Very few couples go out on dates every single night of the week. Maybe you’ve got young children at home or you’re low on cash, so you’re spending almost all of your nights together at home. Even if you don’t have things like kids or money problems keeping you at home, you might just prefer staying in. Sometimes you’re just too tired from a rough day at work to go out. Just because you’re not leaving the house doesn’t mean that you can’t enjoy your time together. You can have a date at home, as long as you make a bit of an effort to keep things truly date-like.
The first key to a successful night in is doing a little advance planning. That doesn’t mean you have to decide what you want to do several days in advance, of course. It just means that, once you know you’re not going to go out, you should figure out what you want to do at home. Check in with your S.O. before you head home from work. A quick ten minute phone call can allow you to decide what you want to do, that way you can pick up anything you’ll need before you get home (i.e. groceries for a special dinner, a movie to watch, etc.). More importantly, planning ahead will prevent you from getting home and settling into your same old routine. If you wait until you’ve gotten home, plopped onto the couch, and turned on the TV before you discuss your plans, it’s likely your at-home date night will never get started. You wouldn’t plan a date out five minutes before it happens, so you should treat date night at home in the same way.
When you and your partner decide what you’ll be doing for your date in, you should make sure to get a little creative. If you’re going to have dinner, make a meal that you love but don’t cook too regularly. Having the same soup and sandwich combo you had two nights before won’t feel like a date. It will just feel like another typical weeknight at home. If you both like to cook, make dinner together. That way, even the meal prep becomes a part of your date. If a normal night in involves watching TV together or reading in bed until you fall asleep, shake things up. Drink a cocktail or two while you play cards and trade flirty quips. It’s like going to the casino minus the possible loss of money. As a bonus, if you decide to play strip poker, there aren’t any security guards there to stop you. If you decide to go the movie watching route, turn your home into your own mini theater. Turn off all the lights, pop some popcorn or set up a candy bowl, and settle in side by side on the couch. Trade in movie-theater-style soda for a more adult beverage, and feel free to make out on the loveseat during the slow parts of the film.
Of course, having a good plan doesn’t count for anything if the atmosphere at home is all wrong. Just because you’re in your house, that doesn’t mean you should change into your comfy pajamas for movie night. Act as though you’re out on the town. Stay dressed in your work clothes or put on something nice that you’d wear out on a date. Sit at the table for dinner, not on your couch. Most importantly, shut out any possible sources of interruption. Set your cell phones on silent and put them in the other room, put the computer to sleep, and do your best to minimize interruptions from your kids and/or pets. If you’ve got cats or dogs, feed them right when you get home so you won’t have to drop everything later to get them their dinner. The same thing goes for the kiddos. Get the children fed and wait until they’re in bed to have your date night. Better still, if your parents or your partner’s parents live nearby, ask them if the kids can spend the evening with them. They get to have fun at their grandparents’, and you and your S.O. get a quality night in. Of course, that will take a little more advance planning, since you can’t just spring your children on your in-laws with no warning.
The key to a truly great night in is to break away from your typical evening routine and treat your house like it’s your favorite hotspot. It takes a little bit of planning, but the payoff is huge. Besides, it’s a lot easier to drop everything mid-date and head into the bedroom if the bedroom is just down the hall. What’s not to like about that?