Do you ever feel like you don’t have enough quality time with your children as a busy parent? This is a problem that many parents relate to in this busy world we live in. Starting a monthly family date night tradition can help you to connect with each other.
According to Beverly Anderson, Executive Director for Ebenezer Child Care Centers, “The whole family can benefit from family date nights, and they can be super easy and inexpensive.”
“The Greater Milwaukee area has many events and destinations where families can spend some quality time together for very little or no cost.”
Here are some fun seasonal ideas to get you started in planning your special family date nights:
Winter
- Go sledding, ice skating or build a snowman then enjoy some hot chocolate afterward
- Enjoy a winter hike, cross country skiing or snowshoeing in the woods
- Explore an outdoors store (like Cabela’s)
- Visit the Milwaukee County Domes
- Bake cookies and give them to your neighbors
- Build an indoor fort with sheets and blankets
- Work on a jigsaw puzzle
Spring
- Go to a garden center and buy materials to plant a vegetable garden together
- Paint kindness rocks and hide them around town
- Explore the county parks
- Create a city scavenger hunt
- Fly a kite
- head to Boerner Botanical Gardens to see the flowers
- Attend a baseball game
Summer
- Go out for ice cream
- Visit the Milwaukee County Zoo
- Have a picnic in the park
- Visit a beach
- Go kayaking or canoeing on nearby river
- Try backyard camping and stargazing in your yard
- take a long bike ride
- Go fishing
- Visit a local pool
Fall
- Go browsing at a pet store
- Head to your favorite pumpkin farm, apple orchard or sunflower field
- Go mini golfing
- Create and bury a family time capsule
- Create a family art piece
- Perform random acts of kindness in your community
Any Time of the Year
- Scrapbook together and talk about your family’s favorite memories
- Buy a craft or LEGO kit and work on it together
- Head to the library and read the books you check out together
- Have a family movie night either in a theatre or at home
- Create a recipe together
- Visit your favorite museum together
- Go bowling
- Go out for dinner (take advantage of Kids-Eat-Free nights)
- Have a family spa day
- Visit an arcade
- Try a living room karaoke night
“This is just the start of many ideas that you and your children can plan together,” Anderson adds. “Date nights can be as simple as turning off the TV and playing a board game. Be creative and have fun. Don’t forget to check out your local community paper or website for additional ideas.”
“Remember, your child is looking to spend quality time with you, and it doesn’t matter how or where. Make 2024 a time you intentionally build in family date nights to ensure quality time is made for you and your children,” she says.
Ebenezer Child Care Centers is a not-for-profit, locally based agency committed to providing early childhood programs from the heart. The agency prides itself on being different from other child care providers in that it offers a home-like atmosphere; individualized, nurturing care; and a structured curriculum that is virtues-based for every child’s developmental stage.
Every Ebenezer Child Care Center focuses on all aspects of a child’s development: cognitive, physical, emotional, and social. In addition to providing quality care, the agency also offers free Parenting Talks and other educational programming all aimed at helping parents.
The agency has locations in Downtown Milwaukee, Oak Creek and West Allis/Wauwatosa. The agency’s main office is located at 1138 S. 108th Street, West Allis. For more information, please call 414-643-5070.
