Let’s talk about how awesome marriage is for a minute. I mentioned last week that my marriage is one of the things that brings me joy in my life. And I’m not just saying that. It’s so true! Yes, it can be tough navigating two different personalities and upbringings, but in the end, creating a successful and happy marriage is so fulfilling and wonderful. And I believe that having regular date nights is important in doing just that – creating a successful and happy marriage.

As you can probably tell by now, the prompt for today’s Mommy Style Monday is date nights 🙂 Like I mentioned above, I believe date nights are so important to the wellness of a marriage. We have 3 styles of date nights that we kind of rotate through, and I want to share them with you, today!

Go out without kids.

Currently this is the one we do least often. Sometimes it’s just not feasible to pay for a babysitter and an outing (seriously, go to dinner and a movie + babysitting costs and you’re out $100!) but it’s still something we love to to, and something I think is important to do. When we were down in Utah for my triathlon, Kyle took me out to lunch at Olive Garden sans kids (bless my in-laws for watching our kids for free) and it was so much fun to be out to eat with just with him. I generally try to make these dates out by ourselves about us, and not talk about the kids (although it usually comes up at least once or twice, we’re parents, can you blame us?).

Go out with kids.

We do this one fairly often. A recent example is that for my birthday we took the kids out to Pizza Pie Cafe for dinner. I had a coupon for a free meal, and both our kids are still free, so it was fairly inexpensive and fun to do something different. Another date night we kids we do sometimes is to go to Lowe’s (hashtag homeowners) and then go grab ice cream afterwards. Just simple but fun family activities.

Stay at home.

The date night we do most often is to watch a movie on VidAngel or Netflix and eat treats after the kids go to bed. Nothing too terribly exciting, but still something we are doing together.

So there you go, 3 styles of date nights that we enjoy doing. I’ll be honest though, I am planning on actually planning out date nights with more intention, especially the ones when we stay at home. Dating our spouse is so important, especially when you have young children that demand so much of your time and attention, so making the effort to plan and schedule date nights should be a top priority. We/I haven’t been very good at doing that, so that’s a goal of mine!

A little about Mommy Style Mondays: they were created by Kiana and Madeline to showcase how different mommas have different styles, not only in clothing and fashion, but in the way they parent, create, and just everything! We join together to share and celebrate those differences together, and to get ideas from other moms, as well! If you want to join us, you can sign up on Kiana or Madeline’s blogs. And please feel free to check out the rest of these fabulous ladies who are sharing their own date night style today: