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Out of interest how often do you manage to get out on an evening/night with your other half without your kids? Or how often do there grandparents or whoever babysit for you? Do they sleep over too?
I have two kids aged nearly 4 and 4months, probably manage once every 6 months at the most, and the eldest has only slept over at his grandparents once in 4 years.
Virtually never. They are both now 12.
If anyone tells you it gets easier, they are lying.
All the time, whenever we want.
We don't have any kids.
We do have loads of bikes, holidays and free time though. 😀
Yes, and a miserable old age with no-one to visit you.
Oh wait, I get that as well!
I get out every other week on the bikes with my youngest, he does swear a lot though, as I do.
He's 29 & I'm 59 so it's ok. 😀
'Mark, you w**k**'. 'Dad, you silly t**t'. Etc etc.
( I actually do not like 'children')
Sorry! in answer to the OP..as often as I like!
I get out as often as I like without the kids. Hopefully upcoming court action will reduce that markedly.
Overnight? Never. Evening? I think we've had 3 or 4. Oldest is 8. But then mrs is utterly uninterested in spending time with me she could spend with the kids.
Yes, and a miserable old age with no-one to visit you.
Sounds great to me.
We're fine with our own company. 😛
Kids never stay away for the night. Neither sets of grandparents offer. We've been out 3 times all year, but I think my situation is pretty similar to aracer, tbh.
2 or 3 times a year but the grandparents have the kids a fair bit but normally as I've meetings or work and the wifes at work.
We're fine with our own company.
I don't remember that far back. What's it like out there?
As and when, at 11 she either does sleepovers or stays over at school.
Six days and counting to our second weekend away in a year . The boy is four and we have had about 6 nights and 4 weekends without him .
We've had one overnight where both kids stayed at grandparents - mainly because I busted myself on ice in Grizedale so had a night in Furness General whilst mrs was taken under the wing of another broken mtber's partner to spend the night in Ulverston....
Kids are suddenly fast enough that we don't even get solo mtb blasts anymore (I [i]think[/i] this is a good thing....)
mick.
Marko at Ciclo was talking about your days before kids a couple of weeks ago. 🙂
Had 4 nights out as a couple in the last nine years, doesn't bother me. Just one of those things.
Our two used to stop over every Saturday night, seem to remember it was only from about the ages of 5 to 14ish when they became a little more independent. Mostly one set of gps once their younger cousin started too.
Can only think of one full weekend, didn't want to take the P. Although the inlaws do so for the cousin fairly frequently as well as picking up from school some days.
One almost 3yr old. Not a lot until recently and now have 1 night a week where we can go for a beer or dinner as granny is here. Had 2 weekends away biking for 2 and 3 nights. Grandparents are awesome , they love it !
All the time, whenever we want.
We don't have any kids.
We do have loads of bikes, holidays and free time though.
This for us too. Great isn't it?
About 6 times in 12 years. Often only have one of them due to Scouts, Brownies or sleepovers with friends.
I had half the summer holidays home alone as wife and kids conspired to be away at camps, grandparents and friends by the coast. I think I missed them.....
As a parent of 2 kids, my mother would have our eldest no problem but when the youngest was born it became to difficult for her to cope with both. My in-laws never had them at all. We didn't get out very often.
Now we are grandparents and we have had the eldest of our grandsons stay all weekend and in the week since he was 18months, he's now 3 1/2.
We get less time for ourselves now and to add more problems we've now had to become the parents to our grandsons and become their full time carers due to circumstances beyond our control.
It's like living the dream/nightmare twice.
Matt
Three between 5 and 12 here, due to biological dad involvement we get 1 weekend in 6 to ourselves, and usually an additional couple of evenings in between those - although usually those mean a night with control of the telly and no intervening in fights rather than a night out
At that age not at all, but I don't recall ever being phased by it. I guess we were just happy operating as a family. Sleepovers started a bit later, maybe 8/9 yo, but very rare until teens.
2 of our 3 kids were out at sleepovers last night.
We would have gone out for a meal and taken the remaining child, but she started objecting when told she would have to stay in the car and read a book.
So close
Our kids are two and five. We're currently in Belfast for a wedding and they are at the grandparents 😀
But that's our first night away since the youngest was born.
Not got any grandparents or relatives local to us so we don't get to go out together without kids very often, just special occasions really. We do go out for boys/girls nights about once a month though.
And I usually go away for a week by myself once a year.
My parents have never been up to having our two (12 & 8 ) over night due to health issues and the in laws are over an hour away so we count ourselves lucky to get out once or twice a year.
Saying that, Mrs B gets to London a couple of times a month where she combines work with visiting friends/relatives and most years I get a few days away with biking mates.
Went out last night! was our anniversary though
Last year we had a whole weekend away in Prague!!!!
Once every month or 2, which is fine by us, rather sit in and have a few ales, some nachos and a boxset binge these days
Quite lucky my parents live nearby and mil likes time with the grandkids, now we have a spare room its much easier
We obviously have very good grand parents.
Our son has slept over at 1 set from the age of about 2, and spent a week at the others since 4 during school holidays.
Still don't get out much though...
Once a month over the last six months (he's six months old)
We could have done more if we had wanted I reckon. We are lucky that both sets of grandparents are very keen and capable, even though all in their 70's.
We moved to be closer to grandparents. They only have one set and now they have more cousins the sleepovers have reduced but probably 8 times a year I'd say, including 4 during school holidays. Currently laying in bed in a quiet house with a steaming hangover!!
Not very often (twice/three times a year maybe) until our eldest daughter reached an age where she could babysit for a couple of hours for us. Now we manage to get out together one evening a week, which is great.
Can vary from once a month to several months without getting out together. It doesn't bother us as it's part of having kids.
We get a few. We have to book them in early usually, and the grandparents are usually happy to have the kids over night, but they do stay over at ours sometimes if they have to be somewhere the next day.
Christmas is coming up and works do's are a good 'official' night out sort of way of forcing the kids on the grandparent. Once they've don it a few times just keep forcing the kids onto them.
They had you and therefore had to bring you up, but if they want looking after in their old age they need to keep you sweet!! 😉
We have 2 boys (10 &4) and knew from the beginning that we wouldn't be getting much help. We also accepted that having kids was our choice and fully accepted the responsibility .
My wife's parents haven't been in the best of health for a long time and from the beginning my dad has had little/no interest. At the start my mum wasn't too interested either but as times gone on she has become a rock and I don't know what we'd do without her, we still only get out every 2 or 3 months but that's down to us preferring to spend our money on us as a family .
We have 3 (12, 12, & 10). The wife and I make it out three times a year for our birthdays and anniversary. My in-laws have always been happy to help with picking them up from school a couple of times a week, so we would feel guilty asking them to babysit more frequently than we do.
We used to suffer with this problem.. Kids are 6 and 3
We found the simplest solution was to get a divorce and share custody 🙂
I now get 3 nights per week to go out 😆
Whenever we want, both kids in their 20's and live away from home. 😀
We are hoping to go and see Spectre soon at an iMax. It'll be the first time out together since our August 2014 wedding anniversary.
However out youngest has just turned 3 so this will get easier to manage!
We're currently in Belfast for a wedding and they are at the grandparents
But that's our first night away since the youngest was born
And you took time out to post on here? 😉
My sister lives near my folks, and they both work more or less full time, so my parents did a lot of childcare for their kids. Which meant that my mum felt our kids were left out, so they are very keen to babysit. And our kids are angels compared to hers which helps 🙂
We'd planned to cash in hotel and airline points at half term with the kids at their house, but it all seemed like too much effort, cos we couldn't really go where and do what we wanted without spending a decent sum of cash so.. dunno.. might just bring them down to London, dunno.
My lad is 13 and my Daughter is 10. They've never had a sleepover at their Grandparents. Both sets live locally and have hardly helped out since they were born. My wife's mum is on her own and just lives down the road (nearly 80 now so a bit late to expect anything) but she's great. My mum on the other hand is 69, more than capable financially and retired but never offers ever. Just nothing and I cannot understand why (although it echoes my upbringing somewhat).
It is frustrating as a Parent, but I brought them into this world and my responsibility, so who am I to complain?. It does annoy me though when you hear about other kids being whisked away by their Grandparents for trips.
Me and the Mrs hardly get out on our own so its nice when we do. We go for meals a fair bit with the kids now they are a bit older and we cherish the time we all spend together. Sooner or later they wont want to spend it with their farty Parents. 🙂 I have a brother about 12 miles away with 2 kids so we help out with each other when we can which is nice. Good relationships there. You've just got to get on with it.
That's Life eh! Wouldn't swap them for the world. Blooming great kids and I love em to bits.
My parents have my niece and nephew for a night at least once a month and have them during the day once a week. I know my brother relies on this.
Our first is due next week and mum has already said she'll come over when ever we want to go out, they live a hour away. The in laws are in Denmark so naturally we won't get so much help from them.
Sound like we are going to be lucky judging by this thread as the experience of some of our friends.
Any time I want. It's soul destroying.
When he was at school, when he was skiing or doing athletics with his club, and the time it took to watch a film on TV. Not often then.
Our two are 9 and 12. My parents live 10 minutes walk in one direction and my in-laws live 5 minutes the other way, so they have them quite a lot. I knew there was a reason we lived close to them 🙂