Inspiration Workshop: Date Nights
Matthew and I have really been working to make date nights a priority.
Yes, baby-sitters are expensive. (Although, we think we are going to start trading baby-sitting with another couple, which would be awesome!)
Yes, it can be hard to leave the kids with a sitter when we work full-time and our time with them is precious. (But, they are better off when their parents are investing in one another!)
Yes, it is worth it!
Matthew and I both love music and the arts, so our date nights are usually to go see a show or concert. Live events are a splurge we both find worth it.
Last month we went and saw Snow White and the Huntsman with another couple. It was so nice having adult conversation about topics other than “please eat your chicken” and “no, you can’t have three cookies” and holding hands in the movie theater.
This month we are going see Kristen Chenoweth! I was so thankful that tickets were on Groupon for 50% off. (Tip: sign up for sites like Groupon, Living Social and Mamapedia for great last minute local event deals.)
What is your favorite kind of date night?
we trade with couples and also have one couple who just likes to be paid with a meal – I fix their favorite meal (which is not an expense for me) and bring it over in disposable stuff so that after they eat they can just toss the mess – so she doesn’t have to cook or clean up from it and our kids play with each other – it works out well! 🙂
Date nights for us…….I don’t know, it varies. Sometimes just eating and walking around Target is good enough for me. Live shows are a huge splurge – we went last year to the American Idol concert and had a BLAST – but that’s a once every couple years kind of thing we would do.
You should watch sites like Groupon to get deals on live shows. I got the Kristen Chenoweth tix for like $20 each! Not bad for an unforgettable evening. We will often eat dinner at home to save money that way. 🙂
Hmmm, any kind of date that involves ice-cream or walking around the lake holding hands 😉
We have not been great about regular date nights, but want to be. So the other night, we got a babysitter for free (my husband is loaning our sitter his backpack for some trips she is going on this summer- so she is babysitting for us a few times at no charge). We are blessed to live at a camp, so we opted for a free date too and went night canoeing. It was one of my favorite dates ever. Looking at the stars while cuddling with hubby in the canoe was wonderful (and it being free made it much more enjoyable too).
That sounds like a perfect night.
Have you checked out Goldstar.com? I don’t know if they have it for your area, but it’s worth checking out. They have a bunch of deals for tickets to different plays and events for half off. It’s also good for events that you want to take the whole family to….they usually have kid friendly stuff on there too. But it would be cool if you could find some reasonable date night activities to attend 🙂
Bummer, they aren’t in Nashville!
Yes, Groupon is the best for finding affordable and unique date ideas! And you can often tentatively plan in advance without having to nail down specific day on the calendar!
We swap childcare with another couple for date nights about once or twice a month. Not only is it nice not to have to pay for childcare, it also is good accountability to actually go out on a date!
I totally agree on the importance of date night. We usually are fairly boring, going the whole dinner and a movie route but since we only do it once every couple of months it works for us. We are lucky enough to have both sets of grands willing and wanting to babysit.
So you’re saying I *shouldn’t* eat three cookies? 😉
My husband and I are nerdy – we usually just go out to dinner and then to our favorite books store, where we wander up and down the shelves, perusing through books. That’s our date just about every time, but it works! Getting to have that uninterrupted conversation is priceless, and we have a rule: no talking about the kids until after dinner. The first time we implemented that rule, the date was kinda quiet. 😉 But that’s okay – we just looked at each other and grinned all goofy!