Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Date Night

Today I’m taking the first step towards making date night at my household a reality. I also hope that by the end of this post I have motivated you to take the Date Night Challenge. It starts with coming up with some great and creative ideas and keeping in mind the guidelines below.

I want to hear from all of you. What is your favorite date night idea? Whether it’s one you have been on or dream of going on, post away! I want you to DIG deep and get creative. Not the run-of-the-mill dinner and a movie idea please. I mean if the wonderful and creative ladies of the Promo Frenzy Team can’t come up with a most original, thoughtful, romantic and fun list of date night ideas, who can? I plan to write my favorites down on a piece of paper for my very own date night idea jar. Consider this post your source for date night ideas.



Make an idea jar – I plan to use my favorite ideas you have posted here to fill my own mason jar and I hope you do too.

Pencil it in – Or type it into your smartphone, hire a plane to fly over your house, whatever it takes. I find a date is more likely to happen if we both plan around the date in our calendars. I also think monthly date nights are ideal, but if weekly work for you, knock your socks off!

Schedule smart – The idea of date night turns off many early-bird couples. If mornings suit you better, make plans earlier in the day — like a leisurely breakfast out or a sunrise walk in the park.

Keep it light – Conversations about housekeeping, whose car needs new tires, money or problems (“What’s up with Mikey’s math grades?”) are off-limits.

Double date – Personally I feel double dating on occasion is nice, but not for every date night. When you make it a double date and share deep conversation — real self-disclosure, not just small talk — you grow closer to the group, but you also feel more deeply in touch with your partner, finds new research from UCLA.

Minimizing the multitasking – It’s tempting to call a trip to the garden center a date, so you can cross two tasks off your to-do list. But don’t. The whole point is to concentrate on each other, not your chores. While on this topic you should also leave your phones, iPad, iTouch, laptop etc…in the car. You don’t want to be “that couple” you see who are engrossed in their electronic devices and not each other.

Relax about reciprocity – Yes, ideally you and your spouse would share the date-planning responsibility, but face it: If you want date night to happen, it may be faster and easier to set it up yourself, but just don’t make it a habit. If your partner doesn’t have any skin in the game, well he/she doesn’t have any skin in the game.

Avoid rain checks – While there will be times when you’d really like to cancel a date, try to resist that urge, put on your game face, and go. That lets your spouse know how much you value your time together.

I can’t wait to see all the ideas you come up with!


(Source: http://www.ohmyhandmade.com/2012/contributors/take-the-date-night-idea-challenge/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ohmyhandmade+%28oh+my%21+handmade+goodness%29)

14 comments:

  1. My hubby and I also love to have date nights as regularly as we can! Besides the simple dinner and/or movie (sometimes that's all we can squeeze in with two teenagers! LOL), we've also done fun things like bowling, walks on the park trails, spontaneous ice cream runs, outdoor farmer's or flea markets on a weekend, and just cuddling up on the couch to watch a new movie and share homemade popcorn. HTH and good luck with your own fun date ideas! *Ü*

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  2. My husband and I love our dates in the hot tub. We live in a National Forest and every time we climb into the hot tub, under the stars, with a view to the lights in the valley below we wonder at the fact that we live in a vacation destination! So relaxing and so intimate and so fun to share with each other. Now that's what I call a date!

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  3. Date night can be a frame of mind as well as a special event. Be with the one you love and enjoy contentment and relax. We tend to laugh a lot. Being together and able to laugh about this and that (usually the silly dogs) is a great 'date night' for us.

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  4. Hubby and I are going to the Sharks game tonight. I have never been to a hockey game before, so I think this will be fun. It was hubby's idea, and we try to do things that we both enjoy. Sometimes, we will do things that he enjoys, sometimes he will do things that I enjoy. This includes baseball games, art fairs, movie nights, etc.

    Nothing too exciting though. Can't wait to hear what you guys come up with. Good luck <3

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  5. I love all these ideas... we also need to get on this... we never seem to take time for us... it is the kids, grandkids, my Mom or work taking all our evenings or days.

    Thank you for giving me the push I/we need!

    I will be back to see more great ideas.

    One thing we use to do was take off on Sunday afternoons and go for drives - we live on Prince Edward Island and it has lovely scenery!

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  6. Once our little baby is born and has been around 3 months or so we will certainly need to plan a date night once a month - lovely post!! We LOVE to go to the movies and dinner so that is often what we do. But in the past we have played mini golf and other fun things too :)

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  7. love the idea jar idea. I have something similar i do.

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  8. I spend all day working with my husband, by the time we get home, he doesn't want to spend anymore time with me, but it does warrant some thought on doing something besides working all the time :)

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  9. Sometimes our date nights are just watching movies or a special TV show. I'm bad at making time for dh, I'm on the PC when I'm not at work.

    Good idea.

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  10. Our favorite date nights are dinner and a movie...then analyzing the movie over ice cream!

    But seriously, anything simply, yet extremely out of the ordinary these days. Some of our most favorite reminiscences are picnic lunches (and naps) at the reservoir, afternoon at a local winery, shopping for a Christmas tree or spring flowers, stopping by a local museum. So much is at our fingertips, and only the slightest nudge makes for special moments!

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  11. Our date nights usually consist of a movie or hanging out at a lounge... nothing too special. I love the idea of an idea jar though. Definitely going to use that.

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  12. uniquecozytreasures - Thanks for the push! I will definately have to work on this.

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  13. Many great ideas here. We like to eat out a lot and go to movies or an occasional college hockey game. We tend to lead a very quiet life...

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