Moms and Media · February 11, 2016

Is mom too busy for a date night?

By jroche

As February 14th approaches, the Research Moms of course are wondering how moms spend the holiday of friendship and love. With diapers, homework, family dinner, chauffeuring, does mom have time for a date night? A third of moms in our study say they celebrate Valentine’s Day with just a card or some candy. Another 22% go out for a date night and for 18% of our moms, Valentine’s Day is just another day.

How do you typically celebrate Valentine's Day-

Moms who are not married, but in a relationship, are more likely to say they celebrate with a date night out (37%). Many first time moms with children age 2 or younger are spending Valentine’s Day with a night out as well (35%).

At times I find it sad that more moms aren’t getting out for a date night on Valentine’s Day since many moms still rank romance as important (more on this to come), but then I think about what goes through my own mind when it comes to planning a date night for Valentine’s Day, it goes something like this:

Valentine’s Day is coming, my husband and I should take advantage and go out for a dinner date. Okay, so first we need a babysitter. And then we need to decide, where do we go? Two months ago we were reluctant to commit to going out on Valentine’s Day, so can we even get a reservation anywhere at this point? Not to mention, is a higher priced meal with a limited set menu how we really want to spend our money for one of our precious nights out? Oh and it falls on a Sunday this year. Is homework going to be done by the time we are ready to go out? What activities do the kids have the next day that I need to prepare for? We better not stay out too late, I don’t want to be tired the next day since I have a presentation to give at work in the morning and an event at my son’s Tae Kwon Do school later in the evening.

The more I think about it, celebrating Valentine’s Day with “just” a card and candy sounds “just” right. Untitled

 

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