Night For US
The sparkle in his eyes are hinting at me to come closer and the subtle whistling sounds prove that he is hooked onto me. Those facial expression of his give me butterflies and make me blush even after ten years.
Now, I am pondering if I should give in to the signs or not. I decide to ignore it and get all decked up so his eyes are glued on me. After getting ready, I let him glance at me – enough to give him butterflies, but the hook is no touching yet.
Here we are all ready to go on our date night. The night that had been way over due since a month.
With three kids, leaving in a joint family, his traveling for work, and socials, it gets hard to find time for ourselves. I feel we are constantly running around doing something or other and at the end of the day, we are so exhausted that we barely have time for each other.
As years go by, I feel it is very important as couples to keep each other going. It is very easy to get caught up in this routineous life of kids and social that you forget how it is like to dress up, to impress the other person and to keep that love alive.
I value that communication and time spent with each other since that is the key factor that makes you revisit your vows. It takes two to tango and to keep your relationship going, both of you have to work towards it and revive it.
There are times when he will ask me out on a date or sometimes I may. We try to go once or twice a month and some months it may be more, some months less.
At times, we may plan a nice fancy restaurant and at times, we may just go in our home clothes down to Starbucks or catch a movie. It does not matter where you go or what you do, as long as you are spending that quality time with each other. 
If you google date night, there will be thousands of ideas that show up so I am not going to dwell into those. However, I will say that date night is for you so you can tweek it to your needs, budget and life so both of you can enjoy that quality time.
“Date night is not a luxury. It is a necessity. The initial romantic love relationship lasts less than two years for most couples. Putting date night back into the routine can help couples work as a team to rekindle desire.” – according to an article, ‘Date Night: Not a Luxury, A Necessity’ in Psychology Today.’ I completely concur with this idea that date night is a necessity.
Once all the excitement has fizzled out, couples find themselves coming at a standstill with their relationship. On the other hand, the family and social life is getting busier. When you see that fizzle, excitement bubbling down, it is the time to rekindle that love through small gestures.
As for kids, this is the night they look forward too since I make it a ‘Night Out’ night. Night out means they can stay up late, they can play, watch TV or do anything they like with no interference as long as they are in limits.
Here is a list of things I like to do so they are looking forward to us going out:
1. Junk Food – I have some popcorn, hot chocolate with vegan marshmallows, chips, salsa and little candy (basically all the junk that they do not get daily).
2. Movie – They get to choose their movie and give them a theater feel with their blankets and pillows and dim lights.
3. Games – I put out some board games in case one does not want to watch the movie midway (this way they do not end up calling me).
If you guys know of any suggestion, let me know; however, this formula has been a hit with my kids.
As Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan, who not only have a great fortune, but have been together for 13 years now say that they “spend a minimum of 100 minutes of alone time each week, as well as a weekly date night.”
We may not have that much time, but we can start somewhere.
Therefore, pick a night, set it in your calendar and get ready for your date night.
