As parents one of the greatest gifts you can give your kids is a living breathing example of your love and affection for each other. A healhty marriage takes work and time and you need to make space to be with each other and keep your connection alive. It can be hard with kids and busy lives to make the space to do this, but I DARE YOU !!!!

NOTE: If your not a parent maybe you could help a parent around you to make this a possibility. Look after the kids. Encourge them to make the space and time.

Need some ideas? here are some

50 Ideas for Married Couples

1. Sketch your dream-house floor plan and talk about the possibilities of each room
2. Write the story of how you met. Get it printed and bound.
3. List your spouse’s best qualities in alphabetic order.
4. Tour a museum or art gallery
5. Do some star gazing in the dark while watching for the International Space Station make its daily visible pass. For sighting info, go to http://www.isstracker.com/
6. Attend a markets together
7. Spend a night together away
8. Take a stroll around the block – hold hands as you walk
9. Give your spouse a back rub
10. Rent a classic love story video, microwave some popcorn and watch the video while cuddling.
           PERSONAL NOTE: Have a movie date night once each week. Alternate who get to choose the movie.
11. Build a fire in the fire place, turn out the lights, cuddle and talk.
12. Take a shower together
13. Go swimming in the middle of the night
14. Write a poem for your spouse
15. Remember to look in your spouse’s eyes as he/she tells you about the day.
16. Walk the mall together with the goal of not to buy, but to test perfume and cologne along the way
17. Hug your spouse from behind and five him/her a kiss on the back of the neck
18. Stop in the middle of your busy day and talk to your spouse for 15 minutes
19. Take a free tour of a local factory. Available tours range from gelato factories coffee plantation
20. Do something your spouse love to do, even though it doesn’t interest you personally.
21. Send your spouse a love letter
22. Build a sand castle together
23. Watch a sunrise or sunset together
24. Sit on the same side of a restaurant booth
25. Picnic by a pond
26. Give your mate a foot massage
27. Put a puzzle together on a rainy evening
28. Take a bike ride on a bike path.
29. On a hot summer day, wash the car together, with the intent of splashing each other with water
30. Whisper something romantic to your spouse in a crowded room
31. Have a candlelight picnic in the back yard
32. Perfume the bed sheets
33. Serve breakfast in bed
34. Reminisce through old photo albums
35. Have coffee together at a coffee shop
36. Share a milkshake with two straws
37. Kiss in the rain
38. Brush his/her hair
39. Ride the merry go-round together
40. Dedicate a song to him/her over the radio
41. On your anniversary, renew your wedding vows with family and friends
42. Have a hot bubble bath ready for him/her at the end of a long day
43. Buy new satin sheets
44. Tenderly touch your spouse as you pass one another around the house
45. Reminisce about your first date
46. Plant a tree together in honor of your marriage
47. Raid the kids’ toy chest and go kit flying
48. Attend a sporting event you’ve never been to together
49. Take time to think about him/her during the day, then share those thoughts
50. Create you own special holiday

But really get creative.

A list of 50 Date Your Mate ideas was originally published in the February 1992 issue of Focus On The Family, with a little adjustment for Australianisation :)

• Categories: 

• Type of Resource/Inspiration
• Type of Resource/Ideas
• Categories of Resource/Resources for Parents
• Categories of Resource/Families
• Special Events/National Families Week

• Tags: 

• 10,
• 12,
• 14,
• 16,
• 17,
• 18,
• 23,
• 24,
• 38,
• 40,
• 41,
• action,
• age,
• aid,
• air,
• album,
• alive,
• anger,
• anniversary,
• another,
• arent,
• back,
• bike,
• booth,
• breakfast,
• breathing,
• building,
• bus,
• busy,
• buying,
• candlelight,
• candles,
• car,
• care,
• carer,
• caring,
• castle,
• cat,
• class,
• coffee,
• conference,
• connec,
• couples,
• created,
• creative,
• dare,
• darkness,
• date-night,
• dating,
• day,
• dedicated,
• dr,
• dream,
• dreams,
• eating,
• end,
• enter,
• etched,
• evening,
• event,
• events,
• example,
• exams,
• eye,
• factory,
• fall,
• family,
• fasting,
• fee,
• feed,
• fees,
• festival,
• fire,
• fires,
• first,
• friend,
• friends,
• gallery,
• gift,
• gifts,
• give,
• gives,
• giving,
• goal,
• going,
• hand,
• hands,
• heaven,
• help,
• helping,
• hen,
• hens,
• holder,
• holidays,
• hope,
• house,
• housing,
• how,
• ideas,
• international,
• issues,
• ity,
• keeper,
• kid,
• lace,
• lies,
• light,
• lists,
• live,
• lives,
• living,
• local,
• long,
• love-story,
• lying,
• man,
• market,
• marriage,
• mates,
• member,
• milk,
• mini,
• mm,
• motorcycle,
• movie,
• movies,
• museum,
• national,
• neck,
• need,
• new,
• news,
• night,
• otherness,
• others,
• outing,
• over,
• owe,
• parent,
• parents,
• perfume,
• personal,
• photo,
• picnic,
• plan,
• plans,
• plant,
• planting,
• plants,
• poem,
• radio,
• re,
• red,
• remember,
• remembering,
• resource,
• rides,
• romantic,
• room,
• saes,
• sage,
• sand,
• schedule,
• serve,
• serving,
• set,
• share,
• sharing,
• sheet,
• shop,
• side,
• sing,
• song,
• spending,
• splash,
• sport,
• sports,
• store,
• stores,
• summer,
• sun,
• swim,
• swimming,
• t-,
• talking,
• talks,
• test,
• testing,
• the-dark,
• the-way,
• thought,
• thoughts,
• times,
• tins,
• top,
• tour,
• toys,
• two,
• under,
• us,
• video,
• videos,
• walk,
• walks,
• watch,
• water,
• wedding,
• why,
• winter,
• work,
• working,
• writing,
• your