As February 14th approaches, the Research Moms of course are wondering how moms spend the holiday of friendship and love. With diapers, homework, family dinner, chauffeuring, does mom have time for a date night? A third of moms in our study say they celebrate Valentine’s Day with just a card or some candy. Another 22% go out for a date night and for 18% of our moms, Valentine’s Day is just another day.
Moms who are not married, but in a relationship, are more likely to say they celebrate with a date night out (37%). Many first time moms with children age 2 or younger are spending Valentine’s Day with a night out as well (35%).
At times I find it sad that more moms aren’t getting out for a date night on Valentine’s Day since many moms still rank romance as important (more on this to come), but then I think about what goes through my own mind when it comes to planning a date night for Valentine’s Day, it goes something like this:
Valentine’s Day is coming, my husband and I should take advantage and go out for a dinner date. Okay, so first we need a babysitter. And then we need to decide, where do we go? Two months ago we were reluctant to commit to going out on Valentine’s Day, so can we even get a reservation anywhere at this point? Not to mention, is a higher priced meal with a limited set menu how we really want to spend our money for one of our precious nights out? Oh and it falls on a Sunday this year. Is homework going to be done by the time we are ready to go out? What activities do the kids have the next day that I need to prepare for? We better not stay out too late, I don’t want to be tired the next day since I have a presentation to give at work in the morning and an event at my son’s Tae Kwon Do school later in the evening.
The more I think about it, celebrating Valentine’s Day with “just” a card and candy sounds “just” right.