Do you want to reconnect with your spouse? Try these ideas for a date night at home! They’re great for Valentine’s Day when you want to avoid the crowds, or any time of year that you need to have a date night on a budget!
Guest post by Kylie of Everblossom
When I first got married, I never imagined how much work it would be to spend quality time with my husband. After all, we’d be living together, right? We’ll see each other all the time and maintaining a friendship will just come naturally, right?
Well, it’s pretty crazy, but I know now that you can indeed live with someone and still “drift apart.” Each of us is always growing and changing and developing – we are never the same person we were a year ago!
I know it doesn’t make a lot of sense, but even though I know change is as sure as the sunrise, I often still feel shocked when I see changes in my husband! New likes, dislikes, interests, and even dreams seem to come out of nowhere sometimes.
Those discoveries used to be a scary feeling for me – who is this man I’m living with?! Now I know better, though. It’s good that we’re all always changing. How boring would life be if we weren’t?
I read a quote about marriage once: “If you’re not growing together, you’re growing apart.” I completely agree and have seen that to be true throughout different seasons in my marriage.
Frequent date nights help my husband and I connect. New discoveries have become exciting, not scary!
While we still “go out” for a date night about once a month (Thanks, Grandmas!), most of our date nights happen right in our home.
Getting out of the house to go somewhere every week is not practical for us. We live in North Dakota, where heading out into the cold just to go eat dinner in town isn’t really all that exciting. We also have three kids and getting a babysitter to do that would take so much more time and money than we really want to spend!
Do I sound totally boring? I hope not, because I’m being completely honest when I say I enjoy our date nights at home just as much – if not more – than a night on the town! Here are some of the things we like to do – though usually not all in one night. 😉
1. Eat a nice meal.
I love to cook, but I usually stay with the tried-and-true recipes to feed my kids because I don’t want any battles. I love to get creative when it’s just for me and my husband, though! I’ll usually try new recipes when it’s just for the two of us. Though my husband is known to slip “secret steak” into our grocery cart, so sometimes I will make that for us. Don’t tell my kids!
2. Play games.
We are total nerds and love to play games online together – usually Scrabble or Risk!
3. Watch movies.
My husband loves movies, so one of his favorite date nights is simply cuddling on the couch and watching a new movie.
4. Trade massages.
My favorite thing to do on our date nights is trade massages. We use my homemade massage oil and give each other the spa treatment – only a million times better.
5. Dreamstorming.
Some of my favorite conversations with my husband are when we’re talking and dreaming about the future together. Things we’ll do with our kids, places we’ll visit, business ideas… I always feel so excited and hopeful after these talks – not to mention connected!
6. Learn a new skill together.
We will totally geek out watching YouTube videos on how to do new things. We’ve explored leatherworking, bowmaking, fermenting projects… it’s such a great way to explore new interests together!
Being at home does have some challenges – it’s easy to get distracted at times. To stay focused on each other, we stay off our phones and computers and just call them off-limits for the evening.
You better believe that we are going to be right here on Valentine’s Day having a wonderful time – with NO restaurant lines or traffic to hold us back!
Have you ever done “date night” at home? What kinds of things to you like to do?
Kylie Worthington is a crunchy work-at-home-mom of 3 of the cutest kids in the world and wife to a handsome techie. She blogs at Everblossom and believes in living life big and full when circumstances are less than ideal – which is all of the time.
Angela
This is so important! Your kids will one day leave home, but you and your husband will be together forever! Don’t drift apart – spend time together!
Keelie Reason
We have at home date nights all the time. It is hard to afford going out very often. I think you have a some great tips for at home date nights. I always suggest doing something out of the normal for sure. If you watch a movie every night, maybe break away from that for your at home date night. I’m also all about getting dressed for the date. I am not saying you have to dress up nice, but at least wear something you think is attractive. With Valentine’s coming up, I think an at home date night is in order around here. 🙂
Lisa @ This Pilgrim Life
Most of our date nights are at home too because we don’t have a lot of childcare options with three young kids. But you’re right, staying in doesn’t mean a date night can’t be special! We will sometimes feed the kids early and eat a dinner alone after they are in bed. We used to play board games together but in this season of life, my brain is often too spent to try to do that at the end of the night (I hope it’s something we get back to later on, though!). Like you said, just staying off phones and paying attention to each other is great. 🙂
Danielle Hull
Great post, thanks! We’re having the kids go to the grandparents for our anniversary and celebrating in our own home! So much better than a hotel.
Erin
How fun!
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Meghan
I went into this article assuming I’d heard it all before… but the idea to learn something together was something I’d never thought of! Can’t wait to do this with my husband 🙂
Anna - Small Things Mom
Wow, I don’t think I have ever read any of your other blog posts before, but this one really spoke to me. My hubby and I do pretty much all of those and then I read your bio at the bottom and I felt like I was reading my own bio… I have three kids too and we’re always trying to stay positive and live a good and happy life even though we really don’t have a lot. Thanks for sharing! 🙂