With Money Tight and Kids in the Picture, How Do We Have Special, Romantic Time Without a Sitter?

February 13, 2009 -- Question: It seems like it is increasingly hard to have special, romantic time with my partner since we had kids. And now money is tight, so it's hard to get a sitter. Do you have any ideas to help solve this problem?

Answer: Yes, I think there are some very clever things you can do without a sitter. But you have to plan ahead. I have a little plan for people who have little kids that works very well. And that is, you plan ahead of time that you want to have some romantic time together, you take turns taking the kids out and get them really tired. You probably take them out somewhere to eat and you buy some food to bring home; it doesn't have to be expensive.

One of you or the other of you might want to take a nap, so by the time the kids are home at dinner time, you don't have any dishes to do, the kids are really tired. So if you pop in a movie yourselves and you wait until the kids fall asleep, you are relatively relaxed and you have a couple hours to be together romantically and still get to sleep by 11 so that you can be a good parent in the morning.

And you didn't need a babysitter.

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