Oh, Date Nights
The dark, quiet room is only lit by the candle illuminating the pine table at my knees. The sweet smell of popcorn fills the air. In my right hand, a chilled glass of chardonnay. When I place the glass down the candlelight bounces off my sparkling wedding ring on my left. The room is blissfully silent.
It has been a crazy, busy day and I have been looking forward to tonight.
My date enters the large room and sits down beside me while placing the bowl of popcorn and the baby monitor on the table. He grabs the remote and presses play as we sit back and watch the beginning of the movie.
Within ten minutes the piercing cry of the baby monitor fills the room. My husband presses pause on the remote as I race up the flight of stairs to the baby’s bedroom on the top floor of our townhouse, which she shares with her two and a half year old sister. I breathe a sigh of relief that she calms down before she awakes my older daughter.
With a loud burp, she closes her eyes and drifts off to sleep. I gently place her down in her crib, tip-toe out of the room and close the door to a crack. I settle back on the couch as my darling husband of seventeen years starts the movie again. I kick my pajama clad leg over his lap.
Within minutes, we are relaxed. The joy of not talking and just hanging out with my guy reminds me of the yesteryear before kids when our date nights involved theatres and pub nights afterwards. We would sit for hours talking about anything, everything and nothing.
In the early months of being parents we forget about each other. We expect the other to know how to help but we do not know how or what that is. Parents who take time out to just be a couple carry that to being great parents. Kids feed off on it and thrive. Even if it is a scheduled date night on the couch in our pajamas with a bowl of stove-top popcorn and a bottle of wine, it will make this mom more recharged by having time with my date.
Within an hour the baby is awake again. Before I react, my husband bounds up the stairs to get her, giving me a chance to stay still. By the way, helping your wife out is the new foreplay.
