I HIGHLY suggest that you make a point of getting away together with your man, by yourselves, at least a couple of times a month. HOWEVER – sometimes the only way you can date is accompanied by some of the shorter people in your family.
So I asked readers of my newsletter what some of their favorite kid dates were. Here are just some of my favorite answers… (more to come over the next couple of posts.)
We have several things that we do with our kids in tow, but I have one favorite date in mind. We order in a pizza, rent a movie, start a fire and roast some marshmallows (maybe even do smores), blow up a mattress and watch a movie by the fire with the kiddos. We then put the kids down to bed and sleep in the living room on the blow-up mattress by the fire by ourselves. It is a lot of fun and makes great memories for the kiddos too.
MISTY CARRUTH
We go to a local shopping area in Allen, Texas. They have a really big fenced in outdoor play area for the kids. There are also restaurants and ice cream/coffee shops nearby. We get dinner/dessert for all and head to the play area. There are picnic tables and all inside. So, we let the kids run and play and hubby and I get a date while the kids occupy themselves with the play area. We can see them from one end to the other when we sit in the middle. It never seems to be crowded and because it is outdoors you get to take advantage of stargazing while enjoying each others company.
Janeen
I like to get a bunch of nickles and little Dixie paper cups and head to the local fish hatchery where we buy fish food and feed the fish. There are rows and rows of fish and they fight for the food. We love doing that.
We love to go to the drive-in movies and get a pizza or subs sandwiches and have a tail gate party before the movie stars.
Linda Kaehler
Q4U – What are some of your favorite kid-appropriate dates?
When our children were smaller, we’d take them to Cantigny, an estate in Winfield, Illinois transformed into beautiful private park. We’d wander around enjoying the army tanks for the kids to climb on, play areas, a war museum (my husband loves war history) and the estate mansion, plus acres of amazing special gardens. When we were hungry, we’d have our picnic in the picnic area, and keep exploring. The kids could run and we could talk, so it was a very relaxing date/fun time for our family.