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Oh, It’s Tuesday: The Necessity of Date Night
Funnily enough, in the midst of all the baby preparations, I’ve become rather obsessed with post-baby date night. I think this is b/c it’s one of the only aspects of parenthood that I can control. Betty and I might not be able to stick to the schedule I want to set forth for our days and she might not respond to my attachment + RIE + what-my-own-mom-did hybrid parenting style.
But I just know for sure that I can figure out how to spend some quality time with my husband every other week.
On a more selfish note, I just don’t believe in letting kids stay in your house for more than 3 months at a time past the age of 18. If my health holds up (knock on wood) I’m going to be spending the majority of years in the company of my husband, which means that we should invest in our own relationship, not just our children over the next 18 to 20 years. It’s kind of how financial people tell you that you should put your own retirement savings first before setting aside money for your kids’ college education.
So far we’ve discussed daytime date nights or non-weekend date nights as a way to keep the quality of our experience high (less crowds) and the costs of a bi-weekly date night low (more chances that our friends will be available to babysit for free on an off-night). Also, we want to switch off the planning of date night, so that it’s not all movies and dinnner (you know, keep it spicy). I don’t think that many other parents-to-be across the States are putting this much thought into their post-baby dating experience. But maybe we all should be.
Anyway, this is all to say that I loved this New York Times article about how the recent Obama date night is making married-with-kids couples across the US sit up and say, “Hey we should go on a date or something.” There are a few lines about how most men can’t commandeer Air Force One to go see a Broadway play and see an expensive dinner, but the main point is that if the Obamas can find time for a date night with their schedules, then so can we all.