Friendly Advice
Remember when you were getting married or having your first baby and you heard the advice about “Designate one night a week for a date night.” I love this idea! Let’s do this!
Burst my bubble … that’s not going to work for my family of 6 with two full-time working parents. It has actually been months since we have had a date night alone. Maybe March? We do not have grandparents that live in town so we have to rely on a babysitter. So here is how our spontaneous date night went down.
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This week my husband was out of state for work and I was tackling all the family things. Did my husband tell me to take the week off? Yes. Bless him. Did I listen? No. I was going to tackle this week and be super mom! The very first morning of him being away I was ready to wave the white flag. I can do hard things I kept telling myself. And I can, but I also am mentally exhausted and had the humbling moment when I realized, “I can’t do it all.” It was a hard week. Did we get through it? Of course, but it was a hard week. I felt like I was spiraling and needed to feel grounded again. There were at least 50 open browsers in my brain. I was tackling all the home front responsibilities and my husband was tackling all of his work responsibilities. We didn’t have that much time to talk to one another and we were out of sync.
In the meantime, our family babysitter, Abbey, posted dates that she had available during the week. I asked her to watch our kiddos while my husband and I could go to dinner together and she said yes. Brave soul. And so I did it … it was a weeknight which made things even more spontaneous.
Here We Go
***Text to husband: “You’re taking me on a date tonight. I arranged a sitter. You pick the place.” I waited nervously for a response thinking he was going to say, “Not tonight, maybe another time.” But, he was excited! He started sending me texts of menus and funny GIFs! I think he was flirting with me?!?! This was exciting!
We headed to Beausoleil. Great date night spot, great food and drinks, and such a kind staff. We talked and talked without interruption. We had in-depth detailed conversations about what was going on in the upcoming month. From the kids starting school to situations at work, and then went over our “to do” lists. We talked about our kids and laughed about funny things they would say. The conversations we had would have never happened while we were home with the kids. We had so much fun together. We ate in peace. It was simple and it was awesome.
I can definitely acknowledge the importance of a good date night. It may not be every week but we do what we can. I do know that a spontaneous date night wins. Try it.
My 3 Fave Things This Week Linked!
