1 More Day to Date Your Children
Proverbs 22:6
Train up a child in the way he should go,
And when he is old he will not depart from it.
Years ago, my mom gave me some great advice. She told me that I should date my kids separately and often. She said that this is something she wish she would've done. There are four kids in our family: two boys... Eight years... Then two girls. My mom spent time with us in pairs - either the girls or the boys.
My husband and I decided this was definitely a practice we wanted to try. Once a month we would date our children. Odd months like January, March, May, etc ., my husband would date our daughter and I would date our son. The even months I would date our daughter and my husband would have a boy date with our son.
I remember many dates my husband had with our daughter. He would leave the house, drive around the block and come back to the house. He would ring the doorbell, introduce himself, and tell me what the plans of the date were. Sometimes he brought flowers. He would always ask me what time I would like our daughter home. If I said 9pm, he would tell me he'd have her home at 8:30 pm.
Off they would go...hand and hand. He would open her door and help her with her seatbelt.
This went on for years. She thought we were just having fun. But we knew we were teaching some valuable lessons. The first time some boy came to pick up our daughter and sat in his truck and honked, she about flipped. She knew she was a princess and demanded to be treated better. She had been watching.
We started dating our kids at the young age of 4. I remember my son being so young but he was going to open my car door and put me in. Then he would run around and climb in the back. I would tuck money in his pocket so that he could pay for our meal.
The girls my son takes out on dates are lucky girls because he has been watching.
I'm not sure why we think our kids are going to know how to date. We must train them.
Dinners, sonic drive in, sporting events, shopping trips, concerts, plays, workouts, etc.
Find out what your kids like to do and go do it. It doesn't have to be grandiose nor expensive. Just plan it and go!
Precious memories have been made on our date nights. And just because my children are now grown doesn't mean I will stop dating them. Date nights are some of my favorite nights. 😘