Sunday Fun Day

Do you ever go on a date on a Sunday night? I am here to tell you it is one of the best things to happen to Nick and I lately.

Our favorite (only) babysitter is so wonderful and is also busy, and the past two weekends I’ve reached out to her in last-minute desperation to see if she could watch the girls on a Friday or Saturday while we get out for a couple hours at dinnertime. Neither weekend worked for her, but she was free Sunday night, and at first that sounded silly—who goes out to eat on a Sunday night? But we took her up on it and I’m so glad we did! Because in the words of Nick, “weekends are hard too” and it’s been so nice to have something to look forward to all weekend, or in our case, forget about until the last minute and then happily remember Sunday afternoon!

Last weekend we went out to a Thai restaurant, brought (split) a bottle of wine, got some ice cream afterwards, and just generally got out of dodge. Halleluiah amen. Last night we went to another local favorite Italian BYOB that has great food, great service, and they never rush you out.

Another revelation has been the 5-7pm dinner date. We used to put the girls to bed and then pay a sitter to be a live body in our house after we did all the hard work of still cooking dinner, cleaning up, doing baths and the bedtime routine—exhausting! By the time all of that was done we just wanted to plop on the couch!

If you have young children who aren’t used to a babysitter putting them to bed yet, or if you’re a nursing mother whose baby won’t take a bottle (we are both of those scenarios, although I do think Eloise would go to bed for a babysitter just fine now), take it from me and try the 5-7:00 date! You may be the youngest couple in the restaurant by three decades, but you get to get out of the house during the witching hours, you’re paying your babysitter to do more than just sit in your house, and when you get home, those babies are already in their jammies, teeth are brushed, dinner is done and put away, and you put those babies to bed and still have the whole night free!

This may be a widely recognized phenomenon but frankly I feel like a genius for realizing it. And if you have a favorite or only babysitter for whom you have to compete with half the town for availability, I would almost guarantee that he or she will almost always be free on a Sunday night from 5-7!