How To Save A Wife

I used to be a better wife before I was a mother. I would pride myself in taking care of Brian, silly things like making his lunch, folding his shirts, I even rubbed his feet while we lied on the couch at the end of the day. I loved doing it...needless to say taking care of Mary takes precedence and there are no arguments about that.

We got married on the first weekend in October, so we TRY to have a date night once a month on the first weekend of the month...We have been bad date-nighters the past few months. Finally this week, something triggered in me and I asked Brian out on a date for Saturday night. Mary slept over at my parents house and we had the whole night to ourselves.

Just getting in the car with Brian to go out, walking to the restaurant - I looked at him and I saw the man I fell in love with. And I remembered I'm not just a mother, I am a wife, a woman...I felt so good to be out with him then holding hands.

It's hard. It's hard to remember that we need to take care of our relationship when we have so many other arenas we are trying to take care of.

In my mommy group we called it the "Airline Rule" - When the oxygen masks fall from the ceiling, put on your mask first before assisting others. We have to take care of ourselves in order to be effective parents, and sometimes that means dropping the baby off at a sitter and going out for a night on our own.

So we went out, we are still looking for a good restaurant in Crystal Lake, and last night didn't prove successful. After horrible wine, food and service at one place, we found ourselves belly up to the bar at Buffalo Wild Wings (a chain sports bar) eating Nachos and watching the big screen TVs...and we had so much fun - just because we were together.

Husband and Wife