Let's Commence Date Night!

A new movie is opening in theatres on Friday and showcases two of my favorite actors: Tina Fey and Steve Carrell.  The movie is entitled Date Night which I assume means that the plot will cover the myriad of adventures that Fey and Carrell embark upon during their night out on the town.  This got me to thinking about how much my husband and I are in desperate need of a date night ourselves!!! 

I always thought that a good idea for a marriage - especially for one in which there are children - was to make date night a PRIORITY in order to see the marriage survive and thrive.  And when I say date night, I don't mean date night once a year, but once a month at least!  My husband and I began our marriage with this intention and it went well while we lived near family but once we moved our immediate family from one coast to the other to pursue graduate degrees, well, the monthly date night option was tossed out the window because there were no grandparents to take care of the kids.  Ya gotta understand, we are extremely protective of our children so no-one had ever baby-sat our kids before besides grandparents - you can never be too careful with whom you leave your children!

During the 3.5 years of graduate school, I believe our date night ratio was that of 1:4 - 1 date night per every 4 months.  Some of you may think, "Hey!  That's not too bad!"  It's AWFUL!!!  Date night is not just a time to go out to eat, catch a movie, or go shopping, it's a time for the husband and wife to fall in love again and chit-chat about stuff that doesn't really matter but is fun!  Like when you were dating!!!  I prefer not to see movies on date night because that's two wasted hours of me not engaging in coversation with my husband.  Besides, we can always wait for the dumb movie to come out on DVD and then watch it at midnight when the kids are in bed!

Anyway, so graduate school has come and gone and now we've moved our family once again to yet another destination where no family resides near us.  So, date nights have occurred when family comes to town!  But, thankfully, we have joined the local YMCA and they offer free baby-sitting, once a month, for those with family memberships which means that my husband and I are having a date night tomorrow night!!!  I trust the YMCA baby-sitters because I have left my children with them before while I work out and there are always 4 children per 1 adult (2 females and 2 males).   Yay for the YMCA!!! 

What am I going to do on date night?  Bring along our 3 month-old infant for one thing but who knows what we will really do.  Watch the movie Date Night?  Nah, I'll save that for a couple months down the road when I can find it in RedBox.  All that matters to me is that tomorrow night I'll be with my husband - for the most part without kids (knowing they're totally safe where they will be) - and I will enjoy every moment I have with him.  He's my bestest friend!  Can't wait for Date Night to begin!!!  :-)