Dating My Husband

On October 1, 2010, I went on a real date with my husband. It was nice and fun and we both felt like we were teenagers again. Somewhere along the road of marriage and life and (most blameworthy) children, we have gotten out of the habit of going out on dates with each other. But after that one date, we were both left with the realization that we NEED to get out and do stuff like this more often. For the sake of our marriage. For the sake of our lives. For the sake of each other.

That is why Moorhead seemed so appealing... because my mom lives there and could watch the kids once in awhile.

So, now I'm trying to come up with ideas to create that kind of life here.

I've looked into what a teenage babysitter would cost (and by "looked into" I mean that I posted a facebook poll about it), and found out that they are much more expensive than I ever would have though. I think that my upbringing (growing up in a super-small, rural town) and not making very much money as an adult (I never really had a real "real" job. Vernon taught at a Catholic school for less than $20,000 a year before going back to school to become a chiropractor... where he then got around $22,000 in student loans for living expenses) has kind of stunted my thinking regarding money in this modern-day metro world that I'm currently living in.

But, anyway, my facebook poll (with 40 or so responses) revealed that people are paying around $7-$10 for a young teenage babysitter. (I got paid around $1 an hour when I was that age.) The only response that seemed reasonable to me was from a friend who still lives in the super-small rural town that I grew up in. She pays $2.

So, hiring a babysitter might be something on the horizon, but, obviously, not now (as I sit here typing in a room that we are living in rent-free from Vernon's brother).

John Taylor Gatto is going to be in town giving a talk at Macalester College on Friday night. I'm going to go to it, of course (why would I miss it?)... but this is really, really something that I would like to go to with Vernon (and he would like to go as well... I even got him to read Dumbing Us Down last year). But it seems like too much trouble/effort trying to arrange childcare for our kids.

Today, out of curiosity, I posted another question asking: How many times in a month do you and your spouse go out on a date?

The results: Most people said zero. (Some said one or two, only a few said more than that.)

A lot of people mentioned that they stay in for date nights with their spouse. Vern and I tried that last spring, but it just isn't the same. There is something about getting out and exploring the external world together that is kind of fun and magical and necessary (for us, anyway).

I would like to do more of it.

(Oh, my silly mother... living all the way in Moorhead. Why does she go and do things like that?)