Brian and I are childless for a couple of days. Listen! Do you hear that? It’s the sound of peace & quite. No fighting, yelling, squealing, etc. Very nice! While the kids get to spend quality time with their grandparents, we get some quality time together. As much as we love our children, this time is so important to couples, and it tends to get pushed to the back burner a lot. As parents, we forget that we started out as 2 and became ____ (for us – 5). When couples don’t spend that quality time together getting caught up on each other’s lives, they tend to start drifting further apart. I believe this (along with our lack of a strong faith in Christ and focus on Him) starts to pull many marriages apart. They start to become strangers to each other, and this is not a good thing. Your spouse should be your best friend, not your worst enemy.

If you haven’t had any quality time with your mate in a while, please take the time to do so. Just a dinner together minus children is a good thing. Also, try not to make your children the focus of your time together. Yes, we all love talking about our children, but this is a time for the two of you to catch up on each other’s lives. If you’re a stay-at-home mom, try to focus on something that doesn’t require talking about the kids. Talk about your dreams, the latest way you stretched your dollars, a new recipe, the latest scrapbook page you created, anything but the kids. Make sure that you also ask your husband about what’s going on at work. Focus on each others lives, likes and dislikes, dreams, etc. Don’t be afraid to dream, that’s what keeps life interesting. The point is to get to know one another all over again.

We all show our kids daily how much we love them, now it’s time to show our mate how much we love him/her. There are several ways that you can find quality time together, but the easiest and most frugal way would be to put the kids to bed early and plan a late dinner together at home. If you have to, have a picnic on the bed or in the bedroom floor. If you can’t plan dinner, plan a special dessert just for the two of you. Remember, it doesn’t have to be expensive, just quality time. The purpose is to make time for each other. After all, you started out with just the 2 of you, right? Don’t get me wrong. I miss my kids, but this time without them is a good thing.