It’s May! Some of the popular holidays celebrated this month are Cinco de Mayo, Memorial Day, and the biggest day of all – Mother’s Day! Did you know of another holiday in May? No? Well, it just so happens that May is Date Your Mate month. Who knew? I certainly didn’t. According to this site, it’s a holiday for the entire month of May.
If you’re a busy mom like me, the idea of dating your mate is a good idea in theory. I remember those BK (before kids) days. I’m sure you remember those days; back in the day when you decided to catch a movie on opening night, last minute vacations, or late night dates until the early morning. There were some definite good times in those days. Not to say there aren’t good days after having kids because there are some great days. However, nowadays it just takes a little more coordination to have some alone time with your mate. Here are a few tips/tricks that work for me and my husband.
Use Your Resources
My husband and I live in the Atlanta area without close family nearby. Unfortunately, the grandparents are hundreds of miles away. Although we have an occasional babysitter, we don’t have the benefit of a close family member to watch the kids. It’s hard enough to take them to daycare every day so trusting them with a non-family member outside of daycare is hard as well. Plus, babysitters cost money. Adding the babysitter fee plus the expense for the date can be a costly few hours.
Since my husband and I both have relatively flexible schedules, we have found day dates work for us. After dropping the kids off, we may go out for breakfast or meet up for a movie before picking them up. We get the benefit of having some alone time and avoiding babysitter fees. On those occasions when daycare has extended hours for a kids night out, we can have a date that literally lasts all day and a good part of the evening. Double score!
Make Alone Time a Priority
One thing we’ve learned over the years, is we need to make alone time a priority. Just like it’s important to spend time with the kids, hang out with our friends separately, and foster our personal interests, it’s just as important that we spend time together. Earlier this year, we took a trip to Vegas with some friends for a couple’s trip. Although we weren’t technically by ourselves, we enjoyed returning back to our BK days, even if it was for a short time.
On a regular basis, we try and make our alone time a priority. Once we found out day dates work for us, we try to have one at least once a month. Or we do dinner and a movie – with takeout and a Netflix or On Demand movie. When the stresses of parenting toddlers get to be too much, it’s a sign that we need to set aside some time just for us.
Make it Fun
It’s funny how kids change things. In our BK days, our dates could have been exploring new restaurants, catching a concert, or playing a round of miniature golf. Today it seems like our definition of fun has changed. In our free time, we now enjoy visiting home improvement stores to buy items for our home projects, finding toddler events around Atlanta during the kid’s nap time, and sending each other text messages of kid items to buy. As you can see, we have some work to do in the fun category. It’s a work in progress. At least we are spending time together and enjoy each other’s company.
Now that I know we have the entire month to celebrate Date Your Mate, I feel like we definitely need to take advantage. I’m not sure I can guarantee we will have a date every day. However, I do know that we’ll make it a priority to have a fun (more than likely day) date, hopefully, a few fun dates!
How will you celebrate Date Your Mate month?
I had no idea it was actually holiday. Now that the kids are a little older, we are making date nights more of a priority (it makes it easier too that my daughter is 16 years old and we have a built in babysitter!) You’ve inspired to me to come up with something extra special for date night this month. Thanks so much!