If your married with kids you probably understand the struggle of scheduling, funding, and following through with date night. I try to be spontaneous and keep things interesting with new ideas but eventually a lot of our dates seem like a waste of money that didn’t really add much to our relationship.

My husband feels guilty leaving the kids behind and if your husband is like mine he also hates the pressure of feeling like he needs to talk one on one with me about something monumental that will change our relationship forever so that we go home feeling like we’re dating again. LOL. Please don’t expect that of your husband (I still have to tell myself this). Or he will eventually hate date night and find ways to back out of it and just do fun things with the kids.

I’ve come to learn that dating throughout your marriage is CRUCIAL for your family’s stability. Your kids are eventually going to move out, marry someone you don’t approve of, and have their own lives. Leaving you and your spouse alone to actually have to interact with one another. The only person that will truly be there till the end of time, is your spouse. And modeling the importance of time with your spouse for your children will teach them the importance of meaningful relationships. All in all, dating your spouse is good for everyone in the home.

If you’re like me, you’ve probably spent hours on Pinterest pinning and pinning and pinning AND PINNING all of these lists of magical date night ideas but come to eventually find that not many of them are realistic or definitely do not fit into your busy schedule. Well my husband and I recently tried something different and it was a BLAST!! AND GUESS WHAT?? We are STILL flirting and laughing and bonding over the 1 SINGLE date night and are excited to repeat it!!

So I could compose a long list that looks just like all the other ones on Pinterest to only leave you hanging with a gigantic list to choose from, hurt your brain, and then ditch the date idea all together. Instead, I have 1 spectacular date that is going to continue adding value to your marriage and it only cost us $35 including a sitter!

This date was SO SO much fun! But I’ll be honest it was pulling teeth to get my husband to be on board so maybe leave the second part out till after he has a full belly.

So problem #1 for date night: Leaving the kids. For how long? Who do we pay? How much do we pay?

• Answer #1: Eat dinner as a family. And find a sitter for just $20 to be gone for just 2 hours. Trust me. 2 hours is all you need and it’s not as overwhelming as someone needing to watch them from like 6-10pm.

Problem #2: How much is this date going to end up costing us?

• Answer #2: Well you already ate dinner at home but food is still good. My husband and I went to Texas Roadhouse for appetizers. Our bill was $13.00! And we left feeling classy, full, and like a normal happy couple away from everyday stress.

Problem #3: How am I going to make this date engaging for the 2 of us so that going on a date in the first place is actually worth it?

• Answer #3: We didn’t spend more than 30-40 minutes at Texas Roadhouse and then went to Barnes and Noble to browse. This is wear my husband was rolling his eyes at me. But I just told him there was a book I really really wanted to get and I would be super fast. BUT I looked for books that I thought HE would be interested in. Before I knew it, we were engaging in intelligent adult conversation (something that rarely happens between husband and wife with toddlers in the house) AND effortlessly hearing out each other’s interests and perspectives. It was INCREDIBLE! I can’t explain it but walking out of the store with a book for each of us to read was so empowering. When we got home we got so excited to get in bed and read side by side. Each of our needs were met and after putting our books down we talked about them. My husband actually picked up my new poem book and read it all that night and explained to me why it was something he knew I would enjoy and that I would really relate to it because of reasons X,Y,Z. UMMM…HELLO!? Isn’t that something we are constantly begging our spouses for? Paying attention to our personalities, detailed characteristics…and then when I went to read the book I wanted to cry because of how well I knew my husband really knew me to know that I would appreciate such deep and intricate words.

After this date, we began reading side by side every night. Excited to unwind in peace and quite that turned into romantic connections. This is GOLD right here. And if it doesn’t sound as spectacular as you were hoping for, well you can just go back to pinterest and hope you’ll find something better there. As for the rest of us, I promise this particular date night will change your life! And I want to hear all about it!! ❤

-Monica Reeves