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Embrace The Morning Date

EconDad · September 1, 2016 ·

Parents often have trouble finding “us” time.  Between working full-time jobs, taking the kids to and from school, soccer practice, groceries, errands, and who-knows-how-many-other-activities-your-kids-are-doing, it becomes difficult to find time to reconnect with your partner.

Dinner and a movie sounds super — in theory.  Until 8pm rolls around, the babysitter comes over, and you’re so bone tired from the week that you’d truly rather go to bed instead of paying $100-200 for dinner, movie, and the babysitter.  And, to top it all off, the babysitter is watching the kids while they are sleeping!

Instead: Embrace the morning date on the weekends.  For years, my wife and I have had a babysitter regularly scheduled for Saturday or Sunday morning for 2-3 hours.  When both of us are healthy, we go for a long run together, usually logging 5-15 miles, depending on how fit we are.  When one of us is injured or we’re less fit than we want to be (seems to be happening a lot more these days), we go for a walk and/or have a lunch date.

Consider the benefits:

  • Regularly scheduled time for the two of you
  • If running or walking, a real chance to talk and connect
  • If running or walking, exercise so that you both feel good all day
  • A 2-3 hour period away from the kids while they’re awake!  It’s not that we don’t love them and want to spend time with them, but they can be exhausting!  But after a run, you come back feeling refreshed and excited to spend the rest of the day with them.
  • For $30 – $50 weekly, you get regularly scheduled time to reconnect with your partner and maintain your relationship within those crazy lives of yours.

If my wife is on call or traveling, I often get a weekend babysitter just for me.  ‘Me‘ time is just as valuable as ‘Us‘ time these days.  A date with myself, I suppose.  It is often on these alone hours that I get to really think,  generate some of my best ideas, and/or to connect with family or friends by phone while I walk.

Bonus points:  Do you have a niece, nephew, cousin or sibling in town who is looking for extra cash?  Hire them right now because not only will it be win-win in terms of trading money for time, but you will be facilitating long-term relationships while keeping support within the family.

Our weekly morning date is so important to us that we actually include it as a separate line in our annual family budget.  And, it’s something that I don’t think we’ll be cutting anytime soon.

Truly, I cannot think of money better spent.

Originally written: September 2016.  Republished: February 2018.

Filed Under: Family, Most Popular

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