When Vee and Kee were still little and we had oodles and oodles of "extra" time, my other half and I would do "parent date nights" as suggested by the Eyres. We would pick our favorite (expensive) restaurant and enjoy a scrumptious dinner while talking about how the kids were developing and what we could do to preempt any difficulties that we might see budding.
We went down the list (and I kept notes) for each child:
* socially
* academically
* spiritually
* physically
* emotionally
And every time I wrote out the list, I would agonize over which area to cover first. Whatever.
Now, with both of us shouldering two jobs each, we haven't had much time for parent date nights. I miss them.
Out of need, tonight we MADE the time because one of our kids was forming a new something that could very easily become a big something if we didn't sit up & pay attention.
We didn't get a dinner out, but we did have a good, long talk in the office after the kids were asleep. After about two hours (two hours!) of discussion, Eee came up with a brilliant solution. Kudos to da man!
Moral of the story: parent date nights work & they work well. I would rather proactive plan in advance the preemptive parent date nights (alliteration on purpose), oh well. The only fallout will be a headache in the morning from lack of sleep. I can handle a little headache tomorrow if it means avoiding future long-term headaches.
