Indoor date night: Ideas for quality spouse time

[pantrygirl]

Hi everyone.

I'm hoping to get some suggestions on things to do with DH that don't require a babysitter.

My daughter is going through a phase where she wakes up two-three times a night and asks for me so I'm limited to how far we can stray.

I'm also feeling like DH and I are in a rut. If we're not doing chores together in the wee hours of the night, one of us is either on the computer or reading a book.

We try to make a dinner together and have a meal together without our toddler at least once a week. It's actually kind of fun since 1) I do most of the cooking and 2) I get to boss him around as we cook together :-D 3) we usually have a glass of wine together to mellow out and 4) we have to do it sort of quietly to avoid waking her up so it can get a little humorous.

Maybe we can watch a movie or something on Netflix? Any movie suggestions?

I'm welcome to any suggestions for indoor date night.
Thanks.

[ourbabygirl]

We've had to try the same thing, as we have a toddler and another on the way in a couple of months. Not much family around to baby-sit, don't trust any 'random' baby-sitters yet, and the cost of that + a date out adds up quickly!
I started a thread about this same thing last year sometime, I believe, but I don't remember what it was called to link it here.

Anyhow, things we've done in the past were

*playing board games
*playing cards
*watching a certain t.v. show together each week/ a movie
*reading
*sitting outside on the swing together & talking / having a bonfire (it's been way too hot all summer for this, but maybe this fall we can do it again)
*doing some sort of house or yard project (cleaning out garage, etc.) with the baby monitor on
*cooking/ baking cookies or something together

Have fun! Looking forward to seeing other peoples' ideas!

[wellyes]

I like scrabble or gin rummy date nights.
Put together a puzzle.
Build a backyard fire.
Fondue!

[carolinamama]

DH and I like to sit outside on our front porch and drink a glass of wine or a beer together and just talk. We will also go outside and water our potted plants and garden together after getting the kids in bed. It's a nice chance to talk without kids around.

[♥ms.pacman♥]

great thread. for us, TiVo/Netflix has totally saved us. especially love the netflix "On Demand" feature. at night we usually just veg in front of the TV and watch a few episodes of comedies like "The Office", "30 Rock" or something like that. Sometimes we'll do a movie, but what's hard about movies is that they sometimes are 2+ hrs long, require some level a concentration and so half-way through my DH is snoozing. hehe. so TV shows tend to be easier bc 22 minutes (or 44 minutes) are perfect little chunks of time and require less focusing/concentration.

and just talking is great too. when we went on a weeklong trip for DH's conference, we didn't watch any TV as DS was asleep in the same room (we were all in a hotel room) and we didn't want to wake him (plus we had no Tivo so limited stuff we wanted to watch anyway). we probably spent an hour every night just talking about random stuff. it was great.

i know what u mean tho about sometimes getting carried away with chores or doing other stuff on the internet etc. sometimes we catch ourselves doing that and we tell each other a rule, like "after 10:00, no more internet/working/washing dishes etc". it's silly but i think it helps, bc sometimes we can both be doing stuff and then realize it's 11:30 already!

[wendibird22]

We just watched Couples Retreat. Pretty funny.
We have a small fire pit and will set up lawn chairs and do smores or have a cocktail or even attempt to do Jiffy Pop (it never works but we keep trying). Our baby monitor reaches out to our back yard so we can still hear if the kids wake up.

We also will sit on our front porch.

When DD1 was a babe we'd put her in her pj's and then take a long stroller walk and get some ice cream for us. She'd fall asleep and she'd be all set to be put in her crib when we got home.

We'll play Wii. We are quite competitive so bowling, mario cart, guitar hero are fun for us.

[brgnmom]

Hi everyone.

I'm hoping to get some suggestions on things to do with DH that don't require a babysitter.

My daughter is going through a phase where she wakes up two-three times a night and asks for me so I'm limited to how far we can stray.

I'm also feeling like DH and I are in a rut. If we're not doing chores together in the wee hours of the night, one of us is either on the computer or reading a book.

We try to make a dinner together and have a meal together without our toddler at least once a week. It's actually kind of fun since 1) I do most of the cooking and 2) I get to boss him around as we cook together :-D 3) we usually have a glass of wine together to mellow out and 4) we have to do it sort of quietly to avoid waking her up so it can get a little humorous.

Maybe we can watch a movie or something on Netflix? Any movie suggestions?

I'm welcome to any suggestions for indoor date night.
Thanks.

we have a monthly blockbuster subscription, and so we get movies shipped to us from blockbuster regularly and we can exchange them at the b&m store. I haven't seen a movie recently that I can personally recommend though. Blindside was good, but not really one I would watch on a date night per se.

we also enjoy PS3 video games together.

I'd suggest ordering dinner from a favorite restaurant for take-out/delivery, and picking a movie together to watch at home.

[brittone2]

at our old house we enjoyed many a bottle of wine out on the deck or porch swing. Add some candle light or white twinkle lights for ambiance LOL.

Pick up a book on massage and some nice massage oil?

[Melaine]

Good ideas. We have just started having media-free mondays because we both have gotten so sucked into TV, Xbox and internet at night. We have done puzzles the last two weeks in a row, but need so more ideas. Glad to read these!

[khm]

You're probably trying to avoid TV, but man, my husband and I got addicted to LOST via Netflix streaming last winter. Addicted. It was great! A glass of wind and a little LOST-time.... We haven't found another show like that.

We'll get movies by mail and by streaming now, but getting so into a show that we could just go watch as many episodes as we wanted was fun!