Someone I respect once said that, as parents, the best thing you can do for your kids is to love each other. I really took that advice to heart.

There is so much uncertainty to knowing if how you are parenting your children is right, but when put that away, what you have to do as a parent seems so simple. 

Sometimes it is hard to know what exactly my children need from me. Is it tough love? Should I be strict and firm? Should I try to give them everything I didn’t have? And what works for my son might not always work for my daughter, but I know what it means to love my husband.

While we still argue and disagree, at the end of the day (or sometimes the next morning after I’ve calmed down), my husband and I still say, “I love you.” 

Part of loving your spouse includes making time for each other. There are many days where my husband and I just pass in the doorway as I come home and he leaves for work, so we don’t even get to have dinner as a family, let alone have any child-free time together.

To make up for that, my husband and I are attempting to have a date night once a month. We are not always planning on going somewhere fancy, one month it might be as simple as putting the kids to bed and sharing a homemade banana split.

But the next month, we might call up my mom to watch the kids and head to Cannoli’s on Lindbergh for a romantic Italian dinner. There are a lot of great local places to go that are not expensive but will allow you and your spouse to have some one-on-one time together. (Another good idea would be to head out to Hendel’s.)

With all that said, I will admit, as a mom who works full-time, I have a very hard time being away from my kids on evenings and weekends when it’s not necessary. But I have come to realize that time alone together gives my husband and I a chance to reconnect and regroup so that we can make it through the next whirlwind of a month. So make a date and call up that babysitter; you owe it to your kids.