Dating Habits of Parents of Young Children: Infrequent, Cheap, and Bring Your Own Bags

There are lots of things I miss about Manitoba, but one of the ones I feel most often is the lack of quality (and often free!) childcare. With two sets of grandparents nearby, it was rare that we couldn't find someone crrrrrazy enough eager to mind our children for anywhere from two hours to two weeks. When we moved to Winnipeg, we were fortunate enough to add to that roster two fantastic teens from church who were much-beloved by our children (and even more beloved by us as they brought crafts!).

So one of the biggest shocks in terms of lifestyle change after we moved was the inability to make plans that didn't involve our children. It's a shame, really - Minneapolis is chock-full of the arts and great restaurants abound, but our experience of them has tended towards the Children's Museum/Noodles and Company end of the spectrum.

But we do have one wonderful babysitter whom the kids adore - the neighbour girl to my coworker who suggested her last year as a last-minute pinch-hitter for my work Christmas party.

We've asked her to babysit a number of times since then, but tonight was the first night we didn't have an actual event we need to attend. It was, in fact...A Date.

Yup, a real, honest-to-goodness date. A young cousin of mine once characterized an official date as having two equally important components: "going out to eat, and stuff."

So we did - we went out to eat to a new find - a nearby "French" cafe and bakery. It was awesome - the quiche was creamy, the salad dressing was homemade, and the pistachio creme brulee was all pistachio-ey. And they serve French beer - Kronenberg is great stuff. Kids eat free on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so chances are we'll be back.

Then we capped the evening off with our stuff: grocery shopping. Sigh. You know you're no longer young and cool when the highlight of your evening is ooo-ing and ah-ing over the ethnic food aisle, and the height of emotional intimacy in the evening comes via a passionate mutual outcry against Chicken in a Biskit. (Have you ever heard of this assault on common decency?! It's a cracker that contains actual chicken. Only in America.) Although we did find for-real Coke in a glass bottle from South America made with cane sugar, so it was very much worth the trip.

The clock struck 9:00, and we whisked our pumpkin home, The Husband to put away the groceries and me to drive the babysitter home. And now it's almost 10:00, which means it's past my bedtime.

Young and cool, indeed. But definitely worth it. We'll have to plan another such outing. May 2010 looks like it might work....