Kids & Company Blog

Date Night, What’s Date Night?!

It's that romantic month of February as I write this and time to reflect way back on those early Valentine's Days spent at the Kelly's and the lack of date nights!

I am trying hard to remember those dates with my husband of 25 years but for some reason I remember two little ones with us most of the time!  (In fact I think we had a rotating bed as well as the kids would pop in and out nightly). You see, my Mom and Dad (and in laws) were not living in the same city which made it really difficult to trust the care of our children to someone else. Date night suffered....

I am confident if you ask my husband, he would definitely agree that we both loved spending time with our kids as a family and also supportive of "attachment parenting". I definitely feel it important for children (our two kids) to emotionally attach in the early years to people and caregivers they trusted with whom they would develop strong emotional bonds and find safety in those relationships. So, the reality was we rarely went out and left them with others. That was until they were older and we discovered how fun it could be!

Thankfully through preschool, we did find other like minded families to expand our support network and I was able to trade off childcare during the day and the odd date night.

In the long run, we have no regrets because our children grew up with a strong sense of self and still find solace and support as young adults in our strong and trusted relationships with them.

Moral of the story is if you get the chance to expand your caregiving network early through preschool or daycare,  then do it!!  Take advantage and create opportunities for date nights.  It is a fine balance of finding the time in a relationship for each other while caring for children. Parenting coaches will tell couples, date night should never stop. I would agree.

 

 

Denise Kelly is a North Vancouver Boomer, Director of Marketing & Operations BC Kids & Co  and #4 on The Stanley Cupcakes her female hockey team. Follow Denise on twitter at @theboomervine or she can be reached at dkelly@kidsandcompany.com

Posted on: Monday February 10th, 2014

Posted by: Denise Kelly