One having our son, my husband and I realized how little quality time we were spending together.

Between COVID restrictions and worries and a newborn, in Fall of 2020 we were struggling to connect and communicate effectively. Once Baylor was about 5-6 months old, we decided we felt safe to go into the world. We designated Friday nights as Date Night!

How we decided to start Date Night:

If you know my husband, you know he is a workaholic and he works every chance he gets, even on the weekends. I voiced to him that I wanted more quality time, one of my love languages. I had listened to Shawn Johnson and Andrew East’s podcast called “Couple Things” (highly recommend) where they mentioned starting Date Nights every week once having their youngest. I also highly recommend their episode about Monthly Check-ins, which is another thing we’ve since implemented in our relationship. I can write a blog about that too if you are interested!

I was excited to have some dedicated alone time with my husband again!

Schedule it!

We made it clear that Fridays will always be for us. If something came up really important for work or a special event, of course we just reschedule to Saturday that week, but we NEVER miss a week! Even if that just means going to the gym together and grabbing a smoothie after. It is the one time during the week we get out without the baby and can just focus on each other. Matt did a great job at stepping back from work and making date nights a priority!

In the beginning we were much better at this, and this is something I am looking to start again, but we would sit down and “schedule” who’s “week” it was to plan what we would do that week for date night.

This way, we didn’t get to Friday night and ask each other what we wanted to eat or where we wanted to go and waste our time or get frustrated when we didn’t agree. You all know how it goes, going back and forth with “I don’t cares”. Ugh! So when we plan tings out even just a day or two ahead of time, we find excitement in seeing what the other has planned for us! It makes these nights even more special.

Try new things!

We have done a plethora of things so far, from Octane Race cars, painting and wine, Topgolf, glow-in-the-dark mini golf, art exhibits, dinner and a movie and more!

We also don’t discriminate against double dates or hanging out with our friend group! We recognize that we don’t have as much time to see friends as we used to and try to balance date nights with being intimate and just us as well as using that time to be with friends. We also love going to weddings for Date Night! We are flexible with the days when we need to be. :)

Don’t be afraid to ask for a date night with your partner!

If you are struggling with finding time to connect with your partner in this busy ting we call life, (especially with kids) consider finding a permanent Friday (or whatever day) night babysitter! My grandma is here every Friday and she looks forward to it as much as we do. Shout out to grandma!

If you don’t have kids, that makes it even easier to plan!

Let me know if you try this or have any questions about our Friday Night Date Nights!

Happy Friday!