How To Achieve A Stress-Free Date Night (In)

It’s pretty essential to spend some quality adult time with the person you’ve chosen to do this whole life thing with, right? But we all know this is true: the hardest part of a date night is planning! Finding a babysitter, glamming up for your big night out, agreeing on where you should have dinner… It’s tough out there for parents. Besides, those few hours out can get expensive. Sitters do not come cheap these days.

I love having a night just to ourselves, but as you can probably already guess, I’m not always pumped to go through all the hassle of actually leaving your kids behind for a few hours of freedom. Sometimes we end up more tired than if we’d just stayed home!

That’s why I decided we’re going to keep doing regular date nights, we’re just going to do them at home! I knew exactly what I wanted to do — take our everyday dining table and jazz it up, serving something light that pairs great with wine and good conversation.

Here are a few things I did to make things feel more like an evening out than just another night at home:

Cook Something Easy

A Stir Crazy Salad was the perfect entrée. There were enough things for both of us to do together, and it wasn’t exhausting to execute! With a little planning ahead and a little cleaning up as we went along, when dinner was over everything was taken care of and we could just relax. What a dream!

Do A Little Decorating

I ran to Sasha Malchi and picked up some things to make our dining room table feel a bit more romantic rather than what it’s usually like (covered in handprints and cheerios) — I wanted this to really feel like a special date night! After adding some tea lights and a few vases filled with simple yellow tulips from Trader Joe’s, all of a sudden I really did feel like I’d transformed our house.

The whole idea is putting on a bit of music and dividing the culinary duties: he grills and you chop, or vice versa. Everyone pitches in, you drink wine or the cocktail of your choice and have great conversation, and then you sit down to a night in that rivals any fancy restaurant in town. Plus, no one complains if you eat dessert barefoot if you’re in your own home…

What are you go-to moves for sneaking in some adult time?

Date Night Stir Crazy Salad