At Home Date Night

I really felt like I knew what I was getting in to when we decided to have kids. I grew up in a family of 7 kids, so chaos was nothing new to me. I was a camp counselor for three summers, so meeting kids constant needs and keeping them entertained came easily to me. I had even already changed my fair share of diapers, since I am 13 years older than my youngest sister.

I was ready for kids in theory.

One thing I was not ready for, though, was the instant lack of time I had to spend with my husband. We went from wonderful meals at our favorite restaurants, long walks on the Katy Trail every night and vacations twice a year to shoving food in ourmouths while we threw hand the baby back and forth. Not only were relaxed meals suddenly gone, but leaving the house for said meals were a distant memory of the past.

By the time we pay a babysitter $12 an hour for three hours ($36) and grab dinner ($40 if we get no alcohol) we are already at around $80 for the night. Forget adding a movie to the evening – that means a babysitter for four hours, dinner, movie, and movie snacks….then we are looking at around $115! We don’t have money like that laying around!

One day a few weeks ago I looked at my husband in tears at the end of a long day and said all I wanted to do was go on a date with him at a nice restaurant and finish more than three sentences. We’ve looked and looked at our budget and just can’t find a way to add in a babysitter twice a month for date night.

I was about to throw in the towel and declare dates on hold for the next 12 years (that’s when the oldest can start babysitting, right??) when I realized something. What I loved about date nights wasn’t necessarily the food or the restaurant or the fancy drinks. It was simply sitting across the table talking with my husband, completely uninterrupted by phones, emails or babies.

A light bulb went off.

We didn’t need to leave the house for date night, we could just do one at home! That very day, we sat down with our calendars and blocked off the next Tuesday night for date night. No work, no phone, no baby. Completely screen free and distraction free.

After the baby went down, we started cooking our feast.

Any date in our books starts with a good glass of red wine. This one was bought for $9 (a splurge for us!) at Trader Joe’s.

My husband got to work searing the steaks ($12) on the grill while I washed and peeled four red potatoes ($2). After I diced them, I threw them in boiling water in 8 minutes. As soon as they were soft, I mashed them up and added half a tablespoon of butter.

While the potatoes were cooking, I threw a handful of green beans ($1) in a pot of boiling water. Six minutes later and, voila, gorgeous green beans.

My husband was mysteriously missing at this point and I went off in search of him. He remembered that my favorite date ever was a picnic we had in Paris back in 2008 (let’s hear it for fabulous business trips where I got to tag along!) so he lovingly recreated our date, music and all!

What a treat! Not only did we have a fantastic meal for $24, but we also sat in our living room and talked for 3 hours! I don’t remember the last time we had uninterrupted conversation for that long. And there was no rushing back to relieve the babysitter so we could stick to our budget, because our little guy was asleep on the other side of the house.

So the next time you look across the room at your hubby and think, “Do I even know you anymore?” (come on, we all have done that), put the kids down for the night and declare your evening screen free, distraction free and make a date night right there in your living room. You won’t regret it.