Recently my conscience has been bugging me over this post about weekly date night. I had to have a talk with my husband about it. I told him that I can't with integrity recommend something that I'm not doing myself. Luckily I am married to an extremely amazing man and he was fully supportive. So we made our own pledge to have a weekly date night. Here is what my version of the date night pledge looked like:
We, ______________________ and ______________________ pledge to have date night once a week. We have set ________________________ from ____________ to ____________ as our weekly date night. This will be our time to get to know each other better, create memories, learn and try new things, be creative and have some fun. We have set the following criteria for our date nights…
- Can't do the same thing twice in one month.
- We will rotate being in charge of date nights on a weekly basis.
- No children allowed. The person in charge of planning also arranges the babysitter.
- Make it a special event. Dress for the occasion. Mind the details. But keep it simple.
- The person in charge of planning will aim to create a date the other person will love and enjoy. We will leave the me-monster behind on date night.
- Talking about children, finances, jobs, ex-husband, or any other loaded/heavy topic is not allowed during date night.
- If it isn't your turn to plan, your responsibility is to be ready to go at the appointed time and to bring a positive attitude.
- If the person in charge of planning doesn't follow through and no date is planned, the other person will not nag or pout or complain, but is free to use date night time to do something they would enjoy doing while the person in charge of planning watches the children.
We pledge to support each
other in this project for the benefit our relationship with each
other.
_____________________________
_____________________________
I put in a lot more detail than I thought we needed because I wanted to create a version of the pledge that would address any problems ahead of time. I'm glad I did because after we discussed it and both agreed on it, the structure created a lot of safety and security. I think the guidelines also helped our date go more smoothly and kept the focus on our relationship.
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| Unfortunately this isn't us. I forgot to take pictures :( |
For our first date I decided to take charge in planning. Manly loves playing soccer, and it was a beautiful day today, so I planned a date at the park. We went to this awesome neighborhood park and Manly taught me a few basics about soccer and then we kicked a ball around. I also brought some kites, but the wind didn't cooperate with that. I brought a bottle of bubbles and a big bubble wand and we had a contest to see who could make the biggest bubbles. It was a little bit silly but lots of fun. We laughed a ton. After that we went to dinner at one of our favorite Thai restaurants. Neither of us were very hungry so we shared a plate. I asked Manly what he would rate the date on a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being awful and 10 being best date ever (I am a wanna-be researcher) and he gave it an 8. I'd say that's pretty successful for a date that was planned in about 10 minutes. See, this doesn't have to be hard. We could have made this even cheaper by leaving out the dollar store items and eating at home or having a picnic at the park. It still would have been great.
Date: Playing at a park and Thai food for dinner
Manly's Rating: 8 - favorite part: kicking the soccer ball around
My Rating: 8 - I am not a soccer player, but it was so fun to be out in the sunshine playing with my
husband and I enjoyed kicking the soccer ball too. It wasn't too strenuous for a
pregnant woman. Best part for me - I think Manly felt important and loved tonight.
Total Cost: $24 ($3 for bubbles and kites, $9 eating out, $12 babysitter)
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