Barack has Date Nights with Michelle, do you?

This morning, while recovering from my Forth of July weekend and reading the local paper, I came across an article about Date Nights with your spouse.   They even talked about how the Obama’s go on regularly scheduled Date Nights, with the help of their social secretary to plan it all out.   While its a fine idea in general and in theory, its something that I rarely do with my spouse.

And don’t get me wrong, I love going to to a restaurant without crayons and ketchup bottles on the table, but that is not reality or going to work in my life.  I think our last Date Night was over six months ago and involved eating dinner at a bar and Christmas shopping.  And fielding constant phone calls when we would be done.

Image by Mateusz Stachowski

For my husband and I, Date Night turns into a logistical nightmare.  I have two kids, one with Sensory Processing Disorder, spech delays and a severe need for routine.  So, to prepare them when we go out involves me saying for about three days before what will happen and who will be with them when we are out.  And that does not always help in getting out the door.  Or getting to stay out late.

Out of the three couples interviewed for this article, none have a Special Needs child, or did not talk about it.   Then again, none of them mentioned how babysitting works for their regular everyday life either.  Do they beg mom and dad to take both kids, including the one no one has the energy to keep up with because they are overstimulated?  Do they pay someone and pray their child does not freak out with a semi stranger in the house?   Where we live, there are not local kids looking to earn money babysitting.  Then again, there are not a lot of kids near us in general.

Plus, when your list of sitters is extremely short and you frequently use almost all of them on a regular basis during the week, asking them to give up a Friday or Saturday night is not an easy sell.  Or if they travel for business most of the time.  Or work the night shift.  Or will only take the older one, or the younger one, but not both together.

One suggestion was to have Date Night in your house after the kids go to bed.  I call that my free time, I am not having Date Night in my house.  I really disagree with having to call it Date Night to watch a rented movie in my family room with my husband after the kids go to bed.  Do these couples spend that little time together on a regular basis?

As of now, 68% of people who took the newspaper poll said no, they do not have Date Nights.  If so many people are reporting they don’t do this, why do we hear so much about it?   Does anyone else have the friend or co-worker who one night a week is the regularly scheduled Date Night?

So, I will keep going on without regularly scheduled Date Nights.  And, until I get Michelle Obama’s social coordinator to help plan my life, I think my husband and I will be fine.

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