Date night ideas?

New babies have a habit of taking over and that can leave couples feeling tired and overwhelmed so a little me time is really important.

Be imaginative. Challenge your fixed conceptions of what you might enjoy, and even what you might be capable of. Making a dinner for two at home is is always lovely, but a dinner for two in total darkness might give you more to talk about. And attempting to escape together from a locked room might be more exciting than failing to escape from the rooms you share all the time.

Here are some suggestions for date nights that should reinvigorate any relationship. Whether this will be your 50th date or your first, throw caution to the wind, leave out an extra biscuit for the babysitter… and enjoy!

Relive your first date

Return to the original pub or restaurant, go for a film and a curry just like you used to. An amazing way of triggering memories before the mundanities of real life kicked in. If the old place has gone bust/been closed, re-create it as closely as possible.

Take a dance class

This is especially appropriate if one or both of you hate dancing. Adventurous dating is about embracing your awkwardness and rekindling intimacy, and taking these steps ticks both of those boxes. Search online for local instructors and classes.

Have a cooking lesson

A cooking lesson has all the attributes of a good evening: the opportunity to learn something new together, followed by (hopefully) delicious food and wine. Again the internet is a wealth of information so searching for Cooking lessons in your town will no doubt held some fantastic ideas.

Enjoy a side-by-side spa

Traditionally the spa day is something the women would indulge in, but most Spa’s now offer a couples option so you can enjoy a relaxing day or if you can a weekend away.

Walk to dinner

Choose an evening when it is unlikely to be raining, find a lovely restaurant thats in walking distance and walk all the way. If you are rural, take footpaths to a local pub. Either way, en route you’ll rediscover your area, and each other, and have something to talk about over dinner.

Make chocolates (then eat them)

Giving chocolates is a tried and trusted way to gain (or regain) the affections of a loved one. But making the chocolates together – ideally with expert instruction – is more imaginative, more messy and more romantic.

Take afternoon tea together

So much more imaginative than dinner, and also available while the children are at school, if evenings have become rather too dominated by homework or suitable television.

Do a “lucky dip”

If you can’t make your mind up, let fate or chance decide: you can make your own lucky dip, add small things to a bag, some massage oil, a naughty game, lunch voucher, or a simple IOU, then just do a lucky dip and just do whatever you pull out of the bag.

Have a night at the museum

NOT the Ben Stiller movies, but evening events of all sorts at your local museum or place of culture. A chance to see familiar favourite rooms and objects – and each other – in an entirely new light. Search online.

Have dinner afloat…

There is something about the moon on the water that brings out the romantic in the most cynical and utterly married soul, and if this can be combined with decent cuisine and moving scenery you have the ideal date-night package. Not every town or city has a navigable canal or harbour, but most can come up with a river or lake.

Phone Amnesty 

Go out to a fancy coffee shop, put the phones away and talk, discuss all the things you love doing, and all the things you want to try, but the rule is simple, no phones allowed!

Put the telly on

No, this does NOT mean a takeaway in front of a box set, rather a carefully chosen film or documentary, with a fancy high end ready meal halfway through. Discuss the film afterwards over pudding and coffee, turning the TV off rather than falling asleep on the sofa.