Dating Advice

Sometimes, I really like to tell people what to do, and this post will be one of those times. As Gianna has gotten older, and we're adding more little people to the mix, she needs "Special Time." The most important of which are her dates with Brad. I feel strongly that she needs to learn from him how a man should treat her, protect her, and respect her. I hope these efforts translate to when she is a teenager and she'll know her worth has nothing to do with the way she looks, so she won't need to seek out acceptance and approval from scary and hormonal teenaged boys Please Lord Protect Her.

or we'll just ship her off to a convent

I, also, work in some "Special Time" with her, because she is at school all day and when I pick her up everyone is grouchy and tired and hungry and it's not prime bonding time. I like having time with her when we are both moderately well-rested and there are no other distractions. I like listening to her talk and hearing her budding ideas about the world and the people around her and the things she is interested in or the things that scare her or what she wonders about. I anticipate that in the next year or so Dominic will start to need this special time set aside for him, too, as opposed to the general hanging around together we so all day while Gianna is at school.

Luckily, kids are cheap dates and it really doesn't take much to show them a nice time. To get you pumped up for your own "special time" with your kids, here is a handy list of things we have done for our "dates."

-take a walk
-go for a bike ride
-go out for ice cream
-go to Half-Price books and pick out a new book to bring to a park and read together
-go see a ballet or a play
-go grocery shopping or run other errands with just that child
-go out for hot chocolate
-play a board game of the child's choice

Eventual dates:
-go ice skating
-go to a sporting event
-go swimming

Just to prove a "date" doesn't have to be fancy, here are some pics of Brad and G's most recent outing; he took her to see his place of employment and then they went to her restaurant of choice (Chik-fil-A).

Brad=happy to leave Casa de Crazy, G=interesting wardrobe choices, and Doms=slightly underwhelmed when informed of his impending nap

Brad's headset was a big hit

A pleasant side-effect of the focused attention is that it seems to encourage Gianna to be more generous toward the Doms. She is almost always sure to bring him home a treat from her dates with us. I love when stuff like that happens. Makes me not have to work as hard.

 I feel like I spend a lot of time guiding, disciplining, directing, begging, escaping, etc etc. the kiddos. "Special time" grants me the space to really see my kids for the human beings that they are, which are critical moments to fall back on when they are acting like less than rational beings. So go ahead...get out there and enjoy your kids!