How We Do - Date Night

I'm going to be achingly honest here: We don't do a full blown date night like so many folks we know.  There's the issue of childcare.  There are all these fabulous ideas for Free Date Nights, but there's still the issue of childcare to take in to consideration.  We have family that are occasionally willing to watch our kids so we can have some down time, but they all have busy schedules and live an hour away.  We tend to save those favors for big things, like weekends away.

So what does date night look like for us?  It doesn't.  Does that mean we don't take time together?  It doesn't.

We love our kids and we love to spend time with them.  However, bed time is bed time, and there are very few exceptions.  We offer strong discouragement to children who stall and break the bedtime rules.  We have our family worship time, we tuck our little people in, pray over them, and remind them of the next mornings routine.

And then we walk away.

That's the important part:  We all but lay aside our parenting card.  We have a big, noisy box fan that we turn on to help drown out any noise we might make or any of the small noises the kids make (we only go back upstairs for infractions that demand our attention).  

Some nights we watch a movie or a television show.  Some nights we talk about whatever needs to be talked about.  If it's pretty out, we might sit out on the deck and enjoy the scenery (but this is Alabama, so the mosquitoes generally drive us back inside pretty quickly!).  Occasionally, we'll each set up with our respective technologies or books and totally check out on each other.

But usually, we demand the others attention.  And that attention is usually accompanied by a shared dessert or snack of some kind.

It's not an evening at the movies or a restaurant, but there's a comfort in knowing that we have this time at the end of most days to just be together.  I look forward to each evening with my husband and I get cranky if we're too busy to have this time together.  There's a rightness to curling up next to him as we take in a favorite movie that can't be compared with lettuce wraps at the local Chinese bistro.

Here's the thing: It's not about what you do or where you go, it's about being intentional and sharing the time.  Don't get me wrong, we love the free-spiritedness that comes with a true date night when we kiss our sweeties good-bye and head out the door for some just us outing time.  But if it's not in your budget to pay a sitter and leave the house, I encourage you to find contentment in being with the one you love.

Plus, this is just around the corner for all of us.  Even you sweet new mama's with 2 kids under the age of 2 years.  It's coming.  Just hang on, love those babies, and cling to your hubby. 


***Want to know how others approach date night in their marriage?  Head over to Vitafamiliae.***