Maintaining Your Marriage During the Parenting Years

By Focus On The Family

Date nights during the courtship years might have included bouquets of roses, candlelight dinners and strolls through the park. But date night looks quite different now that you have kids. These days, your “romantic evenings” may more often involve finding free food samples at the grocery store and then heading to the dollar movie theater.

My husband, James, and I even like going to the Hispanic supermarket on a weekend with our kids to make them practice Spanish. It’s highly educational, and the fresh, hot tortillas are delicious. On one such elaborate outing, we walked to the meat counter and looked for the ticket dispenser that read, “Take a number.” As I pulled out my ticket and waited for service, I wondered, Does my husband ever feel like this?

“Forget intimacy — I’ve got to work early tomorrow. Take a number.”

“No homemade dinner tonight — we’ve got to get to gymnastics. Take a number.”

“Sure, we can go on a vacation just for two — in about 20 years? Take a number.”

In your hectic life of work, children and ministry, your spouse can rank about 89th on the list of things to do. Before kids, he was your focus and she was your priority. Now you feel more like humble servants to the little people in your house (who don’t even pay rent!).

Read more at Focus On The Family