My house is overflowing with them. And I’m one of them.
But I rediscovered my most effective weapon to use against grumpiness: date night.
With the crazy, unstructured days of summer and the crazy, stressful events of my life, sometimes a step out of the ordinary is just what the doctor ordered.
So we took a few hours, put on grown-up clothes and went out for a leisurely dinner, talked to adults and spent time alone together. And it was lovely. Nothing fancy; just a drink, dinner and a few errands. But still, it made a huge difference.
Never underestimate the power of the night out. As parents, we find that it’s essential to maintain that relationship and retain a positive attitude. As simple as a few hours together on the patio with a cold drink and some music after the kids are in bed or as elaborate as a dressed-up night on the town, date night helps me to reconnect with my husband, partner and friend; the part of life that is fun.
Our daily obligations can be overwhelming—lets face it, being a grown up can be hard! We have to parent the children work at the jobs, make the money, pay the bills, schedule the activities & make sure it all runs fairly smoothly.
Date nights remind us of who we are when we’re not the sometimes grumpy people that we’ve become. It reminds us that even though there are a million things that we’re responsible for, sometimes we let each other slip through the cracks but it’s important for us to put one another first.
Of course, date night comes to an end and when we wake up we need to do the laundry and clean up the spilled syrup on the table. But I’ll also be thinking about what we’re going to do on our next date night.
