Babysitting co-op {date nights without paying for a sitter!}

"CONTINUE TO DATE YOUR HUBBY REGULARLY"

That little piece of marriage advice can be found everywhere and is often told to newly weds and repeated to parents. I agree that it is great advice, but it is sometimes hard to make dates a priority in our busy lives. Not only that, but when you have kids and you do not live close to family, it makes going out on dates expensive. Here is the thing, I really REALLY despise paying for a babysitter. If we weren't on such a tight budget maybe I would feel differently but then again maybe not... why pay for something you can get for free? Well, free in the monetary sense at least. Here is a little secret: all around you are other families that don't want to pay for babysitting, yet are also desperate to go out with their spouse.

So in comes... the babysitting co-op! Trade with a few other families, and take turns watching each others kids. For watching all the kids just one night, you and your hubby get to go out two or three times (depending on the # of families involved) and you do not have to spend extra on a sitter!

Here are a few things to consider when choosing the families involved and figuring out how your co-op is going to work:

1. Ideally you will do the co-op with a few of your really good friends (that have a signifcant other and kids of course). As a mom it is hard sometimes to not worry about the kids when you are out without them. So by leaving your kids with people both you and your kids are familiar with, it makes it that much better!

2. I recommend starting small and maybe adding another family or two later. With everyone's busy schedules it is sometimes hard to find times that work for everyone, so obviously the less schedules you have to work around the easier.

3. But remember, the more families you include, the more date nights you get. Every family only watches the kids once per "rotation." We have three families in our co-op (us plus two others) so for every time we watch the kids, we get two date nights (one night every time one of the other family watches our kids). The rotation starts over once every family has had a turn watching the kids.

4. On the flip side of that, the more families you include, the more kids there will be to watch when it is your turn. The # of kids and ages of each kid is definitely something to consider. The better the kids play together the easier it will be. Also the older and more independent they are, the easier. In our co-op there are three little ones (9 months, and two 18 month olds) and two older kids (4 years old). I make sure my hubby is here to help me when it is our turn to watch them all, and it definitely helps to have a backyard for everyone to play in. But I have a neighbor who does it with three other families and one of their guidelines is they will only include families with kids that are out of the baby/toddler stage. It just depends on where you are at and your friends, but it is something to think about.   

5. You can make the nights out as frequent or infrequent as the group decides. We complete a rotation every one and a half to two months. The nights we go out just depend on everyone's work schedule (two of the husbands have changing work schedules). My neighbor's babysitting co-op on the other hand does it every saturday night. It just depends on how often you want to go out and what works for everyone.

6. Feel good knowing you are not spending a ton of $ for good childcare and enjoy the time with just your hubby!

What are other things you have done to make date night happen more regularly???