Tag: babysitter

Date night for many couples is sadly long overdue. Time, money, creativity can all get in the way... and if you’ve got kids, there’s the extra hurdle of finding someone trustworthy to care for them while you whoop it up. We compiled some tips to help you find and hire the perfect person. In fact, we suggest you fill a roster with several sitters.

1. Know Where to Look

It may seem impossible, but finding a reliable sitter is possible. Try these ideas:

Ask family and/or friends to babysit. If you battle with feeling guilty about asking loved ones to babysit (as I do), know that they’ve been in your shoes and totally get it. Half of the battle is allowing yourself to ask because, in most cases, grandma and grandpa would love the extra time with junior; and your friends are always down to help too.

You need a reliable babysitter for date night. Should be easy peasy, right? The truth is that this relationship is a two-way street and sometimes parents, unknowingly, can make the job harder or less satisfying than it needs to be. We reached out to our babysitter network to find out what they love (and loathe) about minding our kids.

Be Ready

You made reservations and even put mascara on, but your date night checklist is not done. First, tell the kids how you expect them to behave for the sitter. When she arrives, act excited to set the tone.

A coach sits on the sidelines, calling out directions and instructions to his team as they run the ball all over the field:

"Don't do that, don't throw long, you dummies… ah, how could you do that! That's so stupid, don't run without looking where you're going! Don't you know anything, you don't make up your own rules as you go along, don't keep making the same mistake over and over."

When couples have children living in the home—especially small children—it is hard to carve out time for couples to spend together nurturing their relationship. It seems that by the end of the day—weekdays and weekends—both mom and dad are so spent from a heavy workload, and dealing with the many tasks required to run a household, that both parties are exhausted. Neither feels terribly romantic. The quiet time they do sneak in is not necessarily romantic time. After the children are fast asleep most couples are content simply lounging in front of the television set where they usually nod off before their favorite show is done.