Ideas for Fun At-Home Date Nights

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One thing that Brandon and I can’t get enough of since he came home is time together- with three little kids, we’re always chasing after someone and it isn’t easy to get a baby sitter and get out together on a regular basis, so we’ve been trying to have more spontaneous date nights at home. You don’t have to go out on the town to focus on each other and have fun and stay-at-home-dates are great for couples who can’t get out of the house or if you’re staying home to save money. Here are a few fun ideas that have kept our date nights at home as fun and romantic as going out without the baby sitter:

1. Wear Something Cute!- Part of the fun of going out is getting dressed up (especially for us stay at home Moms who spend a lot of time in yoga pants) and putting in that effort for the other person. Even though you’re staying home, pick out something that you feel cute in. I like to wear a cute pair of jeans and a blouse, even if I’ve been in sweats all day long. There’s no real rules for staying at home date nights, so that could even be a really cute pair of pajamas, whatever makes you feel confident and makes it feel like a date to you, even if it ends up on the floor 😉

2. Have a Plan- It doesn’t need to be anything elaborate, but having an idea of what you want to do will keep you from falling back into the usual flipping channels or just skipping out on a having a stay at home date altogether. It can be as simple as cook dinner together or watch a movie on a projector like we like to do. My plan for date night this last time was to take blankets and pillows to make our back porch cozy and then have dinner and watch a movie. 

In the fall when it gets dark earlier you can eat under the stars- I brought our food out so we could eat and enjoy the summer breeze.

3. Try Fun Food- For most couples, a date includes trying a new or favorite restaurant. If you’re staying at home for your date, it’s fun to get some food to-go and eat it at home. On our last date night in, I ran into Kroger looking for something out of our ordinary and decided to get sushi. Our Kroger was recently renovated and now has a large deli, meal and seafood area with fresh sushi with drinks to go along. We don’t treat ourselves to sushi often so I thought it’d be a fun surprise to bring home for date night.

I like to put everything on nicer plates to give it a more special, restaurant-like feel and turned a galvanized bucket that we usually use to hold the boys toys upside-down as a makeshift table.

To add to the picnic feel and beat the heat, I added a couple of bottles of smartwater. It’s all about making the prep easy for you and easy when you get home. I’m a smartwater drinker already, but Kroger has a coupon right now for saving $1 off when you purchase sushi and a smartwater 1L or 20oz Diet Coke while supplies last. That’s perfect for grabbing both for your date night in and not having to cook! The best part is, with smartwater you won’t have to do any dishes, just like at a restaurant.

4. Remove Distractions- When you’re out on a date in public, you are focusing on that other person, not the dishes, the kids, or your phone. Do the same thing even though you are at home. The whole point of date nights are to connect with the other person, and that’s hard to do if your mind is somewhere else. Remove the distractions, turn off your phone if you need to, and make sure you are intentionally focusing on the other person. Lately our house has been strewn with luggage that hasn’t been put away and Army gear and I didn’t want all of that to bug me so we had our date night on the back porch which is close enough to hear the kids if they called for us from bed, but away from all of the mess, plus these summer nights have been beautiful!

5. Find Fun!- Date nights should always have a feeling of fun or spontaneity. Play a game, joke with each other, watch a scary movie. Sometimes we’ll make the living room floor into a big bed with blankets and pillows. We’re still close enough to hear the kids but it’s something different than our usual sitting on the couch watching Netflix, and it felt much more playful and fun than sitting on the couch.

6. Relax and Enjoy Yourselves!- The whole point of date night is taking time to focus on each other and reconnect. Most couples probably don’t get nearly enough time to focus on each other so a date night in is a great since you can make it work anytime of day as long as you’re both home. I’ve even known military couples who did long-distance date nights when they were separated for trainings or deployment. They’d do the same thing just hundreds (or thousands) of miles away from each other and video chat through it all.

I hope you like these tips for at-home date nights and I would love to hear any that you have! What has worked for you? Thank you to Social Fabric for sponsoring this post, we loved the being able to grab dinner and still have a date even when life is too busy to cook! Smartwater and sushi is a great go-to for an easy date night in.