Date Night

I don't know about any of you, but I feel a serious need to have a date night with DH! I honestly can't remember when we were out without any of our children. How often do you get out and who watches your kiddos?

Thank you for reading this! I appreciate your input more than you know!

Sincerely,
A SAHM who is about to go nuts because I've forgotten what it feels like to dress up in heels and wear something that doesn't have poop or barf on it!

 

Ha! But spit-up and poop can be such a great accessory!

We rarely ever hire a sitter so my husband and I only get out together, maybe, twice a year. To get us through the rest of the year we take turns going out with our friends every few weeks while the other stays home. Maybe I'll go catch a movie or have a drink, he usually goes to a bar with his buddy. It's not the same as an "us" night but it works. It's tough to justify dinner + drinks x 2 + sitter. Ouch, that adds up too quickly for us.

I am looking forward to Christmas with my folks since we'll probably have them watch the girls so that we can go out on the town one night.

If you need a date night, make it happen! It can be so good for the soul to just be a grown-up (not mom, nurse, maid, cook, etc) for an evening.

 

DH & I aren't out-on-the-town people so our date nights usually consist of picking something to watch together on Netflix - we put the girls to bed, grab some munchies & curl up on the couch. When we do go out, we usually go see some live theatre (I get a lot of comps because of my theatre connections) while my brother or his parents watch the girls for free. We don't like to take advantage so we probably only do that 3 or 4 times a year. We've been very blessed in having free childcare available to us.

 

We go out probably once a month. We try for every other week, but it's probably not that often. We hire my BFF's daughter- she's 17 & fantastic! I don't worry a bit, as she adores the boys and is completely capable.

When I don't feel like we can afford to go out, I have DH put the boys to bed, go 'pretty up' & after they are in bed we eat a candlelight dinner together. I usually have it in the oven, ready to go for when they're in bed.

I love going out with DH. I feel like it's too important not to do - we need time to be just a couple instead of parents.

 

When I start to get really cranky, moody, and emotional-it's time for a date night. I just need some time away from the routine of the day. I would say, maybe once a month? Sometimes more. Sometimes less. It seems that we go through spurts-we will go out two weekends in a row....and then not go out for two months!

We are lucky that we have our family nearby to babysit. But we both hate asking our mothers to do it(his mom because she will always say yes, and my mom because it's always a hassle). We have talked about hiring a babysitter(he has a 15 year old cousin), but the cost of that alone for three kids has me worried!

 

Like Meaghan, when i start to get irritated at every little thing, and the kids are driving me crazy, I just tell DH I *need* to get out of the house for awhile. I don't really care what we do, but it's gotta be away from the kiddo's. We just went tonight. Nothing fancy. Five guys burgers and a movie. But it gave me a break for a few hours from the 24/7 job of being a SAHM.

We are so lucky my inlaws watch the kids for us when we do go out. But, it's honestly only about 2-3 times a year, if that. When we go out to eat on our birthdays and anniversary we usually take the kids with us, it's our "family time". But a few nights of the year we do try to go out on our own.

DH just suggested tonight that in the new year we might try to make it a monthly thing, but we shall see

 

I think we try at least once a monto but sometimes it's less. DH isn't big on going out so he prefers to stay in. I have a girls night with my best friend every month. I definitely think it is necessary to be an adult without children just to keep sane.

 

We get out every couple months or so, LOL. I would like to do it more, but we only have 1 set of parents here and I need them for soccer. I am missing soccer on Tuesday so my parents can come on Weds for us to go out for our anniversary.

I don't know about any of you but the 2 nights a month off we have together (no joke, he works nights, plays darts one of his nights off, and I have twins group and girls night each once a month) I'm just happy to sit down with him, have a beer and watch a movie or hockey. Exciting and glamourous, not so much, but it works for us!

 

At least once a month. Usually one of my SIL's or my Mom will watch the kids. Sometimes it's just a couple of hours so we can grab dinner or go to the gym together. It's just nice for me to get out with DH child free, even if it means we are just going to Target or grocery shopping.

 

about once a month I sooo look forward to it. We usually go shopping for a day, or do an evening movie and dinner. I have fantastic parents and in-laws that are always willing to babysit! It is soooo important to take care of your relationshil with DH. Make it happen girl!

 

We don't actually go out since we don't have anyone to watch the kids but we try to do something after the kids go to bed a couple of times a month. We usually sit on the couch and talk or watch a movie together. Sometimes Dh will pick us up something for dinner or even just a desert. Just being able to relax together without kiddos around is enough to recharge us. I'm trying to think when the last time we actually went away ourselves and its probably been over a year.

 

we go out every couple of weeks. we are super double blessed to have my mom and sister and his parents in town and they all love keeping the kids so we have never had to pay for a sitter. I am sure our date nights would change if we had to pay for a sitter LOL. We also do "couch dates" if we are to tired or to broke to go out and do a redbox or netflix movie and a snack on the couch after the kids are all in bed. Just any amount of time in or out of the house to reconnect is worth it.

 

We never had date nights without the kids until they were about 2 years old because we lived in a state where we had no family and didn't know where to find a reliable sitter. Plus my kids had a lot of issues and I didn't really trust anyone other than family with them. Now, we live 1 street over from my retired dad and he watches them once a week. Every Sunday, our routine is to go over to my dad's for dinner, then the girls spend the night with him and me and DH go out to the movies or bowling. It's great! I really look forward to Sundays because we get both family together time and our much needed alone time. We're really lucky that my dad is so hands on and he really enjoys spending time with the girls. In fact if he doesn't get to spend his weekly time with them he gets all sad! It's kinda funny.

 

Reading this thread has reminded me how very lucky DH and I are. In fact, I think we might be downright spoiled, LOL. My parents live nearby so the boys spend a Saturday night with them once or twice a month. And there is nothing like a night out on the town AND getting to sleep in the next day! Then my mom stops by most Fridays after she gets off from work and often times we slip out for an early and quickish dinner then and get home in time to tuck the boys in. My mom adores spending time with the boys and insists on stopping by every week if at all possible. Earlier this summer we paid our former nanny/house cleaner to babysit twice because we had plans during the week when its not convenient for my mom to babysit. And yes, $40 on top of dinner and drinks out is too expensive to do often. So its nice not having to pay my mom for babysitting. Though eating out several times a month is not good for my waist or my wallet :lol:

 

That is me!!!!

We get out once in a while but are lucky because DH's family lives very close (5 min drive) and my family is about an hour away so we have only even had family babysit. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't trust anyone else with the kids and even at that I only trust my ILs if the kids are in bed, or close to it, when we leave ! Usually though I'm too tired to do anything exciting or stay out late and we can't afford to do much of anything now so we don't go out much. Like someone else said we will eat a special dinner after the kids are in bed, have a beer and watch a movie...usually I'm in my PJs though so no dressing up!

I would LOVE to be able to send them all somewhere overnight so DH and I can have a relaxing evening and I can sleep in but that hasn't happened yet...I'm hoping it will soon since the girls are now no longer in cribs! To be honest at this point I would rather go to bed and try to get some sleep then dress up and stay out late but hopefully someday that will change .

 

Our daycare does "date night" once a month which was AWESOME when all our kids went there. Now that my older son is in school, there is no point in using the date night because we would still have to get a sitter for him. My in-laws are really generous about watching the kids. We do sitters once every couple of months, but it's a splurge because our favorite sitter costs 13$/hour. Like others have mentioned, not eating out has actually been good for us anyway (health-wise, money-wise). Not so great for the marriage though...

 

Oh ladies... here's an update for you! I FINALLY got my date night last Saturday night. DH made reservations for dinner and a hotel, my mom came over to stay the night and babysit, my hair looked good, I was looking confident in my skinny pants (how I love my spanx!)... everything was going so perfect and then... I actually fell ill with the flu in the middle of dinner and had to go back to the hotel. No cocktails, no grown up food, no live music, no! no! no! Then on Sunday, just as I was slowly getting on the mend, DH fell ill and I got to go home and take care of all 3 kids, umm, well 4 if you count my husband who slept on the couch and watched football.

Thank goodness I still have my sense of humor because seriously I would cry otherwise. This is my life! Isn't it grand!

 

I'm so sorry! Isn't that just the way it works? I'm glad y'all tried, though. Better luck next time.

 

Oh no! It won't happen next time. For date night last week, my DH hit a pole at the bank with our good friends' car. So we're paying their deductible this week. This is easily the most expensive date night we've had in a LONG time! :laughing: