Stress-Free Dates Nights With Your Partner
Spending some quality time with your partner is an important part of maintaining a positive family environment for everyone, but we understand it can feel tough to squeeze in time for just the two of you. Between school, sports, business trips, and grocery shopping, just catching a glimpse of your partner might be challenging enough! However, research reveals that doing something nice for yourself and your partner is actually good for you and your family.
Three reasons why you should plan a date:
You deserve it
Parents are superheroes! You spend so much time loving and nurturing your children to grow into beautiful young people, and there’s no better way to celebrate that achievement than with your partner. Taking the time to chat about your tantrum-reducing accomplishments over a delicious meal? Yes please!
Adult time is key
Spending time with your children is enriching and amazing, but we can all agree that a break from Elmo and booger jokes is key to maintaining sanity. Chatting about adult topics will help you feel grounded with your peers and ready to dive back into silly discussions about how to train a dragon!
Broaden your children’s social support
Our nannies and babysitters are loving and supportive—and are people who your children want to hang out with! Children need time to be creative, learn, and have fun with many adults in their lives, and SmartSitters are a great addition to the village nurturing your children. Parents frequently tell us how their children look forward to spending time with their SmartSitter and ask their parents to spend a night out so their SmartSitter can come back for a fun Friday night. Take advantage of the opportunity for your children to gain another loving adult in their life and book a SmartSitter today!
Now that you’re convinced date night is a good idea, how can you actually make the most of your time together? We’ve got three tips make sure you have a great experience!
Three ideas to help make your date enjoyable:
Go low-key
Date nights don’t have to be fancy and across town! Taking a leisurely stroll to your favorite neighborhood joint can be just as fun as dinner reservations at the hottest new spot. The allure of date night with your partner is about spending some quality time together, just the two of you, not about the destination. If time is really crunched, you can enjoy each other while feeling productive by making a stop at the grocery store for an unhurried shopping experience without your youngsters slipping cookies into the cart.
Be flexible
The idea of date-night is to eliminate stress, so make sure you’re taking the time to let go, maybe even trying out an air-guitar competition! Sometimes having no plans make for the best nights of all. Booking a SmartSitter means that you can request some flexibility on your end time, and we encourage you to use that flexibility to make your dates the best they can be.
Day dates are great too
We know evening dates aren’t always an option, so don’t dismiss the ever-so-delightful day date. SmartSitters are happy to help out 24/7, so if a mid-morning date for coffee and hitting the farmers market is more up your alley—seize the day!
Now that you’ve got the perfect date planned, make sure your kids will have a great time at home with their SmartSitter, so you can completely enjoy the moment.
Three fun things for your SmartSitter to do at home with the kids:
Movie night comes alive!
Imaginative play is a favorite with children! It’s great for children of all ages, can be done with one child or many, and it promotes learning in many important areas. For this activity, your kids can pick a movie they love or experience a new movie of your SmartSitter’s choosing (Our sitters have had great success with The Lion King, Rapunzel, and Harry Potter). Your children can choose a stage, get costumes and props ready, act out their favorite scenes, and get creative with the plot. You can even ask your SmartSitter to record the final product so you can enjoy the show when you get home, after the mess has been cleaned and your children and happily dreaming of their next big production!
Make your own pizza pies
This idea is great because it’s easily assembled, and most children love pizza (try tacos for children who aren’t into pizza). Your kiddos and SmartSitter can whip up an easy dough recipe or decorate pre-made dough with their creative ingredients. We’ve found the key to making this activity fun and interesting is to really get the kids involved, allowing them to experiment with traditional and unexpected toppings. They could try making one “interesting” pie with new-to-kids ingredients, like sun dried tomatoes or kale, a “classic” pie with cheesy shapes or pepperoni smiley-faces, and a “dessert” pie smothered in nutella or cinnamon! Your children will be gaining great skills and having fun at the same time!
Bedtime scavenger hunt
This game has made nanny-bedtime routines a breeze! Scavenger hunts can be simple, and make a routine fun. While wrapping up the last activity of the night, the sitter will start hiding the bedtime tools (PJs, toothpaste, bedtime story, glass of water). As the kids find each item, they’ll get closer to bedtime in a fun and natural transition from playing to sleeping. Warmer-colder hints are a great technique for the children to find the next item in the routine. This game injects some fun into a potentially stressful routine for children who are missing their parents!
We want to hear how your date night goes! Tag SmartSitting in your Facebook and Instagram posts for us to see and share your posts on our channels. Looking for more information about planning your next date night? Make sure you sign up for our newsletter for all the latest info coming from our team!