How to Have a Monthly Date | Ideas for Busy Parents

I’m constantly adding to my list of perfect date ideas for busy parents… but the reality is that my husband and I rarely make the time to actually do any of those ideas. To be honest, it’d been months since my husband and I were intentional about getting out of the house for a date. It’s time to get intentional about prioritizing our marriage again, and these monthly date ideas for busy parents might be the answer!

We’ve been in a busy season of life where most of our “dates” are spent sitting on the couch watching a movie after the kids go to bed. And while that works, there’s something special about leaving it all behind and spending time together outside of our home.

That’s why I was so excited when we were able to sneak away to dinner at the local steakhouse this past week. We enlisted our “built-in babysitter” to watch her siblings, and we enjoyed an hour of kid-free dining just minutes away from home.

Sitting in silence. Talking about life. Things we don’t get to do when four kids are constantly interjecting. It was bliss.

Our date wasn’t fancy. It didn’t take months of planning. (It was fairly spontaneous, in fact, as I sent him a text less than hour before we walked out the door.) But it was special, and I loved it. In fact, I want more dates just like it – dates where we leave the kids at home and enjoy just being together.

I’m on a mission to have a monthly date night with my husband, even in the midst of the busyness of raising four kids. And that means being intentional.

How to Have a Monthly Date | Ideas for Busy Parents

When you’re in the middle of raising kids, you’re not likely to “find” time to spend alone with your spouse. That’s why it’s so important to be intentional and plan ahead – to schedule your dates in advance. Go grab your calendar right now, and we’re going schedule a monthly date night for each of the next twelve months!

I grabbed my favorite planner for busy moms, and I penciled in a date for each month. Penciling the dates in ahead of time gives us a target. We might have to reschedule, but we’re more likely to have a date if it’s penciled in.

We’ll do a mixture of day dates and date nights, and we’ll be sure to mix up the date activities, too. In fact, I’m headed over to the Dating Divas site to grab an Envelope Date Night kit… not only do I get an adorable set of printable labels, tags, and envelope covers for twelve monthly dates, but I can use some of my 52 Date Ideas for Busy Parents to fill them in!

Doing most of the planning now will help to make our monthly date ideas for busy parents become a reality. No more excuses about not having time to plan a date night. It’s already planned AND on the calendar. We just have to show up!