On this episode of The Therapy Edit's 'One thing', Anna Mathur chats with Steph Douglas,

Steph's one thing that she would like to impart to other parents is that having children puts a unique pressure on a marriage and shares her advice for focussing on family foundations.

Steph Douglas founded thoughtful gift company Don’t Buy Her Flowers in 2014. Prior to running the business, Steph worked in Brand and Marketing and then started a blog, writing honestly about motherhood, relationships and trying to be a grown up while never feeling quite like she knew what she was doing. Posts included ‘When New Mums Get Angry’, ‘With this ring, I give you my dregs’’, and the postnatal ‘Pulling up the Drawbridge’ post that went viral with over 110k views to date. Steph recently launched The Don’t Buy Her Flowers podcast, an evolution of the blog, that enables Steph to find out how other people are coping. Or not.

The idea for Don’t Buy Her Flowers came about when Steph received lots of well-meant bouquets after her first baby, but felt overwhelmed by them and wondered whether there was a more thoughtful gift that offered TLC and encouraged the recipient to take a bit of time for themselves. Seven years on DBHF now has 20+ employees, is in it’s second warehouse (a far cry from Steph packing on her bedroom floor for the first couple of years) and saw huge growth during the pandemic as people looked for thoughtful gifts, allowing them to invest in growth as well as, importantly, increase donations to long-term charity partners including Cancer Research UK and introduce some new ones too.

Steph has three children under twelve, is married to Doug and loves naps, gin and re-watching films she’s seen a hundred times so it doesn’t require her brain.

Follow Steph at @stephdontbuyherflowers and visit the Don't Buy Here Flowers website here https://www.dontbuyherflowers.com