Every now and then, my husband and I have a “date night” where we go out, to relive our pre-parent days. Except, before we had our daughter, we didn’t actually ever go on dates, we just, er, went out. You know, we’d go out for dinner, or to the pub, or to watch a movie. We didn’t call them dates, we just left the house and went out.
But now we’re parents, we have “date nights” which require a huge amount of organisation. We organise a babysitter. We get dinner request from babysitter and buy in said-dinner for babysitter. We leave written instructions on how to use our Sky box and TV for babysitter. We put baby monitor and spare dummies in an obvious place for babysitter. We generally leave for our date night feeling exhausted and wondering if it’s worth the effort.
And there are some rules for Date Night:
1. Go somewhere that you’d never go with kids. No one wants a date night in Giraffe or, in fact, anywhere that has high chairs, free balloons and a kids’ menu. Somewhere dark, with lots of steps that you’d never get a buggy up/down, that sells scallops and martinis = perfect.
2. The second rule of Date Night is you don’t talk about Date Night. (Oh no, hang on, that’s Fight Club, isn’t it?)
3. Consider somewhere that requires concentration (something young kids don’t have). A movie, for example, or a play. My husband and I recently went to see Warhorse at London’s National Theatre. It was amazing and emotional and stunning. I cried. (Seriously – go see it. Superbreak do some awesome-looking theatre breaks). Oh but don’t go to see something where bad things happen to kids (I’ve heard that Impossible is not a movie for parents of a weepy disposition.)
4. Don’t talk about the kids too much. But don’t put so much effort into not talking about them that all you want to do is talk about them.
5. Don’t drink so much that you can’t handle the next day. If the thought of running around a soft play centre before watching six episodes of Fireman Sam makes you wretch, you’ve drunk too much. Unless of course, you’ve been lucky and bagged a night away. In that case, have those extra (four) martinis.
FYI peeps – Superbreak gave me two tickets for Warhorse for the purpose of this post.
Oh my gosh so important! I do that, when the in laws come to visit we automatically make plans for a date night.
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Good to hear that, Dina! Visiting in-laws is the best time to do it, as it’s zero effort for them!
I have a “date night” on saturday and I cant wait! a child free evening! We do not do it very often so its nice when we do! 🙂
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How did it go??
Lovely lovely date night! This makes me wish we lived nearer a grandparent for easier babysitting. Although saying that we’ve started to have mini date nights where, even though we’re staying in, we have good food / wine and watch a film (and put our phones away!) which is still nice.
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Such a good idea, Gill. And putting phones away is key. I’m such a slave to mine 🙁
My hubby and I don’t get that many ‘date nights’ when we are in UK as we haven’t got a babysitter yet (lots of nights in with wine though!) but we went away to see my family for 2 weeks abroad and we had 5 date nights! We had an amazing time. We talked so much and made so many plans for the next year. AND I got to dress up properly without chasing my little darling around (mum was doing all of that)! Looking for reliable babysitter now!:)
LOVE this! Those are wise words – especially about not having too much to drink. I’ve made that mistake before and banned any date nights forever more the next day after feeling awful. Of course, they always happen again but it would be lovely not to have that wine guilt the day after a wonderful date night! x
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We should start having date weekends to avoid that hungover-next-day feeling, shouldn’t we? The worst one for me was after my birthday drinks last month – a very hungover me and husband didn’t know HOW we would survive the day and ended up having a jam-packed day at a Christmassy garden centre with ice rink. *shudders at memory*
I loved reading this – made me giggle, it is soo true! We had no babysitters at all when we had my first one. My parents lived abroad and she was such a bad sleeper we could never have left her with someone she wasn’t really close to as she woke up most nights before 10pm for a cuddle.
My parents now live round the corner – bliss! We have a date night booked in for Friday and the kids are having a sleepover at the grandparents. I can’t wait.