Five Tips For Reconnecting With Your Partner

3 minute read

Valentine’s Day – does it get more trite? Red and pink everything, enforced mass card signing for the kids, bad prix-fixe menus. We’re with you. However, I don’t think any of us would say that making our relationship work with kids in the mix is easy. So let’s skip the heart-shaped candy and talk reality. Here are five ways to reconnect with your partner, whatever time of year it is.

Plan It Out

This sounds ridiculous, but you’re going to have to make time. And put it in the family calendar, like gymnastics, pizza day, soccer, and dentist appointments. Waiting for a magical spontaneous moment won’t work, and your other half who was planning to settle down with their latest Xbox game or the book they just got out of the library maybe might not be so keen on a surprise dinner. All our lives are pretty heavily scheduled these days, and while that probably needs looking at too, the reality is you will never get a moment with each other without making it yourself.

Find An Activity To Do Together

It doesn’t need to be dinner and a movie. Maybe a babysitter isn’t in the budget this month – it doesn’t even need to be out. Something a bit special you’re doing together is all it takes to reconnect. Two-person board game night? A particular Netflix marathon? A LEGO set of your very own? Hey – whatever it takes!

Make A List

When that childcare budget opens up, or a grandparent offers a sleepover, grab that chance. But then… what? Make a list of things you’d like to do together ahead of time for those moments when you get some couple time. Restaurants you want to try, movies you’d like to see, walking tours, even neighbourhoods you’d like to take a stroll in. Anything. It’s amazing how blank your mind goes when you get to do something fun.

Schedule Compliments

This sounds like it’s straight out of a women’s magazine, and very silly, but just wait. It is easy to go through our lives rocketing from appointment to daycare to school to classes to meal-making to laundry and on and on without actually acknowledging you’re sharing your life with a whole other adult human. I know I do it all the time. Hearing a nice thing, just about you, is pretty awesome. Put a reminder in your calendar to say something nice to your teammate in family life. It’s little, but hey, so is practically everything else.

Get Away

The holy grail – if you can get a weekend to yourselves, there’s no better way to reconnect. Summerland Waterfront Resort and Spa in the Okanagan has this lovely package just for the month of February. Cupid's Crush Package includes two night stay in a studio suite with fireplace, wine and chocolate plate in your room when you arrive, a dinner out at the Local Lounge & Grille or Zia’s Stonehouse, and a late 2pm check out so you can sleep in. How lovely is that?

Erin McGann, VancouverMom.ca

Posted February 09, 2016

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