5 Date Night Rules

Hey honey bunnies!

I believe in having an active and fun relationship. There’s many ways to accomplish it, but one easy thing that BBKF and I love is our weekly date night.

Pres. Obama and the First Lady Enjoy Regular Date Nights

Every week, we take turns selecting a place to go or something to do. It could be as simple as going out to drinks or catch a movie or something a little bigger like an impromptu to daytrip. (We are definitely going to take a trip to the gun range of one of our date nights sometime soon. This would be awesome. And we can follow it up with some drinks. Can you tell that I enjoy a good spirited beverage?) Our dates nights gets us out of the house to spend some time to focus on each other. A simple little date like back when we were courting. Except now we get to go home and have special fun time afterwards. (Don’t look confused, I don’t care what you say I was pure and innocent until my wedding night. I had a white wedding dress and everything so ha!)

Here are a few easy rules to help your date night go a little better:

1. Pick something within your budget. There’s no better way to ruin the romance than to count sheckles or go broke one evening. Get creative, it doesn’t have to be pricey. Go out for ice cream. Take a walk in the park. Find a new active hobby like hiking to get healthy together. These are not the best times financially for country. You know your financial situation. Don’t act like some magic leprechaun is going to regenerate the funds in your account, pay credit cards or your evil, soulless student loans. And check out things like Groupon and Living Social for awesome deals and new adventures. You to save money and do some new things. Win-win!

2. A surprise can be a good. If you know your mate as you should, then do you will know what they like don’t like. You know that your girlfriend doesn’t like midget strippers so why would you surprise her with a trip to the strip club with a very special dance from a midget stripper? Be smart. A good, thoughtful surprise even if it’s small can produce amazing results and mean the world to that special person in your life. If you are going to plan a surprise, give your love thang an idea how they should dress so they won’t be totally unprepared. Usually take her to Chick-fil-A (for the spectacular lemonade, yum!) but planned a surprise dinner at a five-star black-tie restaurant? You have no one to blame but yourself if she comes out of the house in leggings and the Flashdance style sweatshirt ready to go.

3. Do a phone stack. What’s the phone stack? How many times have you been out to dinner or at a group event or even a date where someone kept checking their phone? We are not looking for an easy out and they don’t have an emergency. They just feel the need to text, tweet and Facebook every single detail of what they are doing. Even worse is when the thing that they are so desperately desiring to communicate has absolutely no importance and nobody cares. Do not confuse this with being on a bad date looking for an easy out or finding ways to keep your sanity. This rule and the other rules apply to people in relationships.

Back to the phone stack. A friend of mine introduced me to this cool trick and it’s a surefire way to bring back the face-to-face conversations and put down the electronic trinkets. Everyone places their phone in the center of the table, either stacked on top of each other or lined up. Just in the middle of everyone and away from you. So what’s the point and how can you really stop someone from picking up THEIR phone? Well not only are you having real big people conversations because everybody is not buried in their phone, but it’s also funny to see people tempted to reach for their phone when they hear an incoming call, text, or tweet. And the incentive to leave your phone alone is beyond motivating: whomever picks up their phone, has to foot the bill. Or you can think of your own penalty, but this would definitely work for me because I’m not trying to pay the whole bill because I had to read the text that said “LOL” or “what are you doing”.

4. No arguments! This is supposed to be a fun time to reconnect and enjoy each other’s company. Everything else can wait until you get home or a more appropriate time and place. Could you imagine if the couple in the next booth were argueing during YOUR dinner date? You don’t want to make a spectacle of yourself in public and I don’t want to hear a bunch of crap while I’m enjoying my delicious meal. I’m a serious foodie and you want to piss off a serious foodie interrupt their meal and see what happens. And I would be remiss if I did not mention how stupid and ignorant you look. And your inability to exhibit self-control will lead to a “record the angry couple and post it on YouTube” session. You have been warned.…

Don't Let Justin Bieber Have More Game and Romance Than You

5. When you establish your date night schedule, be it weekly, biweekly or monthly, you must stick to it. No excuses, no exceptions. Well in a dire emergency you can rearrange some things. Generally, however, there will be no valid reason for canceling or rescheduling date night. Stop being rude, selfish and inconsiderate. It’s really not asking that much. With our busy and technology filled lifestyles a simple date night can keep the romance going or reignite that dimming spark.

What are your essential rules of people for date night? How do you keep the spice alive in your relationship?