After The Kids Go To Bed
We’ve fought tooth and nail to have a routine in place whereby our kids go to bed at 7pm, and are roughly asleep by 8pm. It’s been 4 years now, and finally this is almost exactly what happens each night.
It hasn’t been easy. Trust me when I say that.
But what happens after the kids go to bed?
Well often I end up going to bed. Because as most of you know, I get up at 430am every, single, day, so by 730pm, I’m out. I’m falling asleep on the couch.
That’s my routine – kids bed = me asleep.
Sometimes, however, I like to try and stay up and at least converse with my husband and spend time with him as an adult. As his friend. As his wife. Those moments are few and far between, but they do happen.
These moments, I think they’re important. It’s very easy to get caught up in the world of parenting and not connect as a couple.
So what do we do during these moments? Well we usually watch a movie. Eat. Chat. Watch more of the movie.
However sometimes I feel like I should be doing more than that – as a couple. So here are a whole heap of different things to do after the kids go to bed, while at home (that isn’t sex ahahahaha) …
- Wine tasting
- Beer tasting
- Have an indoor picnic
- Ice cream night – buy those small containers with different flavours and have an ice cream tasting HA
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Make dinner together
- Sit down and do some colouring in together (whilst enjoying a drink)
- Stargaze together (on a clear night, otherwise you’re just looking at a grey sky LOLOL)
- Roast marshmallows over a fire pit (or barbecue)
- Play video games together
- Binge watch a TV Series on Netflix
- Put an air mattress or comfy blankets on the living room floor and fall asleep watching a movie
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Exchange foot rubs
- Enjoy the night by candle light
- Pick a meal from a different culture, research it, and then make it
- Have an outside picnic under the stars
- Make a playlist of songs that you listened to when you were first together
- When you have dinner, dress up all fancy-like
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Do a puzzle together
- Make two homemade pizzas – one each and then surprise each other with the different pizza
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Blind taste test – each pick 5 ingredients from the pantry / fridge, blindfold the other, and then have fun!
- Unplug from everything and just be together.
- Read aloud to each other
- Play a childhood game
- Plan a your next trip
- Dream together. Talk about where you’d like to be in the next 5, 10, 15 years in your relationship, with the kids, with finances, in your careers, etc
- Do a “Skype” double date with a friend couple who has moved elsewhere
- Make a list of the top ten reasons you’re happy to have them as your husband / wife while he makes a list about why he’s happy to have you!
- Play cards
- Have a really special fancy dessert
- Watch the first movie you ever watched together.
- Search online for your dream home
- Build a fort together, and watch a movie from the fort
- Share (or remember together) embarrassing moments from the past.
- Look at your wedding album
- Buy a whole heap of chocolate you wouldn’t normally eat, and have a chocolate tasting
- Have a karaoke night
- Play a board game
What’s your favourite thing to do after the kids go to bed?
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