Date Night

When Daddy and I were first dating and then newly married, we made a huge effort to make sure that we had fun on all our date nights, fun that was different from the time when we weren't on a date night. Of course being in a new romance and then being newly married we did things like go out to restaurants, or go to the cinema or the theatre, we went for long romantic walks and picnics and gave each other little gifts. I can't even begin to tell you how many beautiful bunches of flowers or boxes of chocolates I got. These are the staples that most of us are brought up expecting date nights to be about, these are where we think that romance happens.

When we think of movies where there are a couple on a date night, we see them feed each other over candlelight, go dancing or some other romantic thing that girls in particular seem to lap up. Watch any show on TV about a single person and the world of dating and there are the dates with gifts of flowers or chocolates. The couple meeting up at a restaurant or a bar, going to the cinema or if it's really romantic then a picnic the couple might just happen upon or being whisked away in a plane to get a burger.

I'm about to break some really bad news to some of you, and for that I'm sorry but I think it's my duty to tell you the truth. These situations that we see in films and TV shows, that we read about in romance novels and some people spend hours day dreaming over?  That isn't the be all and end all of romance and date nights.

Newly Wed PippaD and her Husband Flyfour

When we were a newly wed couple, we didn't have a lot of money and so we came up with some budget ideas for date nights and it's those simple things that we did on our date nights, the things that didn't cost a lot of money that have stuck in my mind as some of our best date nights. They continued after we had children. As we matured and grew more comfortable in ourselves, the date nights changed from Restaurant trips to cooking for each other or a take away, from a trip to the cinema to a night in front of the TV watching our favourite movie or TV show, instead of going for a romantic walk around a lake or through a forest it became a family walk.

I really think that date nights are important in all relationships, but for me it's not about going out and spending a fortune on a meal that you could have cooked at home (although it is nice!) pretending that you find sharing a space with goodness knows how many other people romantic.

For me date nights are a chance for my husband and I to reconnect, to look at each other in the eyes and to not have to worry about the dishes, or if we are going over budget. They are a chance for us to be romantic how ever we think is romantic without having to worry about the day to day stuff that makes up life.

And so tomorrow night I'm going on a date night.

It'll be in the living room of my home, our daughter will be at Brownie Camp, our son will be in bed and I'll have my best friend, my lover, my husband right beside me.

Head And Shoulders have given me some Money to have a date night. Which is rather kind of them.