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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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”

  4. Last week – although it was more of a date afternoon as we prefer to go out for lunch unless we are going to the theatre :o) Rafflcopter entries are in my real name NIKKI HAYES, thanks for the lovely giveaway.

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  5. We have date night every week, we’re both still young (in our early twenties) and loving our young age whilst we can. We visited London last week which was splendid and enjoyed a lovely meal with some cocktails on the Saturday. Really stylish and enjoyable date night!

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  6. We have date night every week, we’re both still young (in our early twenties) and loving our young age whilst we can. We visited London last week which was splendid and enjoyed a lovely meal with some cocktails on the Saturday. Really stylish and enjoyable date night!

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  8. I’m not sure. That’s dreadful isn’t it? We don’t even have the excuse of little ones, my daughter is 26 now, but ill health seems to get in the way too much. Time to make more of an effort I think.

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  11. Not since before Christmas! We was supposed to go last minute prezzie shopping while my little boy was at his grandads but we ended up in the pub instead all evening 🙂

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  14. Mmmm date night… We’ve been together 22 years & have 3 kids… the last time we were alone per se was 2006 on our wedding night…I think we need date nights!

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  15. we have tea together every night and watch something on tv so thats our type of date night lol x

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  16. Sadly the term ‘date night’ has been rendered extinct in our house due to the lack of willing baby-sitters for our duracell bunny of a 3 year old 😉

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  17. We went out for a cocktail making class last week – it was so much fun! Our usual date night is more pizza and a board game though!

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  20. Pingback: February Competition and Giveaway Round-Up - OddHogg

  25. We actually have not had a date night since our daughter was born 9 years ago lol even less chance now we have an 18 month old too

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  26. I think it was in December. I suprised him by taking him to visit the Rekorderlig pop up venue on the South Bank. We had a lovely evening drinking cider and munching on food from the street market.

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  28. About 25 years ago, lol, seriously we have a trip to the cinema every few months but we enjoy going out as a family

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  37. This would really depend on what you mean by “date” Does a bacon roll and cup of tea at an auction count? Otherwise, so long ago I can’t remember!

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  42. The last time we had a night out just the two of us was Feb 2016 we have a 4 year old and no babysitters so she comes with us 🙂

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  44. Erm….I can’t actually remember as we have a toddler but we do all go out for lunch together a lot. Does that count?!

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  46. I’m entering this for my daughter & son in law who haven’t had a date night for quite a few months. although they are getting one on Valentines night as I’m having the kids for a sleep over

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