Since having a baby or children, do you crave attention from your partner? Do you feel second best? Do you miss time to yourselves without interruption? Have you forgotten that boobs are actually really nice and not just functional feeding tools?
Well, we’re campaigning for all dads to take their partner on a date! Romantic, hey? We’ve cleverly named it, #datenightcampaign If you want to take part in spreading the dating joy, add this badge to your blog and simply take your partner on a date! Mums, you can take your partner out too? Or show this to your partner as a subtle hint?
And here’s the code to add it:
<a href=”https://www.thedadsnet.com/2015/01/101-date-night-ideas.html” target=”_blank” alt=”The Dad Network”><img src=”https://www.thedadsnet.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/image.png” style=”max-width:50%;height:auto;”/></a>
Please use #datenightcampaign to share the campaign.
It is so easy to get to 5 months with a baby and realise that you haven’t actually spent any quality time with just your partner. Keeping the house tidy, feeding the baby, driving the baby to sleep, bathing the baby and all the other new jobs get in the way of dating your partner like you used to. And even if you do get a rare couple of hours at the end of an evening when dinner is done and cleared up you’re so exhausted from having a mere 2 hours sleep from the night before that you simply hit the sack. (And by that I mean, go to bed…just to clarify!)
The wife and I made a very conscious decision before the boy was born that we would always make sure 1 night a week was clear from anything else and we would have a date night. And so far, we’ve been pretty good at keeping it sacrilege and carving out time for each other.
It can be tricky coming up with fresh ideas for dates though. Of course a takeaway & red wine in front of the TV is lovely and nipping out for dinner is a fairly guaranteed decent date, but when date night is hard to come by, sometimes it’s nice to spread your creative wings and try something a little different.
For Christmas, the wife got me a little jar filled with date ideas. (Thinking about it, is she trying to hint at something here?) Anyway, here’s some examples:
[metaslider id=2088]
But the best bit about the jar is that it also comes with blank pieces of cardboard to add your own. Ok, so I must confess, this isn’t a post giving you 101 date night ideas, but instead it’s telling you that we are all capable of coming up with 101 date night ideas for ourselves. Here’s a few of mine so far:
# Book a spa day with a couples massage.
# Go clay pigeon shooting.
# Book a night in a hotel. (Leave the kids with grandparents if you can and look at Groupon for great deals on hotels. We get all our hotels mega discounted!)
And… once you’ve all left your comment sharing the hottest (or ‘coldest‘) date nights you’ve had, we’ll soon have 101 ideas to use as a secret pool of date night ideas that the wives won’t know about. It’ll be like Fight Club… the only rule will be that you don’t ever talk about the secret pool of 101 date night ideas created by real dads, tested on real mums…
The most important things, for us, to keep in mind for date night are 1) to make sure we have fun and laugh. That’s why the activity is really important. Whilst dining out is lovely, going abseiling for the afternoon or wine tasting might be more fun. And 2) to talk about anything and everything other than the baby or your kids. This is time for you and your partner to be away from your children to celebrate loving each other. It’s not time to solve your baby’s sleep problems or nursery issues.
So go on, share with us all your successful date night ideas and if you’re brave enough your date night flops! ;)
P.s. If you want your very own official Date Jar, perhaps as a gift to your partner, click here.
Scrabble is always a winner in our house. It’s free so great for the purse strings, plus we dont need a baby sitter.
We also make more of an occasion of it by getting snacks and drinks in. If you wanna spice it up, throw the odd cheeky or rude word down too.
Ah! Good idea! I’ll dust it off and we’ll give it a go!
Sadly it is incredibly easy to neglect each other when a child/children are around. This was a primary factor in my separation.
I think this is a great idea with some great suggestions.
We use to alternate who did date night and have a theme. For example: One week got a pirate costume…waited until she got home and greeted her as a pirate. We had to talk and be pirates for the rest of the night….even if we didn’t dress up…pirate talk was continued even when dining out! Silly but fun. Always something that we could smile and laugh about at a later time!
Thanks Martyn. Thanks for sharing that :)
We don’tlive together but with 5 children and a lack of childcare, it was hard for me to spend much time with jo. So it came about that on Thursday evenings, I would get the kids to bed and cook her dinner. Candles, wine and hopefully good food. It certainly made a difference. Then she took an extra job on just to survive and Thursday nights became a thing of the past. We’ve been through a hard old time but this weekend, efforts were made all round. Took her out for dinner and we had a laugh. Looks like Thursday nights might be back in the horizon again soon. It’s the little things that make a big difference :)
Great comment Tommy! And you’re right, they do make a big difference.
It’s on my list of things to do this year, but with two under two and the youngest exclusively breastfed it’s difficult to get out of the house. Making more time for each other at home is a good idea though.
It’s definitely possible to date at home. Thanks for your comment!
Great idea! My wife and I always make time for one another. Before our son was born, we agreed it was something we’d always do. Our mindset is that keeping our relationship strong and happy is one of the best things we can do for our son. We want to set an example through our marriage and maintain a positive environment.
Totally agree… Happy couple = happy baby!
Great ideas, it’s very easy to lose sight of your mate when becoming parents. The “holy crap” mentality takes over and then a year passes and you forget what it is like to spend time with your significant other. Sounds like you have it under control!
‘Holy crap’ mentality is frequent in my head!
I love this!
That’s a good rule to have: don’t talk about babies/children.
It’s so easy to slip back into that chat. And about work!
But it’s nice to have a break away & discuss the things you never really get a chance too.
Having dates is so important! Not only does it refresh you, but I find it makes me & my other half closer/more of a team & so much happier.
Chloe x
We have a 7month old. And I am quite postitive in thinking that me amd my fiancée do spend time together alone and try and do activities (I actually took him clay pigeon shooting a few weeks back. V. Good fun!) but when we are out together I find all we have to talk about it our little one. Im still off work so my whole day everyday revolves around her and what she does. And after he’s told me about his day at work there’s not much else. It’s not a massive deal atm but I think giving a theme or fun activities for dates will help and give us something to talk about!