An In-Home Date Night…

The In-Home Date Night has become one of my favorite ways to spend an evening with my husband. We have 3 older children in our home as well as 3 younger children, so for us, it has worked out nicely to have the olders help to watch the youngers while we retire to our room to share a meal, maybe watch a great movie, or just hang out for some (mostly) uninterrupted conversation.

 

Knowing my younger children’s schedules, this has helped my mama-heart to be at peace about ‘leaving’ the kids. I am just a room away if I am truly needed, but also get to enjoy some alone time with my man.

Now, we put a little effort into it. We both try to look nice, but comfortable. A spritz of perfume or cologne, a dash of lip gloss. We usually order take out or we prepare a platter of  ‘special foods’ to enjoy with our show.

Think “breakfast in bed” – but with an evening twist.

We may even light a few candles.

We have a roku device in our room and will rent a movie to enjoy together, or we just hang out and talk and cuddle with music in the background. The point is to focus on each other and enjoy the one we are married to.

Some Positives to Having an In-Home Date Night:

The kids love these times with their older siblings. Sometimes we’ll run up and get a few cheap pizzas for them to enjoy, or I just have dinner made ahead for them. They usually set up a fort or something to watch their own movie and pop some popcorn to enjoy for their “special time” too. In fact, it’s not uncommon for them to be completely bummed when we are done with our movie and come out to get everyone ready for bed!

Another bonus is that we have saved a LOT of $$ doing “dates” this way! I remember not too long ago, we decided to go out one night for dinner at a nicer, a movie and an evening coffee. By the time it was all said and done, we would have spent over $100 if it hadn’t been for the restaurant gift card someone had given us! Yikes!

We had to wait 45 minutes for our table, 20 minutes for our after-movie coffee and we were surrounded by people everywhere. While it was nice to get dressed up and go out, and food was delicious- I kind of walked away from it feeling like I preferred our in-home date nights! Our creative in-home dates are quiet, relaxed, not rushed, much more budget-friendly if we are making our own food and stress free because we’re not thinking about how the kids are doing. And honestly, I love the food platters we come up with:

 On a tray, I’ll arrange fruits, crackers and veggies with humus and one other dip and pita, olives, pickle and falafel.

We’ve done wraps and restaurant-worthy sandwiches before.

Sometimes it’s a more upscale pasta dish or it may be a platter of unique appetizers.

If we don’t make our own food, we order a quick Chinese or Lebanese take out and one of us runs up to pick it up while the other is setting up the room with the candles, dishes, drinks, etc..

We’re COMFORTABLE. Which, seriously, after 6 kids, you kind of start to enjoy!

While I am sure that we will continue to go out for dates from time to time, this really seems to be what we both enjoy most.

How about you? Do you prefer to go out or stay in for date-nights?