First, if you didn't win my Pay it Forward giveaway - and unless you're Saly, you did not - Saly is paying forward her win and hosting a giveaway of her own.
Now to my questions:
1. How often do you and your significant other go on an actual date? Yes, I count a trip to get ice cream and walk the aisles at Target as a date, provided that your children are not with you. I want to hear from the childless, too.
2. If you have children, how often do you eat in a sit-down restaurant? For this case, I mean someplace with waiters, level of fanciness is irrelevant.
3. Do you like to travel? If you have children, do you prefer to travel with your children (ages, please) or without?
4. If you have children, what percentage of your day do you spend actively engaged with/entertaining them?
Happy Monday! I'll be back with my answers on Tuesday.
1. We don't go on dates very often. My mom is our babysitter, but she watches the kids 4 days a week while I work so I don't feel like I can ask for more! So we end up only going out if she offers (3-4 times a year) or we have a specific event and ask. The last time was for a concert in November.
ReplyDelete2. Every Sunday after church we go to a sit-down restaurant with my parents. If we want to eat out any other day of the week, we pretty much always carry out. (Most sit-down places will do carry out.)
3. I love to travel. Not such a fan of traveling with kids, though. It doesn't feel like a vacation. We haven't gone on any solo vacations since the kids were born, though. (Oldest is 2.5)
4. I don't spend enough of my day actively engaged with my kids. Mostly we, uh, "parallel play" (ha!) which means me on my iPad and them doing their thing. I've been making an effort lately to play with them more. This week I made a goal of only using the computer/iPad for a maximum of 10 minutes per hour while they're awake. It went well!
1. Until recently, almost never--we pretty much always brought Callum with us. Now that we have a live-in nanny, about once a week.
ReplyDelete2. Maybe every other week?
3. Yes, we like to travel. Traveling with Callum is really fun but we are hoping to do a little adults-only getaway this summer. I'm not sure if I'd have a preference--both ways are great, just very different.
4. Hmmm. As an overall percentage of my day, not that much, since I work full time. But of the time I spend with him, I try to engage actively a lot. He does spend a lot of time in his play yard, because he enjoys it, but I'd say I spend at least 1/3 of our time together actively entertaining him. And the other 2/3 secretly watching him entertain himself and marveling at his adorableness while I do other things.
1. The past few months my parents have taken the girl overnight once a month. I'm thinking we should take advantage of that as the baby will be here before we know it.
ReplyDelete2. Sit down restaurants have become no fun as of the last month.
3. Traveling is one of my favorite things in the world. We haven't done much since becoming parents. I am torn between wanting to take a vacation without C and wanting to spend my time off work with her.
4. When I'm home with C she gets pretty much all of my attention.
1. We usually go out once every 6 weeks or so. When ever my mom is in town or we are down her way.
ReplyDelete2. We eat out 1 to 2 times a week. Most of the time not that fun and we ask ourselves why we keep torturing ourselves.
3.Not a big fan of traveling...with or without kids, unless it's a driving vacation. I like road trips but hate flying.
4. It's funny you ask because according to Kaylee she wants a new mommy that plays with her ALL the time. I would say 1/3 of my day is spent doing something with her.
1. We go out every few months. Sometimes it's less often than that: it's easy to think we've "just HAD a date" and then find oh, it's been eight months.
ReplyDelete2. We don't ever go to sit-down restaurants with the children.
3. I think of myself as liking to travel, but I think I mostly don't. DEFINITELY without children---although I had a nice trip with two of the kids and my parents once.
4. I can't figure it out! Too many variables.
1. We got out on daydates about once a month where we both take a day off work, drop the kids off at daycare unawares of the fun that's about to be had and skip off into the sunset (sunrise?). We haven't done an evening date in YEARS because I am just too damn tired come 7:30pm.
ReplyDelete2. We maybe eat at a sit down restaurant once a week or so.
3. I LOVE to travel with T. I HATE traveling with children.
4. This requires some math on my part, so I'm feeling a bit unsure about this one. Sorry.
1. I'd say once a month at least! It's vital to our marriage.
ReplyDelete2. We NEVER eat out with our kids. I will take them to Chick-fil-a on weekly basis, but really that's it. If we do go out, it's usually take out or someone's birthday/special occasion.
3. The farthest i've traveled with all three is the OC. We aren't ready for that just yet. Maybe when Nick gets a bit older.
4. I PLAY with them about 30-40 minutes a day. everything in between is feeding them, bathing them, disciplining them or simply - watching them play. :)
1. Dates are rare for us. MAYBE once a month. But honestly, I think it's been a few months since we have. I think (hope) it will be more frequent after the baby turns one.
ReplyDelete2. Sit down restaurants were a few times a month when I was working. Now, maybe once a month. And I'm talking Red Robin or our local breakfast diner, nothing fancy.
3. I enjoy travelling with the kids. I also enjoy travelling with just my husband, but with the exception of a special anniversary trip or two, the next 10 years or so, I am committed to bringing the kids with. I will have my whole life "after kids" to travel alone with hubs.
4. I'd say maybe 1/4 of the day. I aim for 10-15 minutes/hour (that they are awake). Sometimes that works out to 30 mins one hour and none the next, etc... And this is by no means rigid.
1. NOT OFTEN ENOUGH. We used to go out a lot...Probably too often to really count, but at least once a week for sure. Now? We've been out maybe 5 time since LG was born.
ReplyDelete2. Maybe once every couple weeks. We do a lot of weekend lunches/ brunches.
3. Yes, but I don't like traveling with LG. We've gone out of town maybe three times since she was born, once out of necessity (wedding), once for fun, and once for sort of necessity/fun (visiting my parents.)
4. NOT ENOUGH. I get maybe an hour total with her on the weekdays and it's usually spent feeding, changing, holding, making her not cry because she's SO TIRED and just wants to go to bed. On the weekends, we're out and about a lot, so entertaining is usually holding her, feeding her, etc. At home she has a lot of toys/contraptions that we stick her in or in front of (this is sounding really bad, haha), but again, not enough time. There's never any time!
1. We used to faithfully go on a date every Thursday night. But then the kids hit school ages, and it seemed like the babysitters couldn't get them to bed on time which made mornings horrific. So we sorta stopped. Currently we go to a marriage counselor once a week - does that count as a date? :)
ReplyDelete2. We go to a sit-down restaurant at least once a week.
3. We are a big travel family. I go somewhere almost once a month. I really enjoy traveling with my kids, and when they aren't with us, then I'm always thinking about how much they would like whatever we are doing/seeing. The exception being when I go to see MY friends. I like doing that completely solo.
4. I don't really ever "play" with my kids. I engage them in walks, reading, cooking dinner, laundry, outings, etc. But we have plenty of not engaged time - either when they are off playing on their own or I'm ignoring their pleas while surfing the web! :)
1) We rarely go on real "dates" but even when we were dating takeout and a video was pretty much our thing. Since we're currently living with my parents we take advantage of that and run errands together probably a couple times a month after the kids go to bed.
ReplyDelete2) Maybe once a month? Not often.
3) I like traveling, but I'm not a fan of doing it with kids. And we've already agreed that when this next baby comes we're not going anywhere for awhile. We haven't had a vacation together but without kids since Kalena was born (she's 3 1/2)
4) I stay at home, so I'd guess I spend at least a couple hours a day actively engaged with the kids. Mostly I'm just around while they play, but I am with them all day so I'm guessing even 10-15 minutes here and there of reading/playing add up.
I know I am way late here, and that you already answered, but I love to answer questions...so here I am!
ReplyDelete1. Hub and I go out on a real live date once every couple of months. We are lucky though, since I work at home and he runs his business out of the home. Our lunch dates are many. We also every couple of weeks do a stay home date night, where we order takeout after the kids go to bed and watch a movie, or DVR'd shows.
2. We eat in a restaurant a few times a month. Bud and Lucy are pretty well behaved by now. We feel like we can handle Liv. But we take advantages of coupons and gift cards because dining out for 5 is EXPENSIVE.
3. I love to travel and Hub does not. I would go on a little trip every few months if I could. But Hub hates leaving the house unattended for too long. We have enjoyed some really nice family vacations though, and hub and I have done a couple weekends away alone since we had the kids. I'm thinking we need to do more than a few days for our 10-year anniversary in September.
4. I...don't know. Bud and Lucy are happy to entertain themselves now, but I make them do things like read to me etc. Liv is a huge pretender, and this sucks the life right out of me. If I am pretending, I have to be doing something else too, like reading, cutting coupons etc. So...% of time I am actively engaged where my sole focus is one of the kids? Maybe 10-15%?