Marriage is hard work. It takes effort to maintain and build the bond between two people. Life can seem to take up all your time: extra work on the weekend, kids soccer games, and teachers conferences. It takes concerted, conscious effort to keep your partnership at the center of the family, which is where it belongs. Many couples find that scheduling a date night is a beneficial habit that they look forward to, and is a rewarding way to strengthen the marriage bond. To learn some tips for a successful date night with your husband or wife, keep reading.

Keep the Kids Happy

For date nights to be successful, the kids need to be on board. Parking them at boring Aunty Margaret’s is probably not going to win you any points with the kids, or Aunt Margaret. Instead, drop them off at Rebounderz Rohnert Park! Our Parents’ Night Out drop off times are from 6pm  to 10pm. You can go and have a nice dinner or catch a movie in that time.

Join Forces

When parents cooperate and help each other out, Parent’s Night Out can become Parents Night In and even Parent Morning Sleep In! Find another couple with kids of similar ages and offer to take all the kids one weekend, and they can take them another weekend. We host a Parent’s Night Out on a bi-weekly basis. You and the other couple can trade weekends and bring the kids to Rebounderz for the evening’s entertainment. The kids will have a great time, and we wager they’ll be begging you to plan another date night!

Establish the Rules

For a date night to be successful, both people need to get what they need out of it, and you, as a couple, need time and space to be alone together. It’s a good idea to set up some basic rules so that neither partner feels slighted or that they are only catering to the other’s needs. Here are some ideas for guidelines for a successful date night:

• Agree to not talk about the kids after a certain time. If there are pressing kid issues, be sure to get them out of the way early one and move on.
• Put your phones away. To engage in some quality face time, you need to be off your devices. Agree that one person can be contacted if it’s something about the kids, but otherwise, put it down and leave it down.
• Do something fun. Doing an activity together can help you bond. It can be something as simple as a board game or as special taking a dance lesson together.  Better yet, sign up for dance lessons, or a bowling league so you have a regular activity to look forward to and can make new friends too.
• Try a new restaurant that you would not, or could not take the kids too. Avoid your regular kid-friendly sports and so somewhere fancy, exotic and that makes you feel like dressing up. Or, if it casual really is more your couple style, try a kind of food that you have not eaten before. In either case, the point is to share a new experience with your partner.
• Agree ahead of time if you want to get out of the house or not and you must be in agreement! Maybe cooking a romantic dinner together, something that doesn’t involve chicken nuggets or mac and cheese, might be just the thing you need. Or maybe you need to put some distance between you and the house. If you can swing the whole night, get a hotel room and order room service.

Date Nights can help you keep the bond that is the center of the family. Rebounderz Rohnert Park is happy to help by offering our Parents Night Out.