Thank you Lord for Friday's.
It's the one day of the week that I KNOW I'll get some undivided attention with my hubby.
It's been that way almost every Friday night for 7 months.
It's called Date Night.
I love it.
My hubby loves it.
My kids ADORE it.
How is this even possible?
I am a stay at home mom.
I make ZERO dollars of income on my own.
But, I have tons of friends.
Friends with children.
Friends that need date nights too.
I read this post over at Life Your Way a week or so ago, and I realized that I should share an awesome way for YOU to get date nights as well!
It started in November, my friend Melissa and I were discussing how date nights were impossible to have.
She'd been married for 6 months.
I'd been married for 6 years.
She got a fantastic idea!
Lets start swapping out Friday nights.
She'd take the kids in her home one week.
I'd do the next.
We'd trade off.
The holiday's got in the way a bit.
Things got crazy.
And January came around and we were back on board.
Then, others heard of our idea.
Melissa invited 2 other couples join our group.
We now have 3 date nights a month.
One babysitting night a month.
5 kids.
1 big dinner.
Tons of laughs.
I would not change one thing!
There are a few things we take into consideration every week.
When it's our turn to sit, we text the couples and let them know what time they can bring over the kids.
Usually it's between 5 and 6pm.
They don't have to either.
It's up to them.
I always make dinner, since it is dinner time, and well, we have to eat too.
Spaghetti and Pizza are the 2 favorite meals.
Kids love them both.
When we have a date night we also make sure to be considerate of the other couples time.
We are not out till 11pm.
We usually have picked up our kids by 9pm.
If we're going to be later, we make sure to talk that over with them first.
If the kids are showing any sign of illness, we don't take them.
Who wants to share that kind of love?
When the month has 5 Fridays we get together for a BBQ as a large group, so that we all can hang out.
It's my favorite night of the week.
Regardless of whatever we're scheduled to do.
Lately, hubby and I are going through The Peasant Princess sermon series from Mars Hill Church.
Talk about AWESOME.
Most nights we go get dinner and hang out.
We've gone shopping.
We've purged the kids toys in their room.
We've had dinner at home.
We have NOT done a movie yet.
But we will soon, I hope.
So, go find 4 other couples who are willing to dedicate a night to date night.
I promise, it will strengthen your marriage and entertain your kids!
2 comments:
I think this is amazing! My kids are 24 and 21, so hubby and I are NOT short on time alone...which is wonderful, by the way, and worth all the work we put into our marriage and family to get us to this place...but that's another topic! When my kids were young I lived in France ~ and we had a group of families that became "second homes" to our kids, so that we could do date nights. We weren't quite as organized as you, but the homes were safe harbors, the kids are STILL friends and our marriages are all happy! Totally going to check out the sermon series too...ok, I'll stop now... ;-)
We are so glad that this has worked for you and so excited that babysitting co-ops are catching on! They are such a great way to improve the lives (and wallets!) of parents.
You and anyone else that is interested in babysitting co-ops should take a look at sittingaround.com. We are a social networking site helps people find and build babysitting cooperatives in their areas. It is a great way to help keep track of schedules, see who has really been generous (o slacking) on helping out the co-op, and to get new and fun childcare-related info from our blog, twitter, and facebook page!
We always welcome feedback, so check it out and tell us what you think!
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