7 easy date night ideas for parents to help you reconnect in 2023

  • Save

As parents, we don’t always get to spend time with our partners – at least not as often as we would like. After all, raising children is a 24/7 job! But by taking the time to rediscover each other and focus on being together rather than doing everything for your kids you will find you operate better as a team and rub each other up the wrong way less. I can always tell when we are long overdue a date night because we start getting a bit tetchy with each other – a surefire sign that we need to reconnect and spend some quality time with each other.

Thankfully date nights don’t have to be a complicated affair. You don’t even need to leave your home for one and if you money is tight they can also be totally free too. Read on for some of my favourite date night ideas for parents with something for everyone that will help you reconnect, relax, and have fun again.

Make Dinner Part Of The Date

There’s nothing quite like sharing good food just the two of you without little people interrupting or complaining that they don’t want to eat what you’ve prepared. When it’s just the two of you, you can go anywhere – to a restaurant in town, or a nearby restaurant or even just a simple café’s and make it the center of your date. If you’re looking for something a little more intimate or you’re on a tight budget, I love to light up some candles, put on some atmospheric music, dim the lights and serve up a special dinner at home that the kids normally wouldn’t touch with a bargepoll. Something like a Thai curry is always a winner! Despite it just being in your home, you may be surprised how this totally different perspective of connecting while the kids are in bed can make time together feel even more special

Go To A Play

If you’re looking for a different way to spend time with each other, a play date is a great option. You can go to the local theatre, see a play at a university campus, or even go to a comedy club and see a stand-up comedy show. This can be a great way to spend quality time with your partner, and take a break from the daily grind of work and family life. I find it’s a lovely thing to book in advance, put in the diary and have something to look forward to.

Bring Out Your Arts And Crafts Supplies

You may have moved beyond coloring books and crayons years ago, but that doesn’t mean your kids should have all the creative fun! Bring out some art supplies – paints, pencils, crayons, and paper – and use them to create something with your other half. One of my favourite date nights was when we got a whole bunch of stencils and a really long piece of paper and made a really long “mural” with them. An arty date night can be a great way of bringing out your creativity, expressing yourselves in a way that you normally wouldn’t get to do in every day life, and let you reconnect.

  • Save

Take A Baking Class Or Bake Together

Doing something together that you both enjoy, such as taking a class on how to make a cake or taking turns baking a batch of cookies can be a great way to spend time together. You could either book a session at a cooking school, or there are plenty of follow-along tutorials online which you could use instead. Baking is a fun way of reconnecting and relaxing – plus you get to enjoy what you’ve created at the end.

Have A Scrabble Or Monopoly Night

Game nights don’t have to be just for family time, they can take on a whole new meaning on a date night too! We’ve spent many a fun date night playing scrabble. Monopoly, why not turn a night into a Scrabble or Monopoly night? Other fun games to play on a date night include Jenga, Cluedo, Connect 4. See this list for more ideas.

Plan A Day Trip

This one does take a little more planning but if you can convince the grandparents to baby sit for a nigh then this is the holy grail of date night ideas for parents. Why not plan a weekend away or a trip somewhere fun, such as a nearby museum or theme park, and spend some time in one of those locations exploring, having fun, and reconnecting. This gives you and your partner a more substantial amount of time to relax in a new environment, and enjoy spending time together away from the hustle and bustle of daily life.

  • Save

Just Stay In And Watch TV Or Movies Together

If one or both of you love to relax with a movie or a good TV show, why not just relax and enjoy it together? Instead of trying to get dinner on the table and clean up afterwards, just relax and enjoy each other’s company while you enjoy your fave show or movie. For a particularly cosy stance on this we love to snuggle up in bed and watch a movie together – it feels so decadent! This is a great way to get some quality time in when you’re short on time, and it also gives you a chance to chill out and relax as a couple.

Find New Things You Can Do Together

What are you both interested in? How about pursuing that interest as a date? This can be as simple as taking a cooking class together, exploring local museums or art galleries together, or even taking a bus tour of a nearby city. You might try something more active like climbing or taking a dance class together. The world is your oyster!

Always End With A Kiss And A “we’ll do it again tomorrow” Promise

Ending your date with a kiss and a promise to do it again soon is a great way to end your night. This will get you excited for the next date night and remind you of the promise you made on your last date night.

What are your favourite date night ideas for parents? Let us know in a comment below.

3 comments

  1. My favourite has to be a day trip. It can never be pass 3pm as we need to pick up our kids but I never knew how different my husband is without the kids. He doesn’t looked mentally drained, frustrated or quiet. We actually have decent conversation without being interrupted. It is almost like he is a different person, the person I fell in love with

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.