Marriage | The Perfect Date Night

by Jennifer Cooper, posted on January 9th, 2013 in marriage

Nothing changes dating your partner quite like having kids. Before kids, you could go out, have a drink, eat dinner, catch a movie, go dancing, have an uninterrupted conversation, and not have a care in the world. Post kids, you have schedules to coordinate, babysitters to pay, exhaustion to battle.

I’ve noticed my ideal date night has changed since becoming a parent. My current fantasy involves sending the kids to their grandparents for the night and having a quiet dinner at home, then sleeping in the next morning. Sigh.

How about you? Has your perfect date night changed after having kids?

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15 Responses to “Marriage | The Perfect Date Night”

wendy Says:
January 9th, 2013 at 4:48 pm

i am a fan of the morning date now. have a nice breakfast while the kid is at school – talk is uninterrupted! we don’t have to rush or pay anyone to watch.

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Jennifer Cooper Reply:
January 9th, 2013 at 4:54 pm
OOooh, that’s so smart! I’m going to steal that.

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Caroline Says:
January 9th, 2013 at 9:29 pm

Oooohhhh—I LOVE the breakfast date idea Wendy mentioned!

Okay so–THE perfect date night for me is the classic dinner and a movie. I could even do without a movie because really, when you watch a movie all your attention is diverted towards the big screen rather than your partner. Plus, I’m normally SOOO tired at night, I’d probably fall asleep during the movie! Ha!

Love that picture of you and Dave! You two are gorgeous!!

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Jennifer Cooper Reply:
January 10th, 2013 at 10:24 am
I have about a 50% success rate when it comes to finishing a movie at home. It’s become a joke now. I wake up and ask, “How’d it end?”

I could just go up to bed early, but that’d be giving in. I want to believe I *could* make it through the movie even though, we both know, there’s a 50/50 chance I wont.

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Miranda Makes Says:
January 10th, 2013 at 11:12 am

I love how Ellie’s little blond head is in the picture that you used for this post. Like, um, I can’t find a picture without a kid in it! ;)

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Jennifer Cooper Reply:
January 10th, 2013 at 11:19 am
Ha! I KNOW! I wrote this little post on Monday and it took me three days to find a photo that would work for it. All of the were pictures of me and the kids or the kids or a single of Dave OR me…

Maybe we need a post on making sure you get pictures of you and your partner together.

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Giulia Doyle Reply:
January 10th, 2013 at 1:14 pm
on our 5th wedding anniversary we had my photographer friend take pictures of us…it was fun to have someone else focus on us and now we have some great shots to remember how we looked at that point in our lives – together.

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Jennifer Cooper Reply:
January 10th, 2013 at 2:24 pm
What a fantastic anniversary gift to each other!
Miranda Makes Says:
January 10th, 2013 at 11:22 am

I actually think about that. We didn’t take many photos before having kids, and now that we DO take a lot of photos, they’re all OF the kids. I really don’t know how many we have of just me and Sheldon. Outside of our wedding pictures, I bet it’s like ten. That’s sad!

I think a post about this is a good idea. Do it!

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Jennifer Cooper Reply:
January 10th, 2013 at 11:30 am
The only alternative photo I had for this post was one from our wedding!!

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Miranda Makes Reply:
January 10th, 2013 at 11:36 am
Hah! Yeah, after I posted that last comment, I was like, “Ten? Nooo… More like one…”

I wrote a post a post a while ago and couldn’t find anything either. The picture I ended up using is horrible and Sheldon has a problem with the direction of his gaze in it. ;)

See? http://mirandamakesablog.com/blog/2012/2/4/you-and-me.html

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Jennifer Cooper Reply:
January 10th, 2013 at 11:59 am
Hahaha! I don’t know if I would have necessarily caught the gaze thing, but after you mentioned it, I totally see it.

You two are so stinking cute, you NEED photos of just the two of you. Must remedy that!

Miranda Makes Reply:
January 10th, 2013 at 12:09 pm
You and Dave, too. Pinky swear. :)
Giulia Doyle Says:
January 10th, 2013 at 1:18 pm

We book our babysitter one month in advance just to ensure that we have a date night. While sometimes I was so tired I wanted to cancel, it was always worth going out to dinner or a movie or anything really. We’ve also booked the babysitter during the day so we could leisurely shop, look at design stores, go to a museum, etc. It doesn’t have to be dinner.
My mom visits 2x a year and every time she stays over with the kids and we book a local hotel – she gets quality time with the kids and we get the hotel treatment, no towels to pick up – cable TV – room service.

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Jennifer Cooper Reply:
January 10th, 2013 at 2:25 pm
That sounds heavenly. Sigh…

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