Let’s face it, keeping the romance alive when you’ve just had a baby isn’t easy! You’re exhausted, you’re sleep deprived and by the time baby goes to bed, all you want to do is sleep or collapse in front of the TV. It doesn’t get easier during the toddler stage either.
Not only is it exhausting being a parent, but it’s also more difficult to enjoy any time to yourself. Date nights become a lot more difficult; especially if you can’t find a babysitter. However, did you know there’s plenty of date night ideas you and your partner can enjoy which don’t require a babysitter?
Date nights are extremely important as they help to maintain the bond the two of you had before baby came along. Close and happy parent’s equal happy kids. So, if you’re looking to keep the spark alive, below you’ll discover some of the top date night ideas you won’t need a babysitter for.
Enjoy A Romantic Dessert Date
Eating together as a family is really important and delivers numerous great benefits. However, so does eating alone with your partner. Did you know, with very little planning, you can enjoy both a family and a romantic meal?
Simply serve up the main course for the whole family to enjoy, but save dessert until your toddler goes to bed. Light some candles, put on a little soft music, stick on a movie and enjoy some much needed time alone with your spouse. You could even treat yourself to a glass of wine.
Try to make a more romantic dessert to match the mood. Think along the lines of a soufflé or a fondue.
Take An Extra Vacation Day
If you’ve been on a family vacation, why not take an extra day just for you and your partner? After arriving home, arrange for your kids to go to daycare, leaving the whole day for just you and your partner.
You can do practically anything during this time together. Head to a movie, go grab some lunch together, or exercise together. Just enjoy a little couple time before everything returns back to normal.
Movie Night
Ideally, this date night can be done after your baby or toddler has gone to bed. However, it is possible to enjoy a date in the company of your little one. Just spending time cuddled up to your partner while your toddler is engrossed in the movie is a quality date night idea.
It doesn’t even have to be a movie. Why not get into a new TV series if you’re worried you won’t have the time for a movie? This date idea is one of the easiest on the list to do. However, that also means it’s easy to forget to change! As it’s a date idea, make sure you change into something nice. Make a little effort to look and feel good before sitting down together and don’t forget the snacks!
Go For A Family Bike Ride
Ok, so it might not sound very romantic, but it is possible to enjoy some couple time on a family bike ride. Simply let your child go a little in front of you so you and your partner can ride side by side. That way, you have plenty of time to chat and catch up, while also keeping an eye on your toddler.
It also combines exercise, which is going to leave you both feeling great. You don’t need to go far, but heading somewhere with an awesome view will really increase the romantic element as you stop to enjoy how breathtaking nature can be.
Enjoy A Hot Drink On The Porch
Don’t have a lot of time? Simply sitting on the porch with a hot drink together can help you reconnect. You’ll have chance to chat, relax and unwind. Sometimes, you don’t need anything extravagant to enjoy quality time with your partner. It’s the little things that so often make the difference.
Have A Breakfast Date
One day each week, why not aim to get up a little earlier than the kids and enjoy a nice, quiet breakfast date together? This gives you much-needed alone time, helps you to gather your thoughts before the kids get up and helps you to keep the spark alive.
You could serve up fresh orange juice and cook your partners favorite breakfast dish. Or why not make it interesting and choose a different theme each week. For example, one week you could enjoy a European style breakfast. A continental breakfast full of tempting pastries will make your breakfast date feel even more intimate and special.
Read Together In Bed
If you’re both book lovers, why not read a book together? Just one chapter a night is enough and it opens up the door for conversation. You can talk about your thoughts on what’s happened, what you think might happen and how you interpreted the story so far.
Sometimes, when you’ve been together a while, it can be difficult coming up with new things to talk about, so hosting your own couple’s book club is an excellent idea.
Wine And Massage
If you’re looking for something a little more intimate to keep the spark alive, a massage night is an excellent idea. After the kids have gone to bed, pop open the wine (or champagne if you really want to make it romantic), and give each other a couple’s massage.
If you’re not confident in your massage abilities, you can take a look online on sites such as YouTube, which provide instructional videos.
Host A Couple’s Board Or Video Game Night
Another great date idea for when the kids have gone to bed, is to host a board or video game night. This gives you something fun to do and won’t cost you a dime(unless you want to invest in a new game to play together of course).
Conclusion
The above are just some of the great date night ideas you and your partner can enjoy without the need for a babysitter. As you can see, many of them take place when the kids go to bed. The thing to remember is that you don’t have to spend a fortune or go anywhere exotic to enjoy some quality time with your loved one.
Do you have any of your own date night ideas? Share your ideas below!
When we have our first baby, us, the parents, often forget to spend time with each other and it can affect the relationship badly. I really love all of your ideas. Me and my husband have date nights every single week because we both love each other and want to keep spending time together, alone.
Once per month, we do the movie night, where we pick out a movie and go watch it at night. My mother usually babysits our toddler and we can fully relax. It feels absolutely amazing and I suggest it to every parent.
Another good idea is to run a hot bath and go in together. Those are my favorite days because I feel really close and connected with my husband.
It does seem like you’re very much in love. Keep it up and keep the love alive! Having couple times often would really largely contribute to your personal relationship with each other.
It also helps to have your mom available to take care of your baby when you need to go out for a date night. It gives you the assurance that your baby is in good hands, and you will not feel guilty to have to leave your baby behind 🙂
Thank you for sharing the tip on taking a hot bath together.
Since our baby came, my husband became more focused on her (our baby). He even wanted lay down beside her at night. But that’s not a problem to me. i totally understand that. And i’m very happy whenever I see my husband playing with out baby. We still have time for each other. We eat together, watch tv, play online games, well of course, that only happens when the baby is sleeping. Time management is very importand. At first, it’s really hard and stressfull. But when you get used to it, and managed your time properly, it will be fun for the whole family.
Yes, I do agree with what you have said. It is all about time management and being a diligent person.
Time management is indeed important. Good to hear you were able to plan your routine which gives you the ability to devote sufficient time for things you need to do like caring for the baby, household chores and couple time 🙂
I really liked the ideas presented here. I will be trying some of these. We have a three months old baby. Since the baby needs our entire time, it has bene very difficult to spice up our romantic life in the past three months. One day we came up with a brillian idea. We left the baby with his grandma and went to have a dinner in a resturant. When we were away, my wife’s mother looked after the baby. We are thinking to go for a movie night and this time, we will leave the baby with my mother. When you have mothers, you can enjoy yur romantic life once in a while, and your mothers will not ask money for baby sitting and they will sincerely look after your baby when you are away.
I’m very related with what you have said. We experienced that also when our little princess was only 5 months old up to one year old. We leave her at my husband’s family because my mom’s at the province. But for a limited time only. Two- three hours will do. Just enjoy every minute with each one’s companion. Then go home. At least, we had a date. Our daughter’s turning two yrs old on November. Every time we go out, we bring her with us already. We can’t leave the house without her because she’ll just provoke. It’s more fun and happy to go out with her any way.
Yes, couples should enjoy every moment of their date night because it is a precious time set aside for taking care of your personal relationship. This is important in keeping a healthy and happy family life. You must not feel guilty when going out on a date and leaving baby because it will only be for a few hours.
It’s true your baby needs your time and attention, however, you should never neglect your personal needs as a couple, too. Both are equally important in keeping a happy family.
It’s really great to have a mom who is readily available to take care of your baby if the need arises. Thank her for it. Having your mom to take care of your baby gets rid of any worries you may have when going out on a date with your wife because you know your baby is in good hands. And you don’t have to pay for anything, too.
I must say that the tips you listed out is one that is one that should be worth trying by couples that got a new baby. I have been with my uncle when his wife delivered twins and I must that the experience of having to babysit both of the kids, a boy and a girl, wasn’t that easy considering the fact that in most cases, these kids would be crying in the middle of the night when their parents ought to be sleeping and that is really a tough experience for I am always given the task of babysitting those kids.
I think the points on having an early morning cuddling is what they did a lot which is the time the kids are fast asleep and they also had nights out while I take care of the kids together with my cousin that stayed with us then.
I’m glad to have learnt so much from using other ways to have wonderful moments with our partners and that would help me to enjoy time with my wife when we are married.
I could just imagine the difficulty of having to take care of twins. Taking care of one is already difficult, how much more for two babies? haha.Oh well, I guess it’s just a matter of learning to do proper time management or planning your routine. It may be difficult in the beginning but eventually, you’ll get the hang of it, and everything will hopefully fall into place, including spending date nights together.
Haha! It wasn’t that easy then while I stayed with them. I always wish my fiance will bear twins for me, but after my experience at my uncle’s home, I don’t know what to wish anymore. It’s real work doing that, but once they’ve grown to adults, the joy of having twins is limitless.
If it is your first time things tend to be a bit chaotic and challenging and at times it can be frustrating. Nevertheless the more you get into it, the more you will find ways and means to go around this new chapter in your life. Surely there is no formula that will work out the same with every couple. One needs to look at the life style, need and expectations of the couple involved. Above all, you need to be ready to sacrifice a part of you!
I love the last part of what you’ve said, “…be ready to sacrifice a part of you!” This is very true. Responsible parents do think of their baby’s needs first before their own. And they’re not sorry to sacrifice things for the baby. They would happily do anything for the baby’s sake.
And yes, it would be chaotic and challenging the first time but you’ll get the hang of it 🙂
This is the most important time in a couples marriage relationship. This point in time can make or break the intimate barrier, especially if both parents work regular jobs. And if it breaks, they simply become just mum and dad with little or no chance at rekindling the pre-baby romance.
I find the above tips very helpful as a way of not loosing touch with each other during the whole baby thing. Most might not work for many but there’s no putting aside the tip on “movie night” as well as ” read together in bed”. Both of them will definitely work out for any couple regardless of how busy or exhausting your day was either at work or during the nursing of the baby.
It is sad if the loving relationship between couples prior to the baby’s arrival will be gone. A baby is supposed to bring them closer, become one family. But it does happen – when the baby arrives, some couples tend to forget to nurture their life as a couple. This should not be the case – both baby and the romantic relationship are important so time should be set aside for both, although the baby may require more time; that should be okay as long as you don’t forget to give time to each other.
Having kids is a real joy, but it could sometimes hurt the romance between the couples if not handled well. Parents tend to focus on their kids too much that they forget making time for date nights or bonding together. The kid being a toddler could get things worse since we all know that this is the stage where the child needs more attention, protection and guidance. I guess this is because this when the child is really prone to danger caused by their tendency to put in their mouth just almost whatever they get in their hands, and also them learning to walk means there should always be someone with him less he could tumble on his feet, or worse, fall of the stairs.
Despite all those difficulties, they can still keep their romance going and the ideas presented here are really good. Even just a simple dessert date and reading a book together could do the trick. I guess it’s all about being creative and willing to walk an extra mile together because through this, not only could it make a relationship stronger but also keep the fire burning.
Yes, being too busy with a baby could hurt the romance. It’s difficult to keep the fire burning if you’re too tired after a long busy day. A parent would rather spend the few hours when the baby is asleep to get some sleep, too. It’s understandable but as you’ve said, we should be willing to “walk an extra mile” to keep the romantic relationship alive 🙂
Thanks for these great ideas! Our son just started Kindergarten this week, and because my husband works on a graveyard shift, we have gotten in so much more quality time together 🙂
That sounds wonderful! Cheers to you, trexm. Quality time with your husband is a must especially since he works the graveyard shift. It’s good to have him all to yourself during the day, haha.
I do believe that keeping up the romance alive and kicking is very important to the couple. Even up to this day my husband still keeps surprising me with gift and flowers.
At first I thought that this blog will discuss all about “night date ideas” but I was surprised that it mentioned here the “Take an Extra Vacation Day”, “Go For A Family Bike Ride” and “Have A Breakfast Date” but anyway all you mentioned above was all a great date.
I remember 14 years ago when I gave birth to my first child, me and my husband has no time to go out for a date. The only time that I can spend a wonderful night with my husband is when my baby is already fall asleep. We usually go to the balcony together and having a cup of tea while talking about how was his or my day at work, about the baby, and a lot more. That’s how we spent our night date before. But since my children has grown up, now we usually go out for a date like watching movies or concerts if any.
You are lucky to have a wonderful husband. I would say he is a rare gem. I mean, not many husbands would be that sweet after more than 10 years of being together. Most of them actually just become comfortable with their married life and forget about keeping the romance alive. The love is there, yes, but not the romance. And most of the time, it’s the women who make the effort to keep the fire burning.
Husbands should pick up some of the tips here, and go the extra mile. Both should work on keeping the romance alive.