Friday Night Date Nights

Once you start traveling down the marriage highway, it is easy to forget that one great way to keep the love alive is to spend “just you two” time. Especially after you started adding kids in the mix. We have being using Friday Night Date Night as just the way to have that time. We initially found that finding the time, money, and babysitter made the ideas of date seem like too much trouble very often. Then we some how, heard about it I think, came up with a way that made all the obstacles disappear. And I believe that our relationship reflects the benefit of that night out.

To start with we have a large family, five children to be exact. We also were blessed with friends who have that same number of my kids and that is vital in making this work.

How does it work?

What we do is quite simple – every Friday, one couple or the other has a date night. We alternate Fridays, and believe me, we very rarely miss. This is the way it works: On our date night, Julie will take the kids over to our friends house at 5:30. Kathlyn feeds the kids dinner – a big pot of spaghetti or something. After that, the kids will play with each other until about 9 when Kat brings them home to our house and puts them to bed, while Jeff puts their kids to bed. Then, Kathlyn will stay at our house until we get home, which is basically whenever we want to. When we get home, Kat goes home. The next week, we switch and they get their date night.

Why is this so great?

This might seem really simple, but there is genius and beauty in the whole plan. Sometimes the best things are simple, right? Here are the reasons it works so well:

* You dont have the problem of the babysitter bailing at the last minute – we never bail, because we know that our date night the next week depends on us taking them this week!

* You dont have to pay the babysitter. 6 hours for 5 kids can run into some serious change.

* You don’t have to worry about having super-nanny for a babysitter – its pretty tough for a 13-year-old to handle 5 kids – but when you put the 2 families together they kind of babysit each other, and its not nearly as hard as it seems. Plus, we’ve got the experience to do it!

* Your babysitter doesn’t grow up and stop babysitting. Nothing worse than training a babysitter, only to have her get a boyfriend, or a life, and decide she’s out of the business.

* Screaming kid phone calls just don’t happen. You and your spouse enjoy the evening without the nagging worry of when will the phone ring.

* There is no one to drive home or to pickup to take home. Everyone is in bed and has their own car (we actually live so close we walk back and forth a lot!) to get on their way. No dread dessert with this lovely meal, thanks!

* There is never anything to clean up when you get home. They weren’t there so viola! no mess.

* If this still hasn’t convinced you, there is one more thing. The non-dating mom, Julie for example, has some time to herself once she has put Kat’s kids nighty night. She can do, watch, eat!!!, whatever she wants.

So what now?

It’s getting to the point where the older ones can babysit the younger ones, but there are still the inevitable “Mom! Bobby wont let me play Wii” phone calls, so we’ve stuck with our plan. Personally, I hope it goes on forever – at least until that last little monster (I mean bundle of joy) is out of the house!

So if you’re looking for a way to have some alone time with your honey, find another couple that’s as desperate as you and have them read this article!

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