Date Night!

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For three hours, Dallas is your kid-free playground.

Happy Friday, mamas of Dallas. Today is going to be good at my house because it’s a magical day… Date Night! My sweet husband and I get a chance to hang out and catch up. No fetching sippy cups! No bargaining with small people to eat peas! Hurrah!!!

We make date nights a priority because it helps our relationship that much. We found super-fun friends who happen to also love our boys and need date nights also. At 7 pm, we drop off pajamaed and fed kids. The next night we host the 4-kid PJ party so they can have a turn. It’s worth late bedtimes and transferring sleeping kids for us to have a night where our marriage is priority. If you are looking for date night kid-swap buddies, I suggest you branch out and just ask a family you know well.  I don’t know too many moms who wouldn’t welcome a night out, especially if their current babysitting options are pricy. The bonus of swapping kids with our friends is we have “go-to” people who know each other’s children well… their three year old even has a toothbrush at our house. My oldest shares his room with our friends’ youngest when they are here. We usually get a pretty fun bit of evening play, and nothing beats bedtime stories with your buddies. The kids seem to enjoy it just as much as the adults.

As far as what to do- you would think this would be the easy part. We cherish our nights out though, and want to make it special. We try not to get stuck in ruts or hit Chili’s and AMC, though I’d take either in a pinch. My husband and I take turns planning events. Sometimes we have done a grocery trip or run errands, but we try to keep it fun and without a huge agenda.

MILLER TOP FIVE DATE NIGHTS

1. Gift card spending. Especially useful after holidays and birthdays. Shopping is more fun without a stroller, and cashing in a stack of gift cards is free!

2. Outdoor stuff, like patio dinners or summer concerts. The Ennis Drive-In is fun. Tonight’s date features a stop at a food truck. Top Golf is another favorite choice. In the summer we’ve done late picnics at White Rock with takeout. Festivals are fun options too.

3. Places our kids don’t like… exotic dining. Loitering at the DMA. Painting classes. Cooking classes. Long dinners where toddlers might not hack it. If we changed up our times brunch would be a great date option. As far as movies, we like to kick it up a notch.

4. Fun in Fort Worth- museums, Joe T’s, Sundance square, different dining options.

5. Strategic conversations focused on us… quiet time to dream together, think, plan, talk, work on staying “us” and not necessarily “us as parents.”

Do you have great date ideas? Let us know! Or if you want my foodie husband’s favorite picks at any of the links, leave a comment!

 

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