Saturday, Hubby and I took the kiddos to the mall to hang out. We thought it would be fun to window shop and just do nothing without doing nothing by sitting at home.
On the way there I shared with Hubby something I had just thought of. When we lived in _______ his parents took the kiddos often and we would have the weekends to ourselves. We also had access to lots of babysitters so we were able to go on lots of dates. We had many opportunities to work on our marriage and that we did.
We learned to communicate better and learned more about each other and the other person’s interests. We used to go to the local bookstore, drink coffee, browse the books, and then tell the other about the books we liked. Our theory was that the kiddos wouldn’t always live with us and we didn’t want to take the chance of not knowing our spouse when the kiddos moved out.
Now we live here and we don’t have the in-laws taking the kiddos on the weekends and we don’t have the babysitters we used to have. That means we don’t have the dates we used to have so we have had to get creative with spending time with each other.
After the kiddos go to bed we will light a fire in the fireplace and listen to music. Sometimes we’ll watch a movie together which if you know me is HUGE for me because I haven’t always been a movie person. (I’ve only recently started watching movies so I can spend some time with my man.) Then other times we are on our computers (like this evening) and every once in awhile we will share something we’ve just read (or in my case, something I’ve just blogged about).
I might be crazy in saying this but I think I might actually prefer the time after the kiddos are in bed than going out on a date. Having said that, I do like to get out with Hubby and when we do get out it is a much needed relief. (Like this evening, we hired the neighbor kid to watch the kiddos while we returned movies, had coffee, and browsed the books.)
However, I enjoy those couple of hours after the kids go to bed where we are purposely investing in each other. That time has become special to me and I find myself looking forward to it each evening.
