{"id":637265,"date":"2026-08-14T18:14:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T18:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/637265\/"},"modified":"2026-08-14T18:14:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T18:14:13","slug":"platonic-co-parenting-is-on-the-rise-apps-see-surge-in-users","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/637265\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Platonic co-parenting’ is on the rise, apps see surge in users"},"content":{"rendered":"

Platonic co-parenting \u2014 where people who aren\u2019t married or romantically involved shack up to raise kids<\/a> \u2014 is on the rise, with aspiring parents flocking to apps that connect them with others seeking the unconventional lifestyle.<\/p>\n

Modamily, one of the leading platforms matching potential platonic co-parents, had about 50,000 new users join this year alone \u2014 climbing from 100,000 users in January to around 150,000 as of August.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s up from around 30,000 who were using Modamily in 2020, according to Modamily founder Ivan Fatovic, who said about 2,000 new members are joining each month.<\/p>\n

Zachary Sahuque and Amanda Lohse, 35 and 47, with their two kids they co-parent together. A third child is on the way. Zachary Sahuque<\/p>\n

\u201cWe started 15 years ago when it was a much weirder. I used to get a lot of looks when I said what I did,\u201d Fatovic told The Post. \u201cNow it\u2019s a lot more normal. The trend has been only increasing.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Modamily isn\u2019t the only co-parenting platform that\u2019s seen its user base skyrocket this year.<\/p>\n

The app CoParents.com had its users increase by 25% since January, climbing to about 160,000 members worldwide.<\/p>\n

Co-parenting arrangements take countless forms \u2014 sometimes they involve two friends who want kids but not the baggage romance can bring; and sometimes they involve people who saw their own parents\u2019 divorce turn ugly and want to spare their kids the risk of similar trauma.<\/p>\n

Others are people who are simply too busy with careers to focus on romance but want kids, can\u2019t afford to do it alone, or whose biological clocks are ticking down and don\u2019t have the time to find love and start a family the old-fashioned way.<\/p>\n

And while there are no universals, one thing typically unifies the arrangements \u2014 the parents are not in love and they are not having sex, but they are raising their kids together as one family unit.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople still want a partner to have children with, and they want a partner that helps with the costs and the time, so they can also have time for their individual pursuits \u2014 but also raise a child in a positive, loving environment,\u201d Fatovic said. <\/p>\n

Sahuque and Lohse had their children by IVF, and raise them in two homes on the same property in Texas. Zachary Sahuque<\/p>\n

Such arrangements in the past were typically found among people who knew each other and shared the same wants, by word of mouth or even by ads in<\/a> newspaper classifieds \u2014 but the rise of the internet and social media has made it easier and more common.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s how Texas co-parents Zachary Sahuque and Amanda Lohse, 35 and 47, found each other. <\/p>\n

The couple has two kids together and a third on the way \u2014 each from her eggs and his sperm, and conceived through IVF \u2014 but have no romantic involvement and live in two houses on a 50-acre ranch.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s one of my best friends; she is like family,\u201d Sahuque said. \u201cWe\u2019re not romantic or sexual but she\u2019s a bonus family member that I\u2019ve got my kids by.\u201d<\/p>\n

They met on Modamily in 2019. Sahuque had grown up in a troubled home and Lohse had dumped a long-term boyfriend as she turned 40.<\/p>\n

The pair immediately set up interviews with each other about their different parenting needs and views.<\/p>\n

\u201cI basically tried to find every controversial fault or crack that could happen in a marriage or in a home, and I pressure tested each one of them,\u201d Sahuque said, explaining the couple had a series of \u201cterms and conditions\u201d each had to meet to come to their arrangement.<\/p>\n

\u201cI kind of took the romantic relationship and turned it on its head,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn a romantic relationship, the first date\u2019s like a job interview. You know, you\u2019re wearing your Sunday best, you\u2019re the best possible version they\u2019re ever gonna see of you.<\/p>\n

Sahuque travels for work and takes care of his kids when he\u2019s back home. Lohse watches them when he\u2019s gone. Zachary Sahuque<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I started by sharing my biggest deal breakers and my biggest red flags. I put them on the table face up first and I\u2019m like, Hey, is this all stuff you can deal with?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The couple decided they could deal, and they now live across their property from each other in two homes with matching bedrooms for their kids. <\/p>\n

Sahuque travels often for work, so Lohse<\/a> spends most of the time with the kids, but when he\u2019s home, he takes care of them.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s nothing for us to meet up and hang out and do things, all of us together as a family, and it\u2019s nothing to them to kind of have their own little life till I come home,\u201d he said, jokingly comparing Lohse to \u201cthe best ex-wife a man could ask for.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s so many people that have an ex-wife or an ex-husband or a one-night stand to get their kids by,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I just more so sought it out with intentionality.\u201d<\/p>\n

And while more and more people like Sahuque are turning to apps to find each other, he doesn\u2019t think that necessarily means more people are looking for platonic co-parenting arrangements \u2014 just that the people who were always there finally have a place to find each other.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just think it is now becoming more visible,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s the intentionality of it more than the actual matter of fact of it. Because divorces happen every day, and people get knocked up every day,\u201d Sahuque continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the idea of doing it on purpose that\u2019s novel and new to people.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Platonic co-parenting \u2014 where people who aren\u2019t married or romantically involved shack up to raise kids \u2014 is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":637266,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[257],"tags":[27755,18,1652,19,17,2971,2955,279,26407,4752,82,4222],"class_list":["post-637265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mobile","tag-dating-apps","tag-eire","tag-family","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-love","tag-marriage","tag-mobile","tag-online-dating","tag-parenting-advice","tag-technology","tag-us-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117095226924056505","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=637265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637265\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/637266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=637265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=637265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=637265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}