Date Night Ideas for Parents of Young Children
Keeping the romance alive when your children consume 99% of your energy
Published in
2 min readApr 30, 2024
- Sit directly next to each other on the couch and scroll your phones. (This is different from your normal scrolling because you’re on the same couch and might accidentally brush your legs against each other)
- Stare up at the ceiling together while lying in bed, listening to see if your baby will actually cry herself to sleep. (This is a date because it’s the only time you have together where one of you isn’t holding the baby. Once the baby is asleep, you’ll both pass out)
- Turn on that Netflix show you’ve been wanting to binge. Be prepared with the remote in hand in case the three-year-old pulls his usual tricks and escapes his bed approximately ten thousand times.
- Sit at the table to reconnect over dessert. Try not to talk about the kids. Have nothing to say. Talk about all the funny things the kids did when the silence becomes unbearable.
- Pull out a list of one hundred questions to ask your spouse. Get through two before one of you passes out on the couch.
- Give each other back massages. Remind your husband that you only want a back massage.
- Cuddle in bed, with no pressure to take things further. When things inevitably get steamy, be prepared for one of the kids to wake up with a bellyache and put a stop to your date.
- Pay a babysitter to watch your darlings so you can spend the night on the town. Spend your time looking through photos of the kids and feeling guilty that you’re not the one putting them to bed.
- Try a family date! Bring the kids out to eat with you. Spend the whole time picking up the food the baby throws on the floor and holding your toddler while they scream for more Peppa Pig. Vow never to do this again.
- Hold hands as you fall asleep, dreaming of the days when you have more time and energy to spend together.
