Date Night, Cheaper than Therapy
Everyone is talking date night these days. Maybe it’s because of the movie, or maybe its just because it’s Spring and with Spring comes a time to renew, re-invigorate and just get the hell out of the house. You know during springtime a boy’s attention turns to love… or at least to his wife who he hasn’t spent anytime alone with in God-knows-how-long.
My hubby and I have had intermittent date nights for many years. When Aaron was a baby, a friend listened to me complain ad nauseum about my husband one day, patted me on my arm, gave me the phone number of a local teenager and told me that date nights saved her marriage and I should try it. I have since passed on her advice to countless, exhausted struggling new parents.
I’m not sure that they saved my marriage, but they do remind me of why I got married to this guy in the first place. I don't know about you but I find that it is hard to fit in all my thoughts about life in the 10 minutes between when Jon Stewart is finished and when I am asleep. Date nights give us the opportunity to actually talk about the things besides picking up the dry cleaning and whether Sam needs a new hockey stick.
It’s best to pick a night, pre-book a sitter for weeks at a time and stick to it. If date night becomes a habit you might find yourself out on a night when you are in the middle of a fight but the pull of missing bedtime trumps the agony of eating dinner with someone you are barely talking to. You may even find yourself wearing the “good” underwear out on date night because there might be an increased chance that you will – you know – do it. And you may even want to.
We never see movies on date night because we think we should spend the time talking to each other. Although Date Night, the movie, does sound funny and I do make a point of seeing anything with the queen of the girl crush – Tina Fey. And those few scenes are feeling slightly familiar.
