Friday, September 16, 2011

Date Day with my Boys

Do you get a lot of QUALITY time with your kids? I know I don’t. Don’t get me wrong – I wish I could spend an ENDLESS quantity of time with my kiddos, but teaching full time limits my time with them and then especially being a single parent – one-on-one time with my kiddos is few and far between. I don’t want my only time with them spent making dinner, driving them to lessons, practice & doing homework, etc. So, instead of feeling guilty all the time, and since those precious one-on-one moments weren’t presenting themselves naturally, I CREATED THEM! And {I hope} have found a way to create some special quality time for me and my boys.
We call it Date Day. {Although my 7 yr. old reminds me that it’s not THAT kind of a date.} Even though we practice manners, being a gentleman, opening doors and that sort of thing, it's really just a young boy man, taking his mom out for some special individual time. Once a week! {I started doing this at the end of last school year with them and they LOVED it! Back then, it was easier because they were at the same after school care. This year, they are at two different places.} Soooo:

The Problem: Find a way to create some alone time with each boy once a week this year.

The solution: Realizing they each had consecutive 1 1/2 hour football practices on the same day each week, so instead of sitting on the field for 3 hrs. they each get a turn going on a date while the other brother practiced.

And thus, DATE DAY was reborn!

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Big S chose to go out and get Root Beer Floats! {Good choice big guy!}
We sat and chatted about school and thing we wanted to do and looking forward to winter. And then we notice this:

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That, folks, is a real live working juke box! Well, we now have a favorite date place! We walked right over and checked out the song list! The selection was a bunch of 50’s and 60’s oldies but goodies {wouldn’t have expected anything else!} and we took our choice seriously. {AND it was FREE!}

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What did we play, you ask? The Monkees, “I’m a Believer!” and we rocked the joint all night long. {Well, for about a half hour of the night at least, before we had to pick up brother.}
Of course, Little Man got his date tonight too. Not to be outdone by his brother, we sat and conversed over the specially requested choice of anything with a cherry on top of it please:

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Success!!
And I loved this date stop too because they let you know that apples are now a choice with their meals with this cute display:

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Not bad for a fast food joint. And let me tell you – you learn a lot about a guy over a pint {of ice cream and root beer.} For example, middle school has WAY better lunches than elementary school and next week, you’ll be able to check out footballs and basketballs with your school ID, which is cool, because you and your friend Chris invented a game you wanted to try. And in 2nd grade, you are happy to have moved off “The Sun” in class and on to “Out of this Universe” for the second day in a row! And you also wanted it to be known that Hunter {not the short Hunter, but the TALL one, by the way} and him made up a team and decided to call it Angry Birds. It is yet to be determined just what the intensions of this team are though…

Like I said, never a dull moment with kids. Much more was learned in our talks today, but I took a vow of mom secrecy on those matters. ;o)

So, these dates just make me want to spend MORE and MORE quantities of times with my kiddos, but I guess I will have to let go of some of that mom guilt and enjoy the QUALITY of time I do get. xo


So how do you create one-on-one time with your kids? What types of activities do you enjoy with your quality time together? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

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8 comments:

Unknown said...

I just LOVED this post! Me and my little man try to do the same thing. Although it doesn't happen as often as iblike. We'll go out for frozen yogurt or sometimes to his fav dinner spot Applebees. It's so cute because he always insists on paying (with my credit card, but it's the thought that counts right!) So nice to see you making such an effort to spend precious time with your boys. You will never forget it and neither will they :)

Unknown said...

Thanks Lacee!! We like Applebees too! That is so cute that your little man pays with your credit card! :) {But hey, we're raising little gentlemen right?} Even if they can't date until they're 30. ; o) Have a great week!

Lynsey said...

I am generally pretty terrible at one-on-one time, but things I have done in the past (which, unfortunately, are girly since I have two girls) "beauty time" where we paint fingernails/toes and they get to go one at a time, little things like that. I have taken them to bookstores and the library. With my oldest, I think we are going to train for the 5K "Pie Run" in a couple of months--it will be a lot of alone time PLUS exercise which I need ;).

Naiman Family said...

What a fantastic way to enjoy quality time with your boys. :)

Unknown said...

Thanks Naiman's and Lynsey! Lynsey, that sounds so sweet! Sometimes I wish I had girls to play with my hair and do nails with! A pie run sounds really fun too!! I wish they had one near us! :-)

Jazmin @ My Little Memory Jar said...

Love that idea!!

We usually say family date night. :)

Family time is the best!

♥Jazmin

Unknown said...

What a lovely day! My husband and I used to do this with our children. We would take turns taking them out one at a time. We really should start it up again!

Anonymous said...

This was a fabulous read! Thanks for linking this up. My favorite part of this post was your recap of the "things you learned" on your dates. So wonderful & sweet!

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