[Mary202020]

How do you find the time to get away.
A movie night or something?

I guess my biggest problem is trusting someone with my kids.

[lovemy2boys]

I just posted this same question on the adoptive parents forum...

We rarely get away - if we're lucky, 3 times a year...basically 1 really fun night (our church has an amazing dinner/dance auction) and the other times, dinner...

We can't really afford to pay a sitter and still go out, and even if we could, we haven't had any luck finding a decent one...and my parents always say that they "wish" they could babysit more, but never really do so...

I'm pretty frustrated about this right now in case you can't tell

[ourdreamcametru]

We are blessed to have two older boys, 14 and 18 who WORSHIP their little sister. Our 14 year old watches her every Thursday night for us to go to dinner, a movie or shopping!

[Mary202020]

We discussed finding someone so we can have time for us.

Life is so busy.

It is time we slow down before life passes us by and put that spark back in our lives.

[nikkianni]

DD has three sets of grandparents, six aunts and uncles and something like 18 great aunts and uncles. That's not couting all of my adult cousins. They ALL beg to watch her "whenever we want to go out."
If it was up to them we'd go to a movie every day of the week just so they could get some DD time.
So really finding the time isn't the problem, it's finding the money. Last time we had alone time, we made dinner, bought a movie and stayed in while DD spent the evening with my parents.

[Mary202020]

Yeah. Once our children get a little older the grandparents will be able to handle them.

They are definitely a handfull right now.

[kristy77]

We have always believed it to be VERY important to have time together without our children - not just for us, but for our kids to see how much we love each other. We try to go out at least once a month (when we had little money we would have someone watch the kids for an hour while we went for a drive to the local lookout and shared a chocolate and a fizzy drink, then had some kissing time - like before we were married! ). We also put the kids to bed half hour earlier once a fortnight and have a 'romantic' dinner at home. The kids have grown to love this, and last week my 8 year old actually suggested my hubby and I to have a romantic dinner and she would organise the younger two. Well, I helped her, but I was really appreciative. Sometimes we have a 'romantic' dinner with the kids as a treat for them (we still have our fortnightly one without them) and the kids think it's really special.
Anyway, hope that helps some people out there. The other thing with babysitting is to encourage your friends to also go out once a month, and then exchange babysitting duties with them. My hubby and I think it's so important, that we actually have all our friends children over on a Saturday morning for a movie and popcorn time while all our friends go out on a morning date for a couple hours! Pity I live in Australia and can't do this for you guys!!!!
Kristy

P.S. Oh - I almost forgot. The rule we always have on our dates (and tell our friends to also keep this rule) is to not mention the children even once! This is time for 'us' - we can talk about the kids any other time!

[Biblemom]

I agree with Kristy77. We have friends who have children close in age with ours. We exchange babysitting so that we can have time with our spouses. The children are close in age and entertain each other so is not a big deal. It is worth ordering pizza and letting them 'trash' the basement because I know my turn is coming! Even when they were much smaller it was nice. I knew she had plenty of toys to entertain them and their house was already childproof.

[Mary202020]

I wished I would have thought of that earlier. We need to ask our friends what they think about this.

We did leave one with the grandparents and the other with a baby sitter. We really needed the alone time.
Thank youf ro your kindness and suggestions.

[melissa_bear003]

I've found that getting out on Date Night, even if its 4x a year, makes a huge positive impact on my marriage. Sure, we're trying for more often, but sometimes finances/sitter availability don't mesh.

[Stormster]

Originally Posted by nikkianni

DD has three sets of grandparents, six aunts and uncles and something like 18 great aunts and uncles. That's not couting all of my adult cousins. They ALL beg to watch her "whenever we want to go out."

You must have done something VERY good in your last life!

[SchmennaLeigh]

We schedule a date night once a month. We actually have to schedule it or we won't do it.