Mother and Son One on One Dates
2013
Our one on one dates happened a few weeks ago – our fifth biannual one on one dates. These one on one dates are the heart beat of our family. They draw our hearts closer together, allow us to focus on one child for a dedicated amount of time, and allow us to encourage them and love them in the way they need love.
I have shared before the heart behind our one on one dates. They have become such an important part of our family – the most recent one on one dates were suppose to have occurred in November but due to unfortunate circumstances did not happen until early January. The boys asked several times a week about when we could have our one on one dates – they love the one on one time with their parents and we, as their parents, need that time to connect with them.
It is something that works well for our small family of four – Paul takes one boy and I take the other. 6 months later we do it again, switching boys. This time I had Judah. Our special mother and son date started with some serious planning. He wanted the whole date planned out – and he wanted a say in the planning – so we started our mother and son date by drawing out the activities we hoped to do. {The top picture is our date plan – we did most, but not all, of the planned activities!}
Our mother and son date was simple and focused on time together. We didn’t spend much {less than $20 for the entire day out} and it was loads of fun for both of us.
We picked up some pizza that he had earned through Book It, went driving in an empty parking lot {I remember my dad doing this with me when I was little and it’s a special memory I hope to pass on to my kids – every single one on one date with me has involved taking my date to an empty parking lot and letting them take control of the steering wheel – so many giggles and smiles!}
Our mother and son date also included a trip to the library where he got to pick out all the movies himself {rather than his brother having a say too!}, hot chocolate and conversations at the coffee shop, exploring a pet shop, a movie at the Dollar Theater, trying to find the best grilled cheese in the city {and then settling for Chick Fil A instead!}, snuggling in a bookstore with a stack of books, a playground stop, and making smoothies.
Busy, fun, love packed day celebrating the unique relationship between mother and son and drawing our hearts closer together.
4 comments
Trackback e pingback
No trackback or pingback available for this article
Love, love , love! We have our One on One Dates w/ Zane ever since you blog about this few years ago. Thanks for sharing because we do cherish it so much. We’ll be doing this until Zane says “no more” or gets married. LOL!
Haha! I hope our boys never say “no more” :-p
I love hearing about your one on one days. I do a one on one day with each of my kids every summer and the idea came from you a few years ago. It is always so much fun and reminds me of what different personalities they all have!
Last summer I took my six year old to a butterfly conservatory where we spent almost the whole day watching butterflies, learning about bugs and drawing in her sketch book. On the way home we did some geocaching. With my 4 year old son we visited a reprile rescue place to see some snakes and turtles and I took my 3 year old to a small zoo of rescued animals. All activities that cost very little but meant so much.
I stole an idea from Crayon Wishes and Popsicle Dreams and added a one on one half day this past winter to take each child to find a special tree ornament followed by hot chocolate.
The kids are already planning out what we are going to do this summer!
I love hearing about yours with your kids!!
And the ornament date is a really good idea too!