Poll: Date Nights

raceyrae

We don't have any family in the area so to go out for date night can end up costing a ton of money.  It seems so hard given the costs of a sitter, plus whatever activity we do (dinner, movie, comedy club, etc.) that date nights for us have happened only a handful of times since DD was born.  Usually only when family is in town visiting.  This makes me sad!  Luckily we're visiting the ILs in MN this weekend so we're going to go out one night but I'd really like to pick it up more, especially given DD#2 is going to arrive soon and it will be tough to get out for the first few months again. 

So out of curiosity, a poll:

[poll]

sms297

It is crazy how fast the cost can add up! My ILs are in Raleigh 1/2 the year but we usually only go out when my parents are in town or we are visiting my parents.

marryingacoach

I feel your pain! The fall is a little better b.c we go to football games and those are dates for us.

dbertagni

Racey-Since we are close, we could do a babysitting swap once and a while. We also have NO family in the area at all. I have a neighbor that watches Jocelyn, but so far not for us to go out. My sister is coming in town Friday and we are going on a date Saturday for the first time in 7 months!

lalabee0425

We don't have family close by either, so when my parents come this week we are going out!!!

I am also about trading babysitting services with friends. I have had a few friends watch K during the day and I will watch their LO's when they need a sitter to trade off. It makes going out more affordable! 

mrsmikey

I answered once a week, because MIL keeps Eli every Tuesday evening.  So I guess we have that opportunity to have a date night every week.  But she only keeps him for a few hours, and alot of times has to bring him home earlier, like around 7.  So we don't have time to go to a movie or anything like that, but we can go out to dinner if we go as soon as DH gets home.

If you don't count that, and only count times we can do dinner & a movie, etc, then maybe once a month or so?  It just depends.  We rarely have someone keep him so we can do something just the two of us.  We usually only do it when there's something going on we need to go out of town for or stay out really late.

ECUGirl2004

We get a date night every few months.  It's kind of silly b/c my parents live in town and they would babysit whenever we asked, but we just don't think about it very often.

One of my goals is to try to get a date night every month or at least every other month!  That should be do-able!

If I lived closer to you, I would babysit Natalie for free! 

raceyrae

dbertagni:

Racey-Since we are close, we could do a babysitting swap once and a while. We also have NO family in the area at all. I have a neighbor that watches Jocelyn, but so far not for us to go out. My sister is coming in town Friday and we are going on a date Saturday for the first time in 7 months!

yes, we should definitely look into doing this!  Save us both some money!

lah1177

I put down every few months, but somtimes we can go six months w/o doing anything alone. We went out for Valentines Day alone and then my parents watched her so we could go out in August. Our anniversary is next week, but as of now, we have no plans to go out alone. We go out a lot (at least once a week), but we always take her with us. I cannot justify paying a sitter $10 an hour and then spending money on dinner, etc. My ILs live here, but we are not close to them and I feel bad asking them to watch her (especially since we never do anything with them). If my parents and sister lived closer, I am sure we would go out more.

NatPhoto09

We started doing monthly date nights when Nicolas was 4 months and I enlist my friends at work that don't have kids as baby sitters.  We are also starting a babysitting swap with one of our friends.  We have kept him once so next time (probably Nov, we'll get them to babysit Nic).  We also don't have family in town so we are at our friends mercy, so far it has been great.  GL

MrsJones2005

I really can't remember a date night since  Jeremiah has been born...and yes he is 11 months old today.  Maybe there is one in there somewhere that I have forgotten about...

MrsSavannah

I put down every few months.  Like you, we don't have family anywhere near us.  But we did just have 2 date nights in a row.  We had friends watch DD because we had a concert one night and a party the next night.  It was the first time friends had watched her and it went really well though, so I'm hoping to get to do more!

alchris

I haven't read the other responses, but we haven't had a date night since before Kira was born.  However, we were able to go to a Seahawks game by ourselves in Seattle since my parents could watch her -- it was quite surreal for both of us!  Come to think of it, that should count, so we've had one...when she was 21.5 months old!

unc00ref

I voted for every other week, but we still have to take Caroline with us. So it's just date night without Brooks.

Haven't had a true date night without either of them yet.  :-(

unc00ref

BABYSITTING CO-OP

When our babies were approx 8 months old a group of friends and I (total of 6 families) formed a babysitting co-op. Each person was assigned a night of the month. We used the 1st - 3rd Fri and Sat nights. Then any of the families could drop off the children with whoever was assigned that night from 6-11pm. You brought a pnp for baby to sleep in. That was there was a childcare option 6 nights of the month (minus the night you were assigned) for free! It was awesome.

We only quit doing this when the 2nd babies started arriving. I think we'll pick it back up this winter since the 2nd babies will be older and able to be dropped off.

alchris

unc00ref:

BABYSITTING CO-OP

When our babies were approx 8 months old a group of friends and I (total of 6 families) formed a babysitting co-op. Each person was assigned a night of the month. We used the 1st - 3rd Fri and Sat nights. Then any of the families could drop off the children with whoever was assigned that night from 6-11pm. You brought a pnp for baby to sleep in. That was there was a childcare option 6 nights of the month (minus the night you were assigned) for free! It was awesome.

We only quit doing this when the 2nd babies started arriving. I think we'll pick it back up this winter since the 2nd babies will be older and able to be dropped off.

We have friends in Asheville who participate in something like this and they love it!  Really, just a swap like dbertagni suggested would be super helpful.  I have to go to a conference during the days from Nov. 4-6 so this has really been on my mind since I have no place to take Kira but unfortunately I have to go!  I'd love to help coordinate something along either of those lines for us W-S area folks...and ideally something that could occasionally include daytime.   I'm hoping to find or create something -- we'll see!

WendyNC

We've only been out about 4 times since Camryn was born.  We have local family but I don't like to ask my parents to watch them outside of the work week, since they are our childcare.  MIL lives about 30 mins away in the boonies and it's not on the way to anywhere so it's a pain to do some sort of drop off.  Oh well, I guess we'll go out when they are older.