6 Ideas for Date Night with your Child

An article from SocialMoms.com contributed by Susan.

Some Dating Ideas:

Dinner and a Movie
Cooking class
Museum Trip
Book store excursion
Get active - walk, run, bike, play basketball
Make a memory - pottery, jewelry, hobby store

Some other good advice:

Choose an activity your child wants to do
Spend time communicating
Ask questions

See the post here.

Dating Your Kids Helps Keep Sibling Rivalry in Check

An article from parentdish.com contributed by Amy Hatch

"It's no deep dark secret that siblings often compete for parental attention," she says. 'If each child knows they are going to get one-on-one time with a parent, then it is possible sibling rivalry for parental attention could decrease, and the offshoot of that would be a more positive sibling relationship." Renner adds that it's also beneficial for parents and kids to "see one another as individuals, apart from the family herd."

See the complete original post here.

A Date With Dad

An article from Focus on the Family contributed by LynneThompson and Cheryl Gochnauer

Some Dating Ideas:

See the town
Dine out
Drink mocha
Get fit
Share a hobby
Play games
Shop
Take a risk

Some other good advice:

Do something different
Tie into a current activity
Dress down
Let your child run the radio
Don’t embarrass your child
Set a positive tone
Turn off the cell phone
Don’t interrupt your child
Enjoy yourselves

See the post here.

Background

It was Christmas of 2011 and I was not sure what to get the kids for Christmas. As the older "kids" have gotten on with their life and the younger lad asks for more alone time, I decided to give each of the four kids 12 Dinners with Dad - one a month on their specific Thursday. Joe (age 28) on the first Thursday of the month, Sara (age 25) on the second, Brittany (age 22) on the third and Henry (age 9) on the fourth Thursday - subject to adjustment as needed of course.

This was one of the best decisions I ever made. As the year went on, I got much closer to all 4 of my kids and they got the one on one time that they love and I could tell they loved every minute of it. I documented our dinners here: http://dinnerswithdad2012.blogspot.com/ .

For 2013 we are doing a once a month Cooking with Dad where ALL the kids come over and ONE of the kids gets to drive the menu and help Dad put it together.  This is also turning out to be a fun event, but I must admit, I miss the one on one time.

Thus I thought it would be great to have a resource to encourage and make it easy and fun for parents to take their kids out to dinner and other "dates".  Thus here is the gathering of that information.  As this site grows, I am looking for ideas, sharing your stories, and ideally I would like to start working in some charity events to help families.

So jump in, read up, get involved, share your ideas and most importantly give you kids the one on one time they so desire and share your stories here!