Changing The Way Our Date Night Works!

Before children, you only have to worry about yourself when it comes to dates, holidays, evenings/nights out, events and so on, but when you have children, you have to think about them too. It's not just what am I going to wear and how should I style my hair that boggles your mind when it comes to such, but it's also who can babysit the children and much much more.

My beautiful Spud.

I'm lucky in the sense that I have my dad just around the corner from me because Spud loves his grandad and spending time with him, Spud also loves spending time with my dad's dog who Spud calls his best friend. Spud also loves having a sleepover at his auntie Paula's house because he gets to stay and play with his cousins, and every so often, my brother Jamie will watch Spud for a few hours with me, Spud loves this time because Jamie let's Spud do whatever he wants, good old uncles ay!

Jamie and Spud have a great bond, they're more like brothers then Uncle and Nephew!

So for me, a baby sitter is not a problem, Spud is only left with family members and I know he is always safe! I can speak to him on the phone as much as I want, and as much as he wants, and if I should need to get to him quickly in an emergency, everyone is local! However, Jamie still lives at home with our dad, so when Jamie looks after Spud, he has to do it here at our home, which isn't a bad thing, unless I have a night out planned and then I worry about coming in late and a little tipsy, and waking Jamie and Spud up, also we now have Jezeppi (our puppy dog), which makes it even worse because he starts barking as soon as he hears the front door open!

Jamie, Spud and Jezeppi. 

So me and Gareth had been planning differently for our date night last week, we asked Jamie to look after Spud, and put our plans to him. To save us waking up the household when we got home, we decided to stay at a local hotel, and luckily the Holiday Inn South Reading is literally two roads away from my house, so if an emergency should happen, we could get back quickly! It was also better for Jamie as he got to have my bed, instead of sleeping on the sofa as he usually would, a better solution for both parties!

We headed off to the hotel around 7pm to check in and leave our bags there, we then headed off out into Reading town centre only a couple of miles away from the hotel. Firstly we went to dinner, just the two of us to spend some alone time together, and then we spent the evening and night celebrating a friends 'big number' birthday! We got a taxi back to the hotel and didn't disturb anyone, or a puppy dog!

Me and Gareth on our date night/celebrating a friends birthday.

Me and Gareth got back to mine just before 9am in the morning, and Spud had only been awake for 20 minutes, so it wasn't as though he spent a lot of time away from me! Usually on a night out, I would be here when he wakes up, so it was a little different, but he was happy with the plan too as he got to have banana cake for breakfast thanks to uncle Jamie!

Me and Gareth didn't mind the change either, my bed isn't the most comfortablest, but it's not the most horriblest, however the bed at the hotel was a lot nicer, plus none of us had to cook breakfast, wash up, dry up and put away as we just ordered breakfast at the hotel! It was also nice to not have a dog jump on our faces and lick us everywhere at silly o'clock on a Sunday morning!

Have you ever changed the way a date night works for easier arrangements? I remember once in my younger days, just after Spud was born, me and his dad arranged a date, but due to my baby brain I forgot all about it and didn't turn up! Oops!

Until next time,
Jada x

*Written in collaboration with IHG.