dinner date for new parents? excuse me while I laugh like a maniac! ha ha ha ha. Ok, I’m back.
When I’m on schedule with the evening routine, I pick up the kids and hustle them in the door a few minutes before the crazy dinner rush starts. If I succeed, we might have a little playtime before the show starts at 5:30.
Once the show begins, I have 25 minutes to prepare dinner with a goal that all four of us (two Minis and two Bigs) can eat together at 6pm. Rookie father Alec doesn’t typically walk in from his bus until 6:22 but because there are several points of failure in this system — we get home late, someone’s throwing a fit, food takes too long, someone’s throwing a fit, I’m up and down running for beverages or seconds — we often eat together!
I like family dinner, but how great would it be to spend an evening sipping a little red wine and doing the romantic dance around the kitchen sauteeing a little of this and chopping a little of that? Together. With your partner. No kids. It’s pretty flipping awesome.
What about having a dinner date at home after the kids are in bed one night a week month?
The essential is that you really do it together. Not that mama has one shift making dinner for the tiny set and one much more shift making a second dinner.
We got this book, dinner Dates: A Cookbook for Couples cooking together as a gift when we started sharing a kitchen and recently busted it back out so we could reconnect in the kitchen. So, it’s good for newlyweds, new parents, and for any of us who need a fun idea for a date without a babysitter. It is absolutely fantastic about helping couples figure out who ought to do what and when so it all comes out even for steps and ingredients. The meals are very tasty; Alec and I have had several of them (and I’ve prepared one or two with a girlfriend for a fun evening as well). All come with a dessert and a red wine pairing.
Related Rookie mother activities:
Make dinner after dinner
Have some adult conversation
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No, this post wasn’t sponsored. My friend gave it to me a bunch of years ago. You can find it for less than $3 on amazon.