry the conversation and say, actually, eh, is more than just reviewing for tone and suggesting a better way of saying things. This can basically serve as a mediator between two sometimes very opposed parties and actually create peace. And then to answer your question specifically about what we're hearing, every week now I'm getting a uh heartfelt message from a user saying that it's changed their life.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And it I I'm feeling chills right now saying that. I I it's so amazing to have developed something that is changing people's lives in that way. I'm just so honored.

SPEAKER_01:

I think about when folks aren't in it, it's hard to comprehend the amount of stress and that feeling of always being on edge. What you had said about like lying in bed and feeling like a full body reaction to the notification is something I hear all the time. Just the the level of stress. And that's somewhat typical when you first go through a separation. There are these great cases where we hear about families down the road being like, we have a great co-parenting relationship. All of those people will tell you it took a lot of time and a lot of energy, and that there were some bumps in the road. And so I think to have a tool that can support you along the way is crucial. Absolutely crucial. Okay. Tell me if this sounds familiar. You set a screen time limit, your ex pushes back. You create a new tech rule, they find the loophole by Tuesday. If tech across your two homes feels like a never-ending tug of war, I made something just for you. It's called the Co-Parent Tech Agreement Kit. It's a$97 bundle that ends the chaos without engaging in power struggles. Inside, you'll get our five tech decision framework, ready-to-use scripts, a digital incident log that you can use and customize for your own family, and a co-parent tech agreement worksheet that customizes across two homes. It's practical and built for real life co-parenting, even if screen time is something you don't always agree on. Just for podcast listeners, you can use code pod 10 and get$10 off. Head to learnwithlittlehouse.com or tap the link in the show notes to grab the co-parent tech agreement kit and use code pod 10 at checkout. No more nagging, no more last-minute rule making, just a calm, clear, two-home family tech plan.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I I agree completely. You know, when approaching this space, I had been using our family wizard. So I knew what they offered, and it really wasn't doing anything for reducing the conflict. It wasn't reducing the amount of communication. All it really does or can do it is help you with your communication. So if you're on the side of already kind of doing what you can to reduce the conflict, but you're the one receiving messages that are just feeling really triggering and it takes you out of those moments with your kids or of recreating your life, you know, that's that's a problem. And so best interest, we want to create this filter or this barrier. Well, we actually, one of our users coined this term, a shield. So we call this the shield. The best interest shield sits between you and your co-parents so that you're not experiencing that trigger. You're getting a message that's filtered to really what is essential for you to uh be a good co-parent. So for instance, if you and I are co-parenting, and let's say I'm the one that's kind of triggered and and and uh frustrated, I might send a message, Carolyn, because you're always late. I demand that you're here at 7 a.m. or I'm taking you to court, something like that, right? Yeah. We've all received those legal threats on the daily. And that can cause your blood pressure to go up and and take you away from the kids. But if you were using best interest, what you would receive is um soul uh would you would like you to pick up the kids at 9 a.m. or however. And then that allows you to do the function of the co-parenting, do the business of co-parenting. And then we indicate, oh, there's more to that message. So for whatever reason, if you want to go in and view that message later, maybe you've dropped the kids off and you're by yourself or with your when you're with your therapist, you can view that original message and you can still experience those triggers because that's also very helpful for healing, is for us to feel the feelings, right? We're not trying to prevent any feeling. This is all about healing. So you go in there and you can see that original message. But in the day-to-day business of co-parenting, you're set, you're able to function in a much more efficient way.

SPEAKER_01:

I was gonna ask you, because I think it's talking parents, where they will screen a message and will either call you or tell you, you know, a message came through and it was just way out of bounds and we're holding it. Like you don't get to have it. We're not putting this towards you. So best interest will screen out those.

SPEAKER_00:

Definitely.

SPEAKER_01:

And does it also do a lot of the moms that I work with, they get um it's the frequency of messages, right? So it's like 50 messages in a row instead of one succinct. Does best interest help with that?

SPEAKER_00:

Definitely. Yeah, that's really common. And it especially comes in spurts. Like if your co-parent is triggered, you might get 20, 50 messages a day and then nothing, silence. And so, yeah, best interest allows you for the very first time to set a boundary with your co-parent, even one that won't listen to any of your boundaries. Yeah. You say, best interest, I only want to receive one message a day. And what's so smart about the system is that you can set that boundary. You'll only receive one notification per day from your co-parent. But we're all we all know this part of the reason why we need to stay in communication with our co-parent is in case there's an emergency. So we will review every message. And if there is a true emergency, such as Johnny's in the hospital, we need you now, then that'll come through immediately. It'll break past that setting and it will notify you. So you can still jump in there if you need to.

SPEAKER_01:

That's amazing. Obviously, best interest is not pretending to be legal advice, right?

SPEAKER_02:

Right.

SPEAKER_01:

Or financial advice. One of the benefits of some of the other apps is that you can take them to court to show patterns of behavior. I'm assuming there's a function around that, or no?

SPEAKER_00:

Definitely. Um all of your messages and now your journal entries can be printed out in a format that is accepted by the courts with timestamps, unalterable records. And for your journal entries, you can also have it print out the the map of where you were when you left it.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. And does it tell you in the printout? This might be kind of a nitty-gritty question, but does it show like what they said and then what came through to you and what you like the AI summary, I guess?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, yes and no. So in our exports, really the only thing that matters to a judge is what communication actually transpired. So if you receive a very inflammatory message, even if you didn't actually see that message and you replied back pretty normally, the judge is going to see what your co-parent actually said. Right. That's what I would want them to say. Exactly. So they're going to see that original message, unfiltered, unprocessed. And then they're going to see your message as you sent it. So if you took the AI's advice and you responded very simply and straightforward, that's what they're going to see in that printout. So generally, what happens once you start using the best center stap is the communication really becomes a lot simpler from your side. And it allows you to go to a judge and show that you are communicating in a much more effective way.

SPEAKER_01:

It's really just an incredible tool that I kind of feel like everybody should have. I don't know. Um how do you think it might have changed things for you if you had had it? What do you think might have been different?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I I definitely think about that. You know, I appreciate having had the experience I did. I think of my ex as um a tremendous teacher for me. She's she's taught me so much about myself through sometimes teaching methods that I don't agree with. But it it can be helpful to go through that process. And I feel so much stronger having gone through it. And that has allowed me to build a solution for other people.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

You know, if I were able to wave my magic wand and go back and have a tool like best interest without having to go through the effort of building it and it's just there, yeah. I actually probably would just go along and do that because it would have saved us so much time, money, heartache. Because the the thing about these conflicts is they grow. If they're a label, they never go away.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

They never go away. I mean, I was sending, I look back at some of the messages that I was sending in the beginning. I've never been a mean person. I don't have a mean bone in my body, but I was very defensive. I was very verbose. I was always trying to explain myself. Doesn't help, doesn't help at all. And so, you know, all of those cycles of the 20, 30, 40 messages on a row about a very simple topic could have been filtered out and reduced. And so I think it could have really changed uh our trajectory quite a bit as well.

SPEAKER_01:

One thing I respect about you that I remember from when I heard my first, like the first interview of you, is you're not you've not had this narrative outwardly or around best interests that your co-parent was the problem, the only problem. You were not at to blame at all. If she could have just communicated better, it would have been better. And I just really appreciate that because I think that's real, right? In in these conflictual situations, even the most amicable separations, people are going through a major life stressor. And kids are involved, and we all want what's best for our kids. And so I very much respect that about you. That's one of the reasons I was interested in this app. It's just I've never heard you be like, yeah, it was she was the whole issue. And if I could have just gotten a rein on that, you know? Um, because it is, it takes two to tango. No one's perfect.

SPEAKER_00:

You know, and I actually I'm not a huge fan of that term, the two to tango, because I think it's used in the court. It is in a way that that sort of victim shames because I do think that there are situations where, you know, one co-parent is kind of creating the conflict and the other doesn't know what to do. It's but it's a dynamic, right? It's always a dynamic. And I think that it's very natural when you're just starting out, if you're listening and you're just starting out on this journey, it's super natural to go into that victim mindset. But the victim mindset doesn't allow you to heal and grow. And so the sooner you can kind of get out of that and realize, wait a minute, you know, for some reason I was attracted to this person, you know, we decided to have kids together for some reason. What were those reasons? Why am I here right now? What's going on for me? How can I show up in this relationship in a better way to support my kids? And there's so many nuggets of wisdom that can be gleaned from going through that healing journey and getting out of the victim mindset and realizing, yeah, so this hurts a lot, but I am playing a role. And the role can shift because when one person changes the dynamic, then the whole thing has to shift for any relationship, let alone co-parenting, it has to shift when you shift.

SPEAKER_01:

And I think it gets, I mean, I appreciate what you're saying about the two to tango. And I think our court system doesn't do a great job of handling and understanding trauma and how people present with trauma. And I think the victim mindset is very interesting as well when people have actually been victimized, right? Or there's been domestic violence, there's been abuse, there's and then, you know, the a lot of the folks that I work with, it's it continues. It's post-separation abuse, it's litigation abuse, it's and it gets very, very complicated and sticky, especially as part of the healing journey. Because I think sometimes as folks are healing, they start to get into this like, you're not gonna do this to me again. We're not doing this. I'm now fighting back, and it creates more and more and more conflict.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. I mean, even just learning for many of us, learning how to set a boundary with another person, let alone our our former partner, is terrifying and challenging. And it's its own thing to figure out how to do that. But let alone, you know, there is a a stage that we all go through, I think, where we realize this is not the way to treat someone. I I deserve better. And then you like get into a mode of maybe punching back and like that doesn't help either. No. Right? No, it really doesn't help our kids.

SPEAKER_01:

It doesn't. And they're kind of lost in the in the mix of this. What do you think along these lines, what do you see as kind of the big trouble spots when people are trying to communicate post presumably that best interest can help with? But where do you see we talked kind of about the victim mindset?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, you know, I think one of the so best interest follows a model of our belief is that by reducing conflict, we're reducing the need for court intervention. So even though you can download and print out a report if you're going to court and and you know, prove what you need to prove. Um my personal philosophy is that the court system, while it is there to support us and oftentimes it does do a good job, it also, like you were saying, oftentimes creates more problems than it solves for many. And so our philosophy is can we create a better dynamic between these co-parents without forcing a judge to come in and place orders and then those need to somehow be enforced. It just doesn't really work. With best interest, we're reducing the conflict where it starts, which is in the communication.

SPEAKER_01:

What I'm hearing is it's a little bit of a mindset shift. So instead of like I'm gathering data, I'm gathering evidence for when I inevitably will go to court, it's a mindset shift around we're both pretty committed, or at least I'm committed, to staying out of court because nothing good comes from that, you know? Even if you do get a strict parenting plan, if you do get a very strict order for something, there's always room for conflict around it. It doesn't matter how well written it is.

SPEAKER_00:

And and any conflict results in more time, more money, more complication. And what I hear from my co-parents is that it is it's kind of a situation where you abandon all hope. You know, you do hear um a lot of success stories, but even in a success story, this whole system is built on a winner and losers model, right? Which makes no sense. These are these are parents of children. There are no winners and losers. There's only losers when it comes to the family court system, honestly.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. So the losers are kids.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes.

SPEAKER_01:

The kids are the ones that lose.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. And and, you know, just circling back to the progeny of best interest, when I was trying to come up with an idea for the name, what to name this company, best interest was quickly rose to the top because that was the term that I hear heard most in the family court system. And every time they said what's in the best interest of the kids, I thought, do they really know? Because it doesn't seem like they do. And so best interest really is the name is talking about what we're here for, which is for the kids. We service the parents, but if we can improve the lives of just one child, then that's a huge benefit to society, reducing family trauma, generational trauma. So that's why we named it that.

SPEAKER_01:

Are you stuck in a high conflict co-parenting situation? The best interest app uses proven techniques endorsed by Dr. Romani herself to reduce conflict and protect your peace. Join thousands of co-parents finding relief. Get 22% off a yearly subscription with code LittleHouse22. Download best interest from the app store or the Play Store today. And I think there's a lot of power. One of the pieces that I keep coming back to is that just one parent can can use best interest. You don't both have to be on board. My work is very similar in that, where when I'm coaching moms, there often is this kind of lack of hope that you're talking about of like, we're just resigned to being in this really difficult dynamic for a long time. And I've heard, you know, moms say, like, am I doing this till they're 18? Like, is that what we're signed up for? There's so much power in shifting your own mindset and controlling what you can control. And so it might be totally crazy town over there, but if you're being more present because you're not so caught up in the communication stress, that is a gift and that does help your children.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. You know, we're as co-parents, sometimes, especially in the high conflict dynamics, we are faced, we are we're put into what sometimes feels like the impossible situation. I talk about that on my podcast. It's like there is no way to turn where this feels better except inward. If we can do what we can to adjust our mindset, adjust the way that we're responding, just be really curious about what's happening inside of us. That's where peace comes. It comes from within. Um, because there is no external peace. Family core doesn't, it it just really doesn't seem to be designed to reduce conflict or create peace. It's really unfortunate.

SPEAKER_01:

It doesn't feel good, like you said. Even if you quote unquote win, you don't, it doesn't feel good. I think about how you hired someone to read your emails. And sometimes I'll do that for for moms. I'll read through stuff and kind of summarize and and be this sort of mediator. And what's so interesting about it is that something that is totally triggering for you may not be triggering at all for me. But you have to remember you've been partnered with this person for a very long time.

SPEAKER_00:

Have the backstory, you don't. So Exactly.

SPEAKER_01:

Exactly. I'm guessing you can put in there something like money has been a huge stressor for us. And for many years, I'm just making up a scenario. Like he thinks that I'm wasteful with money. And so this is why this message irritates me.

SPEAKER_00:

I I love that idea. And we're definitely going to be introducing more tools like that. Right now, what we do is we learn based on the communication that comes in and the way that you respond. And so from that, plus uploading your parenting plan, we get pretty good at learning the dynamic, learning the challenging points, and then customizing our recommendations towards the way you prefer to respond that you have found. Has reduced conflict the most.

SPEAKER_01:

But you could say, you know, this doesn't, this isn't quite my tone. Or, you know, it sounds a little loosey-goosey here. I mean, loosey-goosey is not a really good, but can you make it stronger? Can you make it less strong?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. And and also just to clarify something for your listeners, you know, best interest is never going to actually send anything on your behalf. We're not a mediator in that way. We're not going to take control of the conversation for you, but we serve as a coach. So when you send a message, we're going to say, you might want to say it this way, and here's why. And then you can choose to send that, or you can choose to edit it and customize it and and work on it more. So you always have the final say on what gets sent.

SPEAKER_01:

I think that's crucial. Because people are a little afraid of AI too.

SPEAKER_00:

Like it's going to take over.

SPEAKER_01:

I mean, I don't know. I personally really like it.

SPEAKER_00:

So yeah, AI is not to the stage where it can be trusted in that way. You know, it it does require some hand holding and some um it's just important to have that awareness and that power to change it when you need to.

SPEAKER_01:

So what is next for best interests? Where what are you excited about? What's growing? What's changing? Tell me what you what's lighting you up these days.

SPEAKER_00:

I mean, honestly, every time I get a message saying that we've we've helped someone's situation for the better, it's just it lights me up and I smile. And you know, we're growing really fast. And that's very exciting. And we're growing really quickly. It's so exciting to see people not only say that like is something they're willing to trust and try out, but then to actually have a direct impact in such an uh important aspect of their lives. It's just really inspiring to see people adopt uh our technology.

SPEAKER_01:

I've noticed you've been growing on social media and I've been seeing it out in the world a little more. It's very exciting. And you have a podcast. Tell us about that.

SPEAKER_00:

I um I started a podcast earlier this year um on, you know, on this topic, on the top of co-parenting and high conflict. And, you know, it comes from a perspective of that here we are faced in this really challenging experience where we have this relationship that we're really struggling with and it feels impossible. And what can we do? Because we can't necessarily, we can't fire our co-parent, right? We're stuck with them for better or worse. We have these kids that we love so dearly and we want them to be successful. Okay, so what do we do? And that that's really the the question behind the podcast is how do we cope in this sometimes impossible situation? Co-parenting beyond conflict.

SPEAKER_01:

We'll definitely link that so folks can can listen to it. And I think at some point I'll be on there too, which is really exciting. Absolutely. Yeah. We're gonna be interviewing. In a couple weeks. Yeah, yeah. I have been following it, and the guests you have are just really interesting, top-notch people. It's not a surface-y podcast, it goes pretty deep, which I appreciate.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you. Yeah, I chose from the beginning to have it be an expert-led podcast. You know, I I could ramble on and on about co-parenting. It's an opportunity for me to learn and to hear from experts that have been doing this for a lot longer. And so we have on lawyers, therapists, coaches, kind of the whole gamut of people that have chosen for whatever reason to support co-parents, which by the way, I think is always a very interesting exploration on the podcast of okay, why are you doing this? Why did you choose this a profession?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

I think it's always uh it yields a very interesting response.

SPEAKER_01:

I, you know, we'll dive into this, but similar to you, I think my experiences people don't find their way to this work by accident. It sure seems like it's touched their life in one way or another.

SPEAKER_00:

It's a calling. Yeah. It is.

SPEAKER_01:

I mean it's a vocation because it's not easy. It's not easy work. And so it's very emotional, it's very triggering, it's many, many, many things. And it's never really done. You're kind of always pursuing it.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I mean, it's one of the most challenging human relationships that you can be in, being a co-parent, because it's filled with emotion, it's filled with decisions that have to be made. Plus, you add on, you know, the divorce and all the things that happened financially, the rejection. There's a lot that needs to be processed that typically in our culture isn't really processed. And then you throw these two people together and they need to make these really important decisions. Like, no, that's that's not a recipe for success.

SPEAKER_01:

And they can't escape it, right? It's there's you can't just decide you're not gonna engage. I mean, I guess you could, but then you wouldn't see your kids, you know? So that's not really a choice.

SPEAKER_00:

That's not a choice because we we love our kids. You know, you hear the stories of of some co-parents stepping away or becoming kind of the weekend warrior, and that definitely happens. And I imagine that a lot of those stories started with a really challenging co-parenting dynamic. And that's really sad.

SPEAKER_01:

I have seen that clinically as well. Would you share any other places where folks can find you? So you have the podcast.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, the best place to reach me is I'm I'm soul at best interest. So if you want to reach out directly, you can shoot me an email. And also you can find us on Co Parent to Beyond Conflict, um, where we produce bi-weekly episodes. And yeah, those are the best places to reach me. So bestinterest.app and co-parent to beyond conflict. And I look forward to hearing from your listeners.

SPEAKER_01:

And if if folks want to get the app, they can just find it on the app store or go to the website, right?

SPEAKER_00:

Totally. Yeah. We're in Google Play and in the iOS App Store. And the app is free. You can download it, you can use the AI for free, and you can even upload your parenting plan. And then if you want to, you can send it for the trial, which allows you to message with your co-parent.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, that's amazing. I didn't realize that it had such a strong free component. I love that.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Yeah. It's important because AI, you know, we're all kind of trying to get used to AI and is this helpful or not? We've never used it before necessarily. And this allows you to just tow in and see, oh, this is actually really helping me.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. That's wonderful. We'll link all of that in the show notes. And, you know, we also have a great code, LittleHouse22. If you do a paid version of the app, you can get a 22% off, which is kind of nice. Um, and yeah, reach out to me as well if you have any interest in getting on this app. I'm happy to share how to get there. Thank you so much. It was a great conversation. Thanks so much for listening to this episode of Kids First Co-Parenting. The best way you can support the show is by following, rating, and reviewing wherever you listen to podcasts, and by sharing it with another mom who could use the support. You can also connect with me on Instagram and Facebook at Learn with Little House, where I share daily tips and encouragement for moms raising kids through high conflict divorce. And if you're ready to go deep and get more tools, scripts, personalized support, and coaching, come join us inside the Kids First co parenting community. You'll find the details at Learnwithlittlehouse.com. Until next time, remember your kids don't need you to be perfect. They just need you to be steady and grounded, and as always, to put them first. Thanks for being here.