How To Make Time For Your Other Half When You Have Kids
We live busier lives than ever, with careers, caring responsibilities and obligations which demand our attention and can leave us feeling drained and as if our own needs are at the bottom of a very long list. When you have a full on family life, making time to spend with your partner can seem difficult. Most couples find that the hardest part of planning a date night is finding the time. It’s easy to put if off for another day, but not spending quality time together can quickly eat away at the foundations of a relationship. Far from being less important when you’ve had kids, your bond is the bedrock of family life, and it needs to be nurtured for your own sake and that of your children. So, how do you make time for date night when you’re both super busy?
Schedule It In
Sometimes it can feel as if spontaneity has died once you have a family, and it’s pretty normal for a part of you to miss the days when you could drop everything for drinks with your other half on a sunny evening. But just because you have to make plans in advance, it doesn’t mean you’re going to enjoy them any less. Scheduling things in gives them more chance of actually happening. If you add date night ideas to the calendar, it creates an accountability which means that it’s more likely to happen. Plan out something interesting to do together, find a trustworthy babysitter here, grab the keys and go. Make a commitment to check in with each other and spend time together, no matter what else is going on in life.
Grab Your Chances
Now, with the main date nights scheduled, here’s where spontaneity can come back into play again. Teleconference cancelled? Kids eating dinner at a friend’s house? Got an unexpected hour free, or even just fifteen minutes? Instead of filling them with more chores, take the opportunity to spend some bonus time with your partner. The important thing is having regular one to one time, not the duration. Just a few minutes each day can really have an impact on the quality of your bond – our daily rituals are the glue which binds us together.
Make The Everyday Beautiful
Life isn’t always hot air balloon rides and camping out in nature – we all have chores to do, errands to run and life admin to see to. Learning to see and share the beauty in every day life with your other half is hugely important. You must have fun together – whether it’s telling silly jokes over morning coffee, leaving them a loving note to find with their sandwiches, or flirting a little over folding laundry. Life is less about grand gestures and more about these everyday things which let someone know we care. What one little action could you take that would make your partner’s day? Whether it’s scraping the ice off their windshield on a cold morning or remembering to pick up their favorite snack on the grocery run, paying attention to the little details doesn’t require much, but it can have a big impact on the bond between you.
