Date Night

“Go to bed…”
“I don’t want to.   Can I have a drink of milk?”
“No”
“Why?”
“Because we need it for our date.”

Years ago we decided that we wanted to do something that would help us have a little date everyday and strengthen our marriage.  We both like cookies and so Oreos became an easy and simple solution.  When the kids were younger we simply put them to bed and broke out the cookies and milk.  After several years of a few cookies each night people started giving us all kinds of suggestions like:
“Have you tried a thin slice of cheese on each Oreo? You will never eat them without it if you try it?”
“Use a fork and then it won’t get your hands dirty.”  (Nah, it takes too much time to put it on the fork and my hands aren’t that dirty)
“Why don’t you just take the cookies and put them in the glass of milk?  Then all you have to do is mix them up and eat with a spoon.”
“How do you keep your kids from eating them?”  (Uh, I plead the 5th)
“Have you tried (insert whatever cookie, fruit, ice cream flavor, vegetable, etc) instead of Oreos?”  (Yes, and we like Oreos.)

After several years someone finally asked the right question, “Why do you have Oreos every night?”   That is easy, because we like each other and we like our 15 minute date each night.   We even came up with a slogan that seemed to represent what we were doing…

Opportunity to

Reconnect with

Each

Other

We have no idea how many packages of Oreos we have eaten or on rare occasions shared with our kids.  We simply sit down, dunk a few cookies, and talk about the day.   Sometimes there are decisions to be made but it is mostly a time to catch up with each other.   One day a while back our youngest asked if she could have some Oreos.  Before we could say anything one of the older kids said, “No, those are for Mom and Dad so they stay happy.”  Yea, that’s it!

“Bring on the milk!”

You may also enjoy our post that shows an unconventional way to teach older children— Cereal Box Syndrome