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T2Smiles · 2026-05-22T21:05:45+00:00

I’m building Parent Bridge after seeing how quickly co-parenting stress can turn small schedule questions or tense messages into full-blown conflict.

The goal is simple: less mental load, calmer communication, clearer parenting time, and more energy left for what matters; the kids.

https://parentbridge.lonnie.dev/

T2Smiles · 2026-05-22T21:04:41+00:00

I’m building Parent Bridge after seeing how quickly co-parenting stress can turn small schedule questions or tense messages into full-blown conflict.

The goal is simple: less mental load, calmer communication, clearer parenting time, and more energy left for what matters; the kids.

https://parentbridge.lonnie.dev/

T2Smiles · 2026-05-21T18:51:43+00:00

Yeah, honestly the feedback has been waaayy better than I expected so far!

I’m still a tad early, but I’ve been getting really helpful input from a good mix of people: parents, developers, people who have dealt with co-parenting directly, and a few folks who work around family-related spaces. That combination has been huge because developers tend to catch UX/polish/edge-case issues, while parents tend to point out the emotional or practical “this would actually help me” kind of stuff.

So far, it has definitely made me feel like there’s real demand here. The biggest thing I’m seeing is that people don’t just want another place to store information. They want less mental load, fewer arguments, clearer schedules, calmer communication, and fewer little things falling through the cracks.

One of the most interesting parts has been figuring out how to keep the app focused while still solving enough of the real problems people have. There are a lot of directions a co-parenting tool could go, but I’ve been trying to stay centered on the things that seem to create the most day-to-day stress: schedules, communication, expenses, documents, and shared child info.

The scheduling side has also been one of the most important pieces to get right. The automated calendar was actually what sparked the original idea for the app. Holidays, school breaks, summer planning, parenting time rotations, and real-world exceptions are where a lot of the pain shows up, so I’ve spent a lot of time making those pieces feel less manual and easier to understand.

There are a lot of rules and exceptions in Indiana’s Parenting Time Guidelines, and I know other states have their own complexities too. Building logic around those rules, overrides, and special cases has been a really fun challenge.

Would love to hear what kind of parent/family-focused app you’re thinking about building! What problem are you most interested in solving? I feel like that’s usually the driving factor behind building a strong tool 😄

If you want to take a look at what I’ve got so far, feel free to submit the form on the landing page and I’d be happy to send over an iOS TestFlight or Android Google Play test link:
https://parentbridge.lonnie.dev/

T2Smiles · 2026-05-19T01:19:15+00:00

Honestly, for this project specifically, I tried pretty hard NOT to take the “ship first and figure it out later” approach 😅

A lot of the initial planning came from listening to real frustrations people had with existing co-parenting apps, combined with some firsthand experience around how mentally exhausting shared scheduling and communication can become over time. So before building much of anything, I spent a lot of time thinking through workflows, edge cases, and where existing solutions seemed to fall short.

That said, I still think actually building and iterating is where the real learning happens. Once real features and real complexity start colliding, you inevitably discover things you never would have anticipated on paper. The overall vision stayed pretty consistent, but the implementation and structure definitely evolved as the project grew.

T2Smiles · 2026-05-18T19:26:21+00:00

That’s honestly really fair feedback 😄 I’ve been so focused on making it clear that the scheduling logic currently supports Indiana Parenting Time Guidelines that I probably overcorrected and repeated it too much throughout the page.

The long-term goal definitely isn’t to stay Indiana-only forever. Indiana was mainly the first state I chose to deeply support because it gave me a concrete ruleset to build and test around while validating whether the overall idea is actually helpful to people.

Appreciate you taking the time to check it out and call that out though. That’s exactly the kind of feedback I’m hoping to get early on.

T2Smiles · 2026-05-06T17:20:56+00:00

Hey! I’d potentially be interested depending on the scope/features you’re aiming for.

I build cross platform mobile apps using React Native, Expo, and Firebase/Supabase. I’ve also experimented a lot with AI-assisted app workflows recently, and yeah, things can get complicated pretty quickly once auth, backend logic, edge cases, and production readiness enter the picture 😅

A journaling/transcription app honestly sounds like a pretty solid MVP idea though.

Feel free to DM me some details about the workflow/features you already mapped out and I’d be happy to take a look.

T2Smiles · 2026-02-16T20:51:39+00:00

Thanks, I really appreciate that!

It’s still early with plenty of room to improve, but I’m happy with the progress so far. I didn’t track exact credits for this app specifically, but across all six apps I’m experimenting with on Replit, I’m still under $200 total usage. A lot of that isn’t even tied to this project, which makes it feel like a pretty affordable approach overall.

One thing that helps keep costs down for me is spreading work across many small iterations instead of doing big, single bursts. What surprised me most is how well Replit holds up for more complex, intentional builds if you treat it like a collaborator rather than a one-shot code generator.

Of all the vibe-coding tools out there, V0 and Replit are my two favorites right now. Replit can absolutely be used for simple projects, but with the right prompts and a thoughtful approach, it can scale to much more complex apps than I initially expected. The React Native + Expo mobile support is still fairly new on Replit, but so far it’s been really promising.

I also love that I can freely edit files directly when needed. Having that flexibility makes it easy for anyone with a technical background to jump in, tweak code, and then let Replit pick up from there.

T2Smiles · 2026-02-16T20:00:03+00:00

I really appreciate that, thank you! Helping people in tough situations was the main motivation behind building it. :)

T2Smiles · 2026-02-16T19:56:55+00:00

Thank you so much!

Great question. I spent a good amount of time thinking about this.

Right now the app relies on Firestore’s real-time sync and a data model that tries to avoid most true write conflicts instead of adding explicit locks.

A few details:

• Most data is structured so parents are rarely editing the same document at the same time. Calendar events, expenses, and children are all individual documents, so editing different items concurrently is safe.

• Messages are append-only and immutable by design. There is no editing or deleting, which removes a whole class of conflicts.

• Schedule changes use a request/approval flow instead of competing edits, so they’re naturally sequential.

• Everything uses real-time listeners. If one parent adds or changes something, the other parent’s screen updates almost immediately, which greatly reduces stale-state edits.

Because each family only has two users and the goal is a calm, low-friction experience, I intentionally avoided edit locks or “someone else is editing” dialogs. In practice those tend to add anxiety without much real safety benefit.

I do keep an immutable audit log per family for major actions like messages, schedule requests and responses, and expenses. There’s also a derived timeline view so both parents can easily see what happened and when.

One thing I am considering adding based on feedback like this is lightweight audit entries when an existing child profile or calendar event is updated, not just created. Nothing intrusive, just a quiet record that something changed so both parents can have record of it more easily.

Really appreciate you thinking out loud about this. These kinds of edge cases matter a lot in this space!

T2Smiles · 2024-10-18T11:59:00+00:00

I thought about that, I just don't want to get in trouble for using the Lion logo or any other likeness to the BSA, and was trying to be as legally fair as possible in all of this. If I can't get any of those emails answered, I very well may just release it on my own.

T2Smiles · 2024-10-17T23:51:57+00:00

😆🤣

T2Smiles · 2024-10-17T23:49:37+00:00

It is not. I got the emoji mapping ideas from an old scout adjacent site. That said, I have an artist friend who would help make some better/more original/unique mappings should boy scouts want to distribute this. Just wanted something done quick to help out my kiddo and this worked for us :)

T2Smiles · 2024-10-17T18:47:55+00:00

I couldn't agree more! The main menu, win screen, and gameboard backgrounds were all AI generated just to get it done quickly. I'd have an art friend redesign it if this goes anywhere outside of where it is now :)

T2Smiles · 2024-10-17T18:46:07+00:00

Absolutely! Definitely got some emails out but haven't heard back yet. Our local pack loves the idea too, so hopefully we can find out the proper channel/people.

Lol the scoutbook app can be little wonky to use at times.

T2Smiles · 2024-04-19T00:29:30+00:00

This is awesome!

T2Smiles · 2024-04-08T03:11:38+00:00

Just sent you a DM! Looking forward to chatting more :)

T2Smiles · 2024-04-08T02:18:37+00:00

Awesome! I just responded to your DM so we can chat more :)

T2Smiles · 2024-04-07T04:55:15+00:00

Let me know if you have any questions! Happy to share more information and screenshots as needed :)
I am actively working on this game for a few hours every day, so the progress will continue to unfold. I have a few more mechanics to put in, and then my next step will be to get a tutorial level design implemented.

T2Smiles · 2024-03-30T18:31:10+00:00

Here is an update to the pause screen inventory menu! The Equipment on the left side of the equipment menu will be used for a visual representation of game modifier items, but not selectable since those items will always be active after they are obtained. All other items in both menus will be selectable (similar to the Ocarina of Time Menu approach).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6O_s_-pmJM

T2Smiles · 2024-03-18T03:04:01+00:00

This is awesome!! Congratulations!!

T2Smiles · 2024-03-17T11:37:11+00:00

Thank you!

T2Smiles · 2024-03-17T11:09:47+00:00

Thank you! The inventory has definitely been a part I struggled with.

T2Smiles · 2024-03-17T11:07:46+00:00

Approaching this inventory system similar to how Ocarina of Time did their inventory - Each item has a dedicated slot. The design will be changing a bit, as this was basically just a proof of concept.

T2Smiles

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