1- Plan, plan, plan. It’s ALL about planning ahead. You need to plan WHAT you are doing BEFORE the day arrives so you know what you might need to do to get the night ready. Because you are staying home, it’s so easy to fall into the ‘normal’ routine of any other night. When you plan ahead of time, it gets you out of that ‘normalcy’ rut and into having something special to look forward to for the night. 2- Let go and be creative. Don’t let the fact that you are home stop you from making the most out of your night. Be creative. Be romantic. Pretend you are out on the town and act like you would at a nice restaurant. If you are planning on dinner, make it a candlelight dinner. Go out of your way to make the night special. 3- Set a date and time. This may seem so obvious, but you would be surprised with how easy it is to continue to put off doing the date if there isn’t some sort of commitment to making it happen on a certain night AND having a time set for it to start. Setting a date and time is an essential part to making date nights at home successful. 4- Get things ready. It’s not enough just to plan for the night, you actually need to set things up for the night so it’s ready for the date to start. Get all the materials needed for the date you have planned put together before your date. If you have kids, make sure you have a set plan on what to do with them and get that ready, too. Does the date start before or after they go to bed? If they are going to be awake for part of it, what activities are they going to do while you guys are on your date? If you want them to watch a movie, what movie? Anything that you will need for them, get ready so it doesn’t eat into your time with your spouse. Also, if your kids are going to start by being awake and then go to bed in the middle of the date, set out pajamas, get toothbrushes ready, and anything else they will need to go to bed so that the transition is quick and efficient to get you quickly back to your date. 5- NO distractions. It’s SO much easier to get distracted by things because you are at home. Make sure to be present and focused on your relationship, not things that need to get done around the house. Put your phones and computer away. Turn off the TV. Don’t worry about how clean your house is. Focus on you and your spouse and how to make the most of the night. Just enjoy! If you focus on these 5 steps, there shouldn’t be any excuse to NOT have a date night. Even if you don’t have tons of time because of long hours at work, don’t let that stop you from taking time out for your date night. My husband and I have made a date night out of 30 minutes when no other time was available. Those 30 minutes were sacred to me as it allowed us to be tuned in to each others’ needs. Even at home, your date nights can be a HUGE success! {WINK} Want some more ideas to make date night great? Check out these awesome at-home dates or play this fun getting to know you game to really spice up your at-home date night!
