Our evening routine between the time work ends and the time we get the girls all settled into bed is incredibly chaotic, sometimes relatively smooth and functional, sometimes not 🙂 I work from home so I finish up work then prep dinner so that it’s ready or really close to ready by the time everyone gets home. Jeff works at the office and scoots over to daycare to pick the girls up after he finishes his work day. I’m grateful for the way we have things divided right now. I’m sure it will get all rearranged when Hayes starts Kindergarten in Fall 2023.
Jeff and I have gotten in the habit of eating right at 5:30 with the girls. We serve our girls exactly what we are eating (unless it’s spicy) so the food is hot and it makes sense to dive in with them. Plus, I love the old traditional idea of a family eating around the table together and I would rather eat earlier than later for health reasons too. It works for a lot of reasons.
But on more nights than not we go our separate ways after we put the girls to bed. Jeff might go for a long bike ride, work on a house project, or mow the lawn. I might go pack notepad orders, start a load of laundry, or get back on my computer to blog. It’s not bad, but we only get so many opportunities to connect as a married couple with three kids and we realized that without a more intentional effort, our weekly budget meeting might become our date night — WOOF.
So we decided to implement a mini date night once a week by simply eating dinner together after the girls go to bed. Last week we ordered Thai food and watched Love is Blind, the week before we ate steak and potatoes and lit a candle. It doesn’t have to be fancy, it’s just about spending intentional time together.
If you’re looking for a simple way to add in a date night with your person, just clear your evening schedule and shift your dinner time later once a week, it’s worked well for us so far.