Welcome back to Finish The Sentence Friday
(FTSF). We give you a sentence and you finish it (however long or
short you'd like). Write a post and link it up!
Before I get to the sentence, let me recap my
blogging week for you because...inquiring minds want to know, yo!
Okay, on to this week's sentence:
Speaking from experience, I'm going to give you a
little advice on...how to have a nice, inexpensive date
with your son.
Actually, that’s not true. I’m going
to tell you how not to have a nice, inexpensive date with your son
because that’s all I know.
We started having one-on-one evenings
with our sons a few years ago. We took turns taking one of the boys out to do
something fun like bouncing at the Inflatable Palace or going to Chuck E.
Cheese. We did this about once a month.
These outings became more and more expensive
as we tagged on dinner and dessert and eventually a trip to Toys R Us where the
boys would spend some of their money on a toy they, most likely, would play
with for a day, then relegate to the pile of other crappy toys they’d
accumulated over the previous 12 months.
We decided to change what our dates
with our sons would look like moving forward. We told them we would be eating
dinner at home on their date nights, but would take "our date" out for dessert
after dinner.
Last night, my seven year old,
Josiah, and I had our date night. I asked him if he wanted to go out for
dessert. He said no. He wanted to eat dessert at home then go to my bedroom to
share secrets (plan practical jokes), read, and snuggle.
Wow, that wasn’t the response I was
expecting. This was so easy.
So after dinner, we went upstairs,
while Steve played in the basement with the other two. We sat in my bed and
Josiah excitedly shared his “secret” with me. Then he pulled out three books
for me to read. What I didn’t count on was the fact that in the early evening,
if I’m not actively doing something, I get drowsy. And reading a book in bed
makes me really drowsy.
Half way through Bread and Jam for
Frances, I had to stop. I told him, “I’m gonna fall asleep if I read
anymore. Let’s just talk.”
So, he started talking (he’s our
talker). And talking. And talking. About Mongo, the giant gingerbread man from Shrek.
He talked about Mongo for 45 minutes straight. He had to wake me up three
times, no lie. There was drool on the pillow, people.
After the third awakening, I
suggested we snuggle. He snuggled in and we lay together. I was dying. My legs started
jerking because I was so tired. I couldn't stand it anymore. I got up, apologized, cut the
date short and went downstairs.
Clearly, this kind of date wasn’t as
easy as I thought it would be.
Boring does not make for easy. I
remember telling all my friends in high school that getting a job at Hallmark
would be the best job to have because it would be so easy. All you do is sit
there. One of my friends got a job there and while it was easy she was bored
out of her mind. She quit two weeks later.
So I’m looking for some ideas. What
things do you do on dates with your kids that are both inexpensive and fun?
Next week's sentence: You want to know
what I think of social media? I think...
Your FTSF Hosts:
Read and comment on the two posts ahead of yours, then if you want to share your favorites on Facebook or Twitter use the hashtag #FTSF.
I always fall asleep when reading the kids books. I yawn after the first page!!! ha!
ReplyDeleteI haven't quite got there yet on the date nights, but I am with you on this one and would have probably been falling asleep reading a book in bed. Come to think of it, why didn't I try this last night when I couldn't fall asleep and had insomnia!!
ReplyDeleteMy limit is two books before I fall asleep, regardless of where we are sitting or what time of day.
ReplyDeleteAs for cheap dates, my boys like to have one-on-one time playing sports. Perhaps go to a tennis court or baseball diamond to hit the balls around.
A dollar movie theater is a good choice for a cheap date with a child who likes to talk on and on and on. Or a child who equates an actual conversation with torture.
Take bikes someplace new to ride.
How about bowling?
Go buy a new kite and take it to a big field to fly it.
I will now go try to come up with some advice for my own post. Thanks for hosting such a good link-up!
Can I please borrow your kid? I'm terrible at falling asleep! I make poor Dan ramble on to me!! It's both funny and awesome you've written a bit about your date nights here. You mentioned them a while ago and I thought it was ingenious, so I announced to the hubs that we were going to do the same thing. He told me to ask you more about it (which I never did) and now we're stumped for ideas of cheap places to go and do one on one time. Plus with three kids, that's like 1, 2,, 3..... SIX nights a month in total!
ReplyDeleteThese are great ideas, Christine! Thank you! I'm definitely going to suggest bowling. Then in summer, tennis sounds good. Or bike-riding. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteI also read fiction to fall asleep. I love fiction, but unless it's really gripping, like the Hunger Games, it makes me fall asleep. Takes me forever to get through a book. The way we do our date nights is this...we plan on someone going out one night a week on a date. One week, one of us will take one of the boys, then the next week the other adult will take the other boy. Then the next week I go out by myself for a "self-date" to Barnes & Noble or S-bucks, usually to write/journal, then Steve does his the following week. Autumn gets the shaft. She gets so much of our attention right now that we figure she's covered for a while. When that starts to change then we'll add her to the rotation.
ReplyDeleteChristine had some good ideas. Especially as the kids get older and it warms up. Heck, even a walk around the block gives a kid more attention than when we're all in the house.
I used to have the same problem with the girls. I found that Saturday afternoons would be the best time for our time together, but as soon as college basketball season came around, that went out the window. We decided that we'd chill, and just take a little time each day to talk. It actually worked out better as daily events that were important to them were not forgotten. Great job!
ReplyDeleteIt is hard to have fun and not spend any money. You just about have to stay home. Christopher and I used to hang out at the bookstore, but that has become boring for the both of us. He's at an age that he's not crazy about reading, and there are certain books I'm not going to buy because they aren't readable. So movie night is out best date night. It's comfortable, it's cost of nothing, unless we go to redbox. We make popcorn or eat ice cream. We've started watching Meerkat Manor on Netflix which is actually entertaining to both of us. I didn't get to link up today. Phooey. No me time to thing and movie night is about to start ;-) Meerkat Marathon.
ReplyDeleteI haven't seen Meerkat Manor. I've heard of it before though. I don't even have Netflix. I'm so living under a rock.
ReplyDeleteAww, you always make me feel good. I haven't tried the library. I bet it would be uncrowded at night too. I'm gonna run that by them next time.
ReplyDeleteWe don't have cable, so I'm under a different rock. ;-)
ReplyDeleteThanks for this - all to be stored up for use someday. I do love reading with my Niece and Neff though - my books, their books, back of cereal packets - anything. I live reading and I hope to get them well established in the practice.
ReplyDeleteGood suggestions, Kate. My one on one with my kid is in the library where we could spend hours on books and then followed by a Mcdonald stopover for some junk food. Boy, he loves the combination...lol
ReplyDeleteNever tried the chuck-e-cheese thingie with him...might give that a try.
a "self-date"? You rock!
ReplyDeleteFirst, I love the idea of having separate date nights with your sons. In fact, since I have dates alone with my son all the time (as in every afternoon), I think Saturday night should be my husband and son's date night. I'm going to have to work on selling that deal.
ReplyDeleteAnd I would have totally fallen asleep during snuggle/reading time, too. Except that Mongo the giant gingerbread man IS pretty awesome and I love that he could talk about him for 45 minutes! So funny :)
Here, there are a lot of museums that are free (except for parking) so we spend a LOT of time at the Air and Space one. Is there anything like that where you live? Once the weather gets nicer, you can have a date at the park with dinner and a kite. That would be awesome.
That is one of the sweetest things ever! I absolutely love little boys! It sounds like something my son would say (sometimes!) I love having date nights with the kids. It's been awhile... I need to do it again soon!
ReplyDelete