The No-Kid Zone
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[3 Comments]
Couple together time had become family together time.
My husband, Lonny, and I were busy. Our Suburban yo-yoed in and out of the driveway as directed by the loaded calendar on the kitchen wall. We shuttled our five sons through five weekdays and didn't pause for breath on the weekends. Piano lessons. Middle school track. Bible league. Pee Wee baseball.
We bolted from activity to activity and stopped only to swap car keys or boys. Sometimes we ran together. Sometimes we employed the "divide and conquer." But at least we found joy in knowing that the evenings were time together. Sort of.
No matter how we plunged through the pile-up of after-school commitments, evening meant one thing: time in front of the TV in a rendezvous with Mike and Carol Brady and the everlasting Brady brood.
We couldn't settle in for the night without "Marcia, Marcia, Marcia" or "pork chops and applesauce." Every evening looked the same.
"Are you ready?" Lonny asked as he pulled the DVD from its jacket.
He and I sat in the center of the brown leather couch. Gabriel and Samuel flanked us. Isaiah was on my lap. Logan and Grant were sprawled on the floor. We'd assumed our Brady Positions.
It was together time. Just Lonny and me. Plus Mike and Carol. With our five kids and their six.
"Bring it on," I said. And we were lost in the story of the lovely lady and man named Brady.
One evening, to our chagrin, Lonny and I watched in horror as the happily married Mike and Carol made a major blunder. It was serious.
Mike Brady acquired tickets for a concert that Carol longed to see. Carol grinned at Mike with moon-pie eyes. They got sitters and gussied up in their mod-sixties eveningwear. As they were leaving, they discovered that their youngest daughter, Cindy, had come down with a threatening medical condition: the sniffles.
Mike and Carol left for their date, but they were unable to pull their minds from their ailing pig-tailed daughter. They fled the pre-concert meal at a swanky restaurant and hustled back home.
Cindy's sniffles trumped their marriage.
"Uh-oh. Big mistake. Kids rule," said Lonny between fistfuls of popcorn.
"No kidding," I said.
"She had the sniffles, for crying out loud," Lonny said.
"Yeah," I agreed.
But my heart was troubled as we hunkered down for the remainder of the episode. At least Mike and Carol were trying to spend time together. Lonny and I sat at home each night, with the kids, and watched them try.
I shared my concern with Lonny as we snuggled into bed that night. "It's been a long time since we've been out. Or spent time together—alone. I think we need to start dating again."
"I agree completely. I miss you. Let's schedule a date. Right now." Lonny sprang from bed and padded into the kitchen. I heard him pull the calendar from its nail on the wall.
Calendar in hand, Lonny slid back into bed. He and I stared at the full squares.
Related Topics:
Dating, parenting, Partnership
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Average User Rating:
Rebecca
This is such a great reminder. Something so many marriages need. Putting your marriage ahead of your children is one of the steps to continuing to grow a healthy marriage. Once the kids grow up and leave the house, it is just us and our husbands again, we need to keep the fire kindled!! thanks for you article
Susan M
Phew! Very sobering when you find that you are in exactly the same position. Thank you very much. It'll begin from somewhere.
Fruitfulvine2
This is such a needed thing. My hubby and I sat down and decided to spend every other Monday night together as a couple. It happened twice and then stuff came up over the past couple of weeks. I think upon reading this we need to reclaim our Monday nights. Thanks for this article.
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