Dating Your Spouse at Home: Coronavirus Style

Dating your spouse is a key ingredient to an abundant marriage. The stressors of everyday life, coupled with parenting, finances, and work, cause a natural strain on marriages. When  couples make the conscious decision to dedicate time and money to date one another, the challenges of life seem to melt into the background. Connection is reestablished and new memories are created, deepening the marital bond and intimacy. 

My husband and I have dated regularly throughout our marriage and do our best to throw in a couple of overnight dates and an annual trip, just the two of us. As a military family, a significant challenge we face is finding a complete stranger to entrust out children with at each new post. Another area of concern is the financial cost of hiring a babysitter and paying for the date itself. Lastly, each time we add another child, the cost of babysitting increases. However, my husband and I have decided to view our date nights as an investment. Similar to investing in our children's college fund or our retirement account, we know there will be significant returns in our marriage when we invest our time and resources into each other. 

However, the Coronavirus stay-in-place orders have put a halt to our weekly date nights. It's simply not possible to leave our children with a babysitter and go out on the town. As people dedicated to creating a thriving marriage, we cannot allow a virus or government order to stop this investment in our union. So, it's time to get creative. Below, you'll find 20 at-home date ideas to ensure you keep paying dividends into your marriage during this crisis. 

1. Have a romantic picnic

2. Play a board game 

3. Work your way through the top 100 movies 

4. Make s'mores together 

5. Indulge in a chocolate fondue party

6. Give each other massages 

7. Eat takeout by candlelight 

8. Set up a do-it-yourself spa date 

9. Let loose with karaoke night 

10. Learn your love languages

11. Recreate your favorite date 

12. Embrace your inner kid withfight night (pillow fight, food fight,whipped cream fight, etc.) 

13. Make up a scavenger hunt for each other

14. Take an online cooking class and then create the dish 

15. Do a free couples workout class on YouTube

16. Star gazing in your backyard

17.  Build a fort 

18. Walk down memory lane. Listen to your songs and reminisce about how you met, your first date, your first kiss, the day you got engaged, and your wedding. 

19. Plan a grand trip for the future 

20. Choose a theme and create the date accordingly (include outfits, meal, movie, etc.) .

Please share your best at-home date ideas in the comments. I would love to hear from you! 

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