Flexing the dating muscles
When most of the time that you’ve spent with another person has been while you’ve been busy being a parent, you can really get out of practice spending time together without children. And then what’s going to happen when the children have all left home, if you’re stuck with a stranger that you have nothing in common with? Getting time alone together is easier said than done, when all the children are small and babysitting is so expensive that there isn’t enough money left to actually go out after paying for the sitter. Luckily now we have older children that can babysit the youngest, Robin and I can go out together and remind ourselves of why we fell in love with each other. This was quick venture out to the Rose and Crown pub – not a hugely successful date, we’d forgotten that pubs still allow smoking and the clientele were mainly about Flo’s age so not much of an escape – but practice makes perfect.
posted by Julie Oakley at Sunday, December 31, 2006
6 Comments:
Your blogs are among my favorite, Julie. There really is no one else remotely like you in the blogosphere. You have such a wry sense of humor and you love your family so much--the text accompanying your sketches is priceless and the sketches are, too. Happy New Year!
You certainly remind us of the love of family. Yes, the twosome is a good idea but sometimes you wonder what you have to talk about - apart from the kids.
A few years back a friend gave us a free holiday house for a week in a very quiet seaside town. We left the boys to mind for themselves. The holiday house was too quiet, no phone, no visitors, no music, no children. We just took off for Melbourne after two days to talk to people!
W.
:-D You'll get better at dating again. It will just be to different places than you went the first time around!
For the record I'd asked Julie out. We've just discovered that very sadly the landlord had died a few days previously, so not a great feeling in the pub. Conversation was somewhat stalled by the picture, and having to keep the same pose. I'm actually more handsome, well in my mind. We've just sent Flo to bed to watch the end of a film together. She wqs very cross. But I do want to se the end of the film, about a wife called Julie being murdered. Better get off the laptop and have quality time with my darling wife.
Oh what a hoot!! Thank you Robin for that insight. Actually John and I love going out together, really boring I suppose but even tho he is now sort of retired we still have fun and talk about all sorts of things, from what is in the paper, the economist, my latest food book, what I am reading and I hate to say it our 48th wedding anniversary is coming up. BUT I dont think he would sit while I sketched him! I think he is my best friend, except when I am in a bad mood and then he isnt. But I think that is life. Good luck with your next date.
Congratulations on making the effort. I so admire and envy couples who make it through all those years of pulling hard together to raise the kids and then are able to rediscover the love and romance they had in the beginning, when I seem them walking hand in hand, smiling and enjoying their lives together.
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