Date Night Ideas?

I've often heard that planning date nights with spouse or s/o is really great for a relationship. What I've heard suggested most often is like once a week and although we've not tried it yet, it really does sound like a fun idea to me.

If you do date nights, how often? And what are some of your favorite things to plan? Is it always going out, or can movies and popcorn at home with kids at grandma's house qualify for your date nights?

I'm not really into theater movies (or home movies for that matter) so I'm not sure what I'd enjoy most. If monthly, I'd say something like a short weekend road trip... but weekly? I can't come up with a lot of ideas. During the summer months it would be easier with all the fairs, festivals, and carnivals.... but during these cold winter months? Is just a good meal at a restaurant enough to make it feel like a date night?

Date night can be any number of things depending on what your availability with a sitter is.

If you can get the kids in bed early enough, date night can most certainly be a nice dinner (preferably that you had delivered so you don't have any clean up!) and maybe a nice bottle of wine if you're so inclined.

And date night doesn't always have to be a night-time activity. We've done dates where the kids are at daycare and we each have some time off from work or out early and will have a leisurely lunch out or go to the local amusement park.

With kids you definitely have to be more creative - especially if you are limited on family members who can watch the kids or funds to pay for a sitter (plus date night is not the same as it used to be where you could stay out late and feel comfortable knowing you could sleep in as long as you wanted in the morning - now with kids even if you had a midnight or 1 AM bedtime, you can expect to be woken up at some ungodly hour by a little person who desperately needs their mama!!

Date night? What is that? lol

Ideally for me, a date night would be a quiet dinner with just my husband and I. If we had the time and available finances, a movie we both would enjoy would be nice.

With all of my children and fearing leaving one of them with anyone, we basically do not go out.

So for us, a date night is curling up on the bed or couch and watching a movie together or since we both like documentaries, we will do that from time to time. We also eat a lot later than the children most of the time. This gives us time to ourselves to enjoy a peaceful dinner that's actually hot and we're not trying to get the kids to eat or stop arguing.

We have been lucky enough to have a day here and there (though it's been quite some time) where we've both been free to go out on a lunch date. I think we may enjoy those even more because we are not nearly as tired!

Hi Widow,
I loved the intro to your post! You took the words right out of my mouth. My husband and I have not really gotten to go out on a date with out our kids in a long time. For a few reasons. The first being we are always broke all the time and second we live in a real crappy neighborhood and don't want to leave our 3 kids alone for long. My oldest son who is 19 stays with our two younger children when we have to go out without them. They fight a lot and one of them always call us up and starts in on how one of the others is bothering them. How can anyone relax and have a good time with that going on. As well as the fact that we have a weirdo neighbor that pretty much watches us leave and knows who is home and who isn't and has threaten to break into our house a few times. So as far as a date night goes for us we just stay home and watch movies and that is about it. If we are lucky we go and get a cup of coffee some where close by for an hour.

So for anyone here that has the chance to get away with their significant other for more than an hour or two enjoy it while you can. Now as far as an ideal date with my husband it would probably be a weekend at the beach in a nice hotel. With long walks by the shore and just enjoying each others company. One can only dream.

My daughter is a year old, and I would say our dates without her have only been around 2-3 hours tops. My husband's folks live nearby which is convenient, but I guess I feel a bit guilty leaving her for too long! I know that probably sounds silly, especially since my inlaws are only too keen to babysit, but it's hard for me to just leave her for longer than that!

Usually when we get time to go out for a nice dinner ourselves we are so used to shovelling our food into our mouths that we are done super quick and are like "what do we do now?"

LvMyFmly5 said:
For a few reasons. The first being we are always broke all the time and second we live in a real crappy neighborhood and don't want to leave our 3 kids alone for long. My oldest son who is 19 stays with our two younger children when we have to go out without them.

Those are very good reasons, LvMyFmly5! I wouldn't feel comfortable leaving kids home in a neighborhood where I know my house is watched like that. Shivers!

I think your ideas of movies at home and/or going out for coffee sometimes sounds like the type of thing that I'd like, too... sure doesn't need to be anything "big" or expensive for me to enjoy it!

Date nights with the couple alone can be very romantic; missing the kids at first will be the point of discussion but as the night goes on, you begin to recall the days it was just you two.

Date nights should not be as often as a week but once a month or every other month so that it is something to look forward to. This helps bring a troubled relationship back on track.

We have never figured out how to manage a date night. It has been bad for our relationship and if I can give anyone advice - figure out how to do a date night before it's too late!

We have met by accident for a brief lunch date, and it has been weird but refreshing, as we are never alone together anymore. But we haven't planned any particular event just the two of us together, as we are so family oriented now.

Date nights are supposed to be once a week, but it really depends on your schedule. there are a lot of things to consider.

My husband and I do have a date night, we make it a point to do it twice a month