We're back with round 4 of the dating terms game - the one where we pull the vocabulary of modern dating out of a hat and try to figure out what it actually means. This round: zombieing (the ex who rises from the dead), benching (yes, you're the backup, not the starter), orbiting (the visible post-breakup socials play), plus the walls vs boundaries conversation that turned into a "mindful and kind" mantra we're now putting on a shirt.If you're dating in your 30s and 40s and beyond after divorce, the vocabulary keeps shifting under your feet. This one's for you.We open with blended family math - specifically the co-parent-flakiness math. What happens when your ex skips the doctor's appointment they were supposed to take, or bails on the birthday party, and you're the primary parent who's tempted to just solve it. Kabrina on the discipline of letting the kids feel the gap. Chris on why "the more you let other people take, the more they'll take" applies to co-parenting AND to dating.Then Kabrina hits Chris with ZOMBIEING - the ex who ghosted you months ago suddenly appearing in your DMs like a resurrection. "Hey stranger." "You're on my mind." No accountability for the disappearance. Just back. We get into why the zombie usually comes back when their next situation collapses, and why answering the DM restarts the whole loop.Walls vs boundaries. Chris tries and fails to make a Jericho joke. The actual distinction: a wall sounds like "nobody will ever love me" or "I always get the short end." A boundary sounds like "here are the specific things that will hurt me, and here's how we work together to be mindful and kind about them." The tell is the superlative. If you catch yourself in an "always" or "never," you're building a wall, not setting a boundary.BENCHING - the roster analogy. "I realized she was benching me when she only called when her first choice fell through." How to spot when you're the backup, and why "second string" isn't a compliment.ORBITING - the modern breakup twist. The ex who watches your stories, likes the vacation post, comments on the YouTube video. Not secretly stalking (that would be silent). Deliberately visible. "I want you to know I'm still around." We get into why orbiting is a soft power play, why it's usually the person who did the breaking up, and how to shut it down without being cruel.What we cover:✓ Blended family math - the co-parent flakiness edition✓ Zombieing: the ex who comes back from the dead✓ Walls vs Boundaries - the superlative tell✓ "Mindful and kind" as the actual mantra✓ Benching - are you the starter or the roster?✓ Orbiting - the visible-on-purpose ex✓ How to spot when you're the one doing any of these✓ Why dating after divorce means finally naming the patternThis one's for you if: you're dating in your 30s and 40s and beyond after divorce, you've been on either side of any of these, or you just want the vocabulary to name what's happening while it's happening.💬 Which one of these got you the hardest? Zombieing? Benching? Orbiting? Drop it in the comments - we're reading every one.🔔 Subscribe for honest, funny conversations about love after divorce in your 30s and 40s and beyond.📚 Resources & Links:🌐 Website: BraveEnoughForLove.com🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3o9B86i28QSt5biD4but0F🎧 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/brave-enough-for-love/id1880364062🎧 Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/a85721e4-20e8-4460-94d5-372e5bb34238/brave-enough-for-love📺 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BraveEnoughForLove🎵 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@braveenoughforlove📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/braveenoughforlove/📧 Email: info@braveenoughforlove.com#DatingTermsGame #Zombieing #Benching #Orbiting #WallsVsBoundaries #DatingAfterDivorce #LoveAfterDivorce #ModernDating #DatingIn30s #DatingIn40s #BraveEnoughForLove #DivorcePodcast

We're back with our favorite ridiculous game: "what does this modern dating term actually mean?" The vocabulary keeps changing under our feet - situationships, cuffing season, dating detox, ex factor, leaving on read - and if you're dating in your 30s and 40s and beyond after divorce, half of these words didn't exist the last time you were single.So we wrote them on cards and defined them on the mic. The good. The bad. The "this was basically my whole entire marriage."We get into love bombing (Kabrina's "this was my whole marriage" moment, plus the heart-necklaces-from-dad childhood memory that taught her what it felt like), the dating detox Kabrina was about to start the week she met Chris, the speed-dating event she turned into a psychology experiment, the cruelty of leaving someone on read, and the most important one - "you can't make someone love you."Plus: the reticular activating system, the journal entry where Kabrina wrote down exactly who Chris would turn out to be, blended family math (measured in chicken nuggets and toilet paper), and Chris's childhood ninja-samurai stick games. Because we contain multitudes.✓ Multigenerational definitions of "hooking up" - Gen X and Millennial don't agree✓ Dating intentions: how to be honest about whether you want casual or long-term✓ Dating detox - when to give yourself a break, and why "I stopped looking" is when it happens✓ Cuffing season explained (Kabrina thought it was a wedding thing)✓ The ex factor: how an ex weighs into your new relationship, especially with kids✓ Love bombing: the cycle, the control underneath it, and how to spot it✓ Why "leaving on red" steals closure (and the chance to become a better person)✓ Envisioning your ideal partner - the journal entry method that actually works✓ Blended family math: the logistical AND emotional calculus of two families becoming oneThis one's for you if: you're dating after divorce and the language keeps shifting, or you're a year-or-two into a new relationship and recognizing patterns from the last one in real time.💬 Which one of these terms did you have to look up the first time you heard it? Drop it in the comments - we'll roast it (or define it) in the next round.🔔 Subscribe for honest, funny conversations about love after divorce in your 30s and 40s and beyond.📚 Resources & Links:🌐 Website: BraveEnoughForLove.com🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3o9B86i28QSt5biD4but0F🎧 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/brave-enough-for-love/id1880364062🎧 Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/a85721e4-20e8-4460-94d5-372e5bb34238/brave-enough-for-love📺 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BraveEnoughForLove🎵 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@braveenoughforlove📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/braveenoughforlove/📧 Email: info@braveenoughforlove.com#DatingTermsGame #LoveBombing #CuffingSeason #DatingAfterDivorce #LoveAfterDivorce #ModernDating #DatingIn30s #DatingIn40s #BraveEnoughForLove #DivorcePodcast

The Dating Terms Game is back. Part 2.

Chris and Kabrina decode the new dating vocabulary that's everywhere right now — situationships, halfsey-ships (one person fully in, the other only halfway), breadcrumbing, and the rest. With a closing line we're putting on a t-shirt: "Love is blind. Dating's not."

But first, the opening bit: the marriage hangover. The leftover habits and reflexes you carry out of your first marriage and into your new relationship — like jumping up to do the dishes because there's a 1% chance she might be mad you're not. (She's never been mad. The 1% wins anyway.)

If you're dating in your 30s and 40s and beyond after divorce, or you just want a translator for the language Gen Z is using to date right now, this one's for you.

✓ The "marriage hangover" opener — Chris's dishes-and-the-1%-chance story

✓ The "am I too much?" voice that keeps showing up in your new relationship

✓ The "golden string" metaphor for two whole people who finally found each other

✓ Halfsey-ship explained: when one person is all in and the other shows up halfway

✓ Situationship as a SPECTRUM — and why so many people are accidentally in one

✓ A real script for telling a coworker "no, my partner and I will come to dinner"

✓ "Love is blind. Dating's not." — the line you're going to repeat for a year

This one's for you if: you're dating after divorce and the vocabulary keeps changing under your feet, or you're a year-or-two into a new relationship and you keep catching yourself with reactions that belong to the old one.

💬 What dating term has confused you the most? Drop it in the comments and we'll define it (or roast it) in Part 3.

🔔 Subscribe for honest, funny conversations about love after divorce in your 30s and 40s and beyond.

📚 Resources & Links:

🌐 Website: BraveEnoughForLove.com

🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3o9B86i28QSt5biD4but0F

🎧 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/brave-enough-for-love/id1880364062

🎧 Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/a85721e4-20e8-4460-94d5-372e5bb34238/brave-enough-for-love

📺 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BraveEnoughForLove

🎵 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@braveenoughforlove

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/braveenoughforlove/

📧 Email: info@braveenoughforlove.com

#DatingTermsGame #Halfseyship #Situationship #DatingAfterDivorce #LoveAfterDivorce #ModernDating #DatingIn30s #DatingIn40s #BraveEnoughForLove #DivorcePodcast #MarriageHangover

We thought we'd done our homework after Episode 1. We had not.Round 2 of the dating-terms guessing game and somehow we are MORE confused than we were before. New terms, worse guesses, and the dawning horror that the dating world has invented a vocabulary specifically to make divorced adults feel ancient.Chris and Kabrina back at it — still laughing, still losing, still very glad we are not currently single.What we get into:- The terms TikTok keeps trying to make happen- Words that sound made up but are absolutely not (sorry)- The one Chris guessed right (he is unbearable about it for 20 minutes)- Which terms describe healthy behavior vs. red flags wearing a costume- What we wish we'd known these words meant 10 years ago- More running score chaos and at least one full hijacked tangent- Why naming this stuff actually helps you spot itIf Episode 1 made you laugh, this one's the same vibe with more confusion. Perfect for the laundry-folding hour or the I-can't-look-at-divorce-content-right-now hour.#DatingAfterDivorce #LifeAfterDivorce #DatingTerms #ModernDating #BraveEnoughForLove

The dating world has its own language now and nobody handed us the dictionary. So we played a game.In this episode, Chris and Kabrina sit down and try to define modern dating terms — the ones our kids use, the ones we hear thrown around on TikTok, the ones our newly-divorced friends are crying about over wine. Most of our guesses are unhinged. Some are accidentally right. All of them are very, very telling about how dating has changed since we were last single.This is a light, fun episode. No heavy lifting. Just two divorced adults bracing themselves for what "the dating pool" actually looks like in 2026.What we get into:- Why dating after divorce now requires a glossary- Our wildly wrong first guesses (and the real definitions)- The terms that did NOT exist last time we were dating- Which of these are real warning signs vs. just internet noise- The one term that made us both go "oh no, we have done that"- What this all says about dating after divorce as a 30+, 40+ adult- Game updates, scoring chaos, and Kabrina absolutely cooking ChrisIf you're recently divorced, freshly out of a long relationship, or just trying to make sense of how dating apps and TikTok rewrote the rules — pull up a chair. This one's for you.#DatingAfterDivorce #LifeAfterDivorce #DatingTerms #ModernDating #BraveEnoughForLove

Marriage ended. Co-parenting did not. Welcome to the lifetime subscription you didn't know you signed up for.Chris and Kabrina on the very specific chaos of co-parenting after divorce — the group texts about pickup times that somehow take 47 messages, the holiday math, the moment you realize "till death do us part" got replaced with "till the youngest turns 18."This isn't a fight episode. It's a how-do-we-actually-do-this-thing episode. With a lot of laughing about the parts nobody warned us about.What we get into:- Why co-parenting is its own full-time job nobody trained you for- The Sunday-night handoff energy (and how to not let it wreck your week)- Keeping the kids out of the middle when adult stuff is messy- The "two-house life" — making it feel normal for your kids- How to stop bracing for every text notification- When to respond and when to put the phone down for 4 hours- Why focusing on your kid's peace is the cheat codeThis one's for every divorced parent who has ever stared at a co-parenting app like it owed them money. You're not failing. This is just hard. We're in it too.#CoParenting #DatingAfterDivorce #LifeAfterDivorce #DivorceRecovery #BraveEnoughForLove

Pepper spray? Check. Location shared with your bestie via a group chat named "If I Die Tonight"? Check. A vibe check so finely tuned you could detect red flags from orbit? Also check.Welcome to dating after divorce — the only sport where the warm-up is filling out a 47-question personality quiz and the final boss is deciding what to wear.Your first date back out there might feel like the scariest thing you've done since signing those papers. We get it — because we lived it. The last time either of us did this, flip phones were still cool. Now there are apps, filters, and people who unironically put "entrepreneur" in their bio with a yacht they rented once.In this episode, Chris and Kabrina get real (and really hilarious) about what it takes to make a first date feel safe, fun, and pressure-free when you're starting over. No awkward scripts. No "rules" from a textbook written in 1998. Just two real people sharing what actually worked for them — and what went so sideways you can only laugh about it years later.✓ Why the coffee date is the GOAT of first dates (90 minutes, easy exit, caffeine-powered courage)✓ How to set boundaries without sounding like a HR presentation✓ The honesty move that builds instant trust AND filters out the weirdos in 10 minutes flat✓ What to do when first-date nerves hit at the table and your body forgets how to eat✓ How to stay true to who you are NOW, not the version of you your marriage turned you into✓ The one question Chris asked on date one that made Kabrina go "oh, he's different"This one's for you if: you're newly single, recently divorced, or Googling "am I too old to date" at 1am. Spoiler: you're not. You're seasoned. You're delicious. You're a whole meal.You're not starting over. You're starting smarter. (And with pepper spray.)💬 Tell us: What's your weirdest, funniest, or most "did that really just happen" first date story after divorce? Drop it below. We read every single one.🔔 New here? Subscribe and hit the bell — we drop new episodes weekly for every adult out here trying to love again without losing their minds.📚 Resources & Links:🌐 Website: BraveEnoughForLove.com🎧 Podcast: Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you listen📧 Email: info@braveenoughforlove.com📱 YouTube: @BraveEnoughForLove#DatingAfterDivorce #FirstDateTips #FirstDateAfterDivorce #HealingAfterDivorce #LoveAfterDivorce #DivorcePodcast #StartingOverAfterDivorce #BraveEnoughForLove #DatingInYour40s #SecondChancesInLove

We were "just friends." That's what we kept telling everyone. That's what we kept telling ourselves. That's what we told our group chats with increasingly suspicious emoji use.Reader: we were not, in fact, just friends.This is the story of two divorced parents who agreed to meet up for coffee, got nervous in the parking lot like a couple of teenagers, and left that first date somehow BOTH more terrified and more hopeful than they'd felt in years.In this episode, Chris and Kabrina take you inside their actual first date — the shaky hands, the laugh that wouldn't stop, the moment the conversation went so deep so fast it felt almost illegal. And that quiet, thudding realization: oh. OH. This one is different.If you've been wondering whether real love is possible after everything you've been through… if you've been surviving on Trader Joe's frozen meals and Real Housewives and the vague hope that maybe one day… press play.✓ Why building a friendship first completely changes the dynamic (and keeps you from rebound-dating someone with major red flags)✓ The EXACT moment Chris realized Kabrina was unlike anyone he'd ever met✓ How being vulnerable on a first date actually works — a full inversion of every dating rule from your 20s✓ What it feels like to be yourself again after years of shrinking into a smaller version of you✓ The tiny signals that told them both "this person is safe" before they could put it into wordsThis one's for you if: you're wondering if love can ever feel easy again. If someone can see the real you — the messy, healing, therapy-in-progress, still-Googling-"is-this-normal" version of you — and stay.Spoiler: they can. And when it happens, you'll know.💬 Tell us: Do you believe in love at first conversation? What was the moment YOU knew someone was different? Drop it in the comments.🔔 Subscribe and hit the bell — you belong in this community. We're all figuring it out together.📚 Resources & Links:🌐 Website: BraveEnoughForLove.com🎧 Podcast: Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you listen📧 Email: info@braveenoughforlove.com📱 YouTube: @BraveEnoughForLove#LoveAfterDivorce #FirstDateStory #DatingAfterDivorce #HealingAfterDivorce #FriendshipToLove #RealLoveStory #BraveEnoughForLove #DivorcePodcast #SecondChancesInLove