Dating Your Children
Back when we lived in the suburbs and had only one child, I enjoyed a night out once a month with my Bunco group. I also hosted monthly scrapbooking workshops at our local church. These events provided the perfect excuse for my husband and our toddler daughter to go on a date. They often went to McDonald’s or to the park. The where, when and how much wasn’t important, though. It was the one-on-one time that made those daddy-daughter dates special.
Fast forward 5 years. We now live in a tiny town without any fast food, Daddy is coaching 2-3 nights a week, and Mommy’s Bunco group and scrapbooking have been replaced by two additional children and a host of Tiny Town school and community activities. Life is crowded, and we tend to go with the flow.
Dating our children is still something we try to do to get individual, positive, encouraging time with each of them. Parent-child dates don’t have to be an expensive activity, and they don’t have to add time to an already full schedule. It’s not the what. It’s not the how much. It’s just you and one of your children having fun together.
Here are some dates that work for us:
- a bike ride through town
- a short trip to the playground
- a board game in their bedroom, no sibs allowed
- making cookies in the kitchen
- grocery shopping
- making our appointments together (My 5 year old loves going to the dentist with me. We always try to schedule our appointments so that we can hit Sonic Happy Hour afterward.)
- a ride to the farm in the pick up (Is there anything cuter than a 3 year old wearing overalls and a John Deere hat?)
- going to sports practice with daddy
- reading a book together
Our children don’t want our money (yet!), but they do want our approval and some individual time. Dating them is one way to show our kids that they are special, unique, valuable members of the family.
Do you spend individual time with your kids? What are some activities that work for you?
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AUTHOR | Amy
Amy is the loving mother of three young children and lives with her husband in a tiny town in Kansas. Her blog, The Finer Things in Life, celebrates and encourages others in all of the things that money cannot buy: faith, motherhood, simplicity, tiny towns, and good home cookin'.
I love this post! We do this too and our daughters love it. My husband takes our oldest (5 years old) to a Daddy Daughter Dance every year and buys her flowers and takes her out to dinner. She talks about it for months. We have also done fishing dates, feeding the duck dates, and lunch dates. It is always time well spent!
I have an almost 1 year old and I am so excited to start doing things like this on a regular basis as he is getting to such a fun age.
This is so so important. Luckily I had amazing parents that showed me love like this. My mom took out the boys on their birthdays and my dad did the same for us girls. I got to pick wherever I wanted to go and order whatever I wanted too, it was always such a special time. When I got married and it was birthday time I was almost sad as I cherished those times with Dad! Beautiful memories!
Never be too busy to show your kids just how special they are, it makes a world of difference!!!!!!
Date nights are awesome. As a home school teaching dad, I get more 1 on 1 opportunities with the kids than my wife does. So she is now doing a litttle bit more of the dating.
I love this! What a sweet idea! Daddy goes with ds fishing, golfing, and shooting range. He has also taken dd to shooting range. She loves to shoot and wants to hunt this year. Dd and I have gone on a shopping date and gotten coffee on the way home.
I think this one-on-one time is imperative to everyone’s development. My daughter and I bake and my husband plays games with her. My older daughter and I go for a drive and my husband plays games with her (I sense a pattern:-)
We do family date nights too and we love it. We try to do them on the same night so one of us takes our son and one takes our daughter and then next time we switch off. It’s amazing the conversations I have with my daughter when we are alone in the car - windshield time, as my friend calls it.
[...] not the how much. It’s just you and one of your children having fun together. (Read more at Happy to be at Home.) Category: [...]
I wish I would have started this when my girls were little. Now they’re teens, and don’t want to do things with us …
That’s wonderful!!
Amy - Great post! This is so important. When I was growing up, mom was at home and dad worked. There were 6 kids in the house. So, my parents instituted “Special Nights Out” with Daddy. He’d take each of us individually, maybe once a month, and we would get to choose the activity (within reason). I remember that I saw “Never Ending Story” and went to Friendly’s for ice cream on one of my “Special Nights Out”.
We have twins and so it is especially important to give them that one on one time. We instituted “Special Nights Out” with our family this year. Only difference is that DH and I alternate months so we each have one. It is such a joy to develop that one-on-one relationship!
Mostly our “dates” are just one of us taking the 3 year old to the store with us and leaving the other parent home with the infant. I hope to be able to get away more soon and have real dates with my 3 year old. Thanks for the tips!
So cool - #3 on this week’s Works for Me Wednesday posted on this too! Her blog is “It Feels Like Chaos”