How to go on a date with your partner when you have young children

Recently, my husband and I really, really wanted to see the latest Star Wars movie together. In order for us both to be away from our children long enough, we both had to take a day off work. And by the time we added on a modest lunch at Nandos, cinema tickets and some popcorn, we’d spent around £50.

On special occasions like birthdays and anniversaries, our dates are even more expensive. We’ll hire a babysitter, go to a decent restaurant and have a few drinks. By the time we’ve paid for the babysitter, the meal, the drinks and the taxi, we usually spend in the range of £200.

Having quality time with your partner when you have young children gets expensive and is often inconvenient too. I always worry about leaving my kids with a babysitter. Which is why “date nights”, for us, only happen a few times per year.

So I was excited when I was approached by Date Delivered to review one of their dates-in-a-box. They send you supplies for a fun and creative activity to do at home, ostensibly after the kids are in bed and actually sleeping. The boxes cost £33.95, which sounds expensive at first, but when you think back to how much you spend on going out, it’s a bargain.

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You can sign up for a subscription to receive a box every month, or every 3 months. Or you can just buy it as one-off. There are options to send them as gifts as well – a great alternative to a more traditional hamper. There is a fun quiz on the website about what you like as a couple, which helps determine what sorts of boxes you will receive.

The cocktails

The best sort of date for my husband and I turned out to be alcohol-related. Fancy that! So Date Delivered sent us a rum cocktail making kit. It came with the cocktail recipes, the rum and other special ingredients, some snacks and a list of conversation starters. It all looked so pretty and enticing in the box.

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And indeed out of the box. Yum. Rum.

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At this point, I should probably caution my readers who are planning on trying the cocktail-making kit that you really do need to read the instructions before you start. There is extra stuff you need to find. Ice, for starters. Luckily we had some ready in the freezer, but it was depleted because my 4yo son has a serious ice-water habit. We also needed some lime and grapefruit juices, a cocktail shaker and something to measure out the ingredients.

Luckily because we’re a boozy sort of household, we had all this stuff on hand. Although it would be good if the kit could include something to measure the booze. Because my husband is a scientific type and makes his own beer in his spare time, we used a graduated cylinder. Like total geeks. Maybe we’re a bit uptight, but we had to get it exactly right!

My husband also will divorce me if I don’t mention that the cocktail recipe card said you could make 4-6 cocktails with what was provided. He pointed out that the measures were exact and therefore you could only make precisely 5 cocktails with what was provided. Whatevs, though – 5 was definitely enough!

The conversation

So the cocktails were super tasty, as cocktails usually are. The salted caramel popcorn that we had with it was delicious as well. But surely the important thing about this product is whether it actually made for a romantic date night. Did we reconnect? Did we feel amorous?

Yes! We were both a bit surprised by how much fun we had. It was funny because I was spectacularly bad at making the cocktails. So we bickered a bit and then laughed about me not knowing how to shake a cocktail shaker. Here is my husband demonstrating while he laughs at me:

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The conversation starter card that came with the date was also surprisingly good. When I read them on my own, I thought they sounded pretty cringey and that we’d be too embarrassed to try them. But once we had a couple measures of rum in us, we went through all of them and enjoyed laughing about old times.

One of the questions was, “if you could recreate one of our dates, which one would it be?”. My husband wanted to replicate our very first date, but not for the reasons you’d think. He thought it was funny because I ordered a filet of fish at the restaurant but then sent it back because it had bones in it. As far as I’m concerned, the word “filet” means “bones have been removed”. Some men would have been turned off by my diva-ish attitude, but apparently my husband found it endearing.

Another fun one was, “If you could name a cocktail based on me, what would it be called?” That was a tricky one. He named my cocktail “The Clumsy Wife” and I named his “Mr Know-it-all”.

It was great to flirt and tease each other. We didn’t discuss the kids or household admin for a change. We just had a fun chat with no mention of the washing up or who needed to go where the next day.

The verdict

We had a great time! It’s a fantastic way to ensure you and your partner make time for one another without all of the hassle and expense of arranging a date outside the home. And it is so exciting to receive a mysterious box and find out what your activity is going to be this time. I think I might actually sign up to receive a quarterly box myself.

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Win one for yourself!

Date Delivered has very kindly agreed to provide one of the cocktail making date boxes to one of my lucky readers.

CLICK HERE TO ENTER THE RAFFLECOPTER GIVEAWAY.

Giveaway terms & conditions

  • This competition will open on 2 February and will close on 18 February at 12am GMT.
  • One winner will be selected at random.
  • The winner will receive one cocktail-making date-in-a-box, sent directly by Date Delivered.
  • UK entrants only.
  • No cash alternative will be offered.
  • The winner will be announced on The Mum Reviews’ social media outlets, not the blog.
  • The winner will have 28 days to respond to their winner’s email.

Disclosure: I received a Date Delivered box for purposes of this review, but all views are my own.

Listed on The Competition Database and Loquax.

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The Mum Reviews

Reflective writing about the world we’re shaping — socially, culturally, and morally.

266 thoughts on “How to go on a date with your partner when you have young children”

  1. fab post thanks for a fab giveaway too ! our last date night was to the pics to watch apocalypto by mel gibson so a good few years ago now xx

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  3. Sadly no family near to us who can babysit so staying in is the new going out for us and this looks fab!

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  4. It was a good few weeks ago now. We dont have much time together due to l9ng work hours and demanding teenagers. Fab giveaway. Fingers crossed x

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  11. I really can’t remember the last time,we spend a lot of time together but not doing anything particularly special.

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  12. We were lucky enough to have a date night away last weekend thanks to my a perfect Christmas present from my mum and sister!

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  16. Been months, we have got complacent in life i surpose, dont seem to bother anymore, sure would be nice to do again

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  17. Still wanting a date night and our eldest is 14 but has Asperger’s syndrome so is tricky to change routine!! Love the idea of a date night kit! Xx

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  19. We have a private ‘date night’ on Wednesday evenings, we take turns to cook and make an effort to stay connected

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  26. I actually cannot remember to be honest! We are fitting a kitchen so that is what we tend to do most evenings!

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  32. It’s very difficult to have a date night when we have children at home but we do try to make some time for ourselves at home in the evening even if its just to chat over a glass of wine in front of the fire.

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  34. We are lucky enough to have friends and family who will babysit our kids, but when they go to bed you don’t hear a peep until morning. We went out last week for my birthday.

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  35. We went to the pictures to see Passengers and had some lunch in town beforehand. That was about 4 wks ago.

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  36. It is so long ago I cannot remember. I think it was when we went to the cinema to watch the last Bond movie.

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  39. My hubby and I don’t have family nearby so not had a date night since our daughter was born 8 years ago

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  41. It was Jan 21st, my birthday – we try to go out about once a month 🙂 If you can’t it’s really important to do something special/different at home – so this is a great idea xxx

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  43. We spend every evening together but haven’t been out on a date just us since our children were born, so over 4 years

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  44. The last time was three weeks ago and we got dressed up, had steak and champagne, put on some music we both liked and stayed in! Lovely

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  47. This is an amazing idea my boys are 8 and 10 and we rarely get a date night as no family nearby. I think our last date was the theatre in October!

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