Date Night Ideas (Apart or IRL)
One form of play for me is in crafting cutesy dates. Your dates don’t have to be "mushy" but breaking out of your norm allows for you to change your patterned behavior and connect to your partner in new ways.
Get out of the house for a change of environment when you can. Try not to talk about logistics or kids to make it quality bonding time. Boost any date night with some general thoughtful questions or relationship specific questions. These are date ideas for a romantic partner or for a friend! I’d recommend picking a reasonable recurring date time and really honoring sticking to it (ex. a weekly date night). We use this list when we have a free night and need to turn to some inspiration.
Get out of the house for a change of environment when you can. Try not to talk about logistics or kids to make it quality bonding time. Boost any date night with some general thoughtful questions or relationship specific questions. These are date ideas for a romantic partner or for a friend! I’d recommend picking a reasonable recurring date time and really honoring sticking to it (ex. a weekly date night). We use this list when we have a free night and need to turn to some inspiration.
IRL Date Ideas
- 20 Minute Genie - Each person gets a turn (40 mins total) in having a desired fulfilled. Maybe you want your partner to give you a massage or play your annoying-but-favorite game - then you return their favor and make their wish come true. For 20 minutes, you are their servant.
- Newlywed Game - Yes, it’s just like that old tv show. Come up with your own questions like “What is the first thing your partner would buy if they won the lottery” or “If your mother-in-law were an animal, what animal would she be?” Then have your partner and you answer the questions and see if your answers match.
- Power Outage Date - Stay home, put on the candles and no electronic technology!
- $10 Date - what can you do with only $10?
- Themed Date Night - Pick a theme (like Italian) that will inspire whatever you do. For example you could make pasta while listening to Italian music and then watch a mob movie.
- Build a Fort - Build a fort and hang out in it all night. Or put up your camping tent. Or lay out a picnic blanket. Try to shake up your normal environment!
- Something New - What is something neither one of you has been before? Try taking a salsa class perhaps or performing at an open mic. Get out of your comfort zone!
- Fancy Feels - Dress up fancy and eat at a fast food place. Bring headphones and have a romantic slow dance in a busy public area.
- Iron Chef - Have a cooking competition at home. With one "mystery" ingredient, you both have it prepare a dish in an hour. They you both get to be the judges!
- Make Bad Art - Get out the paint brushes, clay, guitar - whatever you have that inspires creativity. Make a piece of art together, or make your own individual pieces within a theme.
- Time Capsule - Make a time capsule for you both to open in 5/10/15+ years. Write letters to one another and find objects that represent important moments or values to you.
- 2-Minute Dates - Do you feel like you have no time? You always have at least two minutes to be present with one another. It could be as simple as making out to a nostalgic song or slow dancing in your living room. What are quick ways you can connect?
- 5 Senses Date - How can you consciously use all five senses? Whisper what you love about them in their ear or play a sentimental song, blindfold them and let them guess what you are feeding them, give a massage, make eye contact for two minutes, etc.
Long Distance Date Ideas
- Cooking - I once surprised my partner by having a grocery delivery service bring him all the ingredients needed to make a Mexican stuffed squash. We made the recipe and ate it together, positioning the phone like the other was sitting across the table.
- Choreography - Get out of your comfort zone and try to learn some dance moves. Find a music video you love and try to copy it or put on YouTube dance class. It’s fun to have your partner work on moves with you, and then you can bust out the dance when you are back together to surprise friends.
- Show and Tell - Do you have that one YouTube video you think everyone should see or a parody website you think is hilarious? This is a chance to share articles, art, videos, brands, etc that mean a lot to you. It doesn't just have to be physical things - you could share stories, perform, and more.
- Truth or Dare - self explanatory ;)
- Project - Can you work on planning an upcoming trip together? What is a project you could work on together that its main purpose is fun and bonding? When you are back in the same place, could you host a party together? For example one Halloween, we decided to create our own Murder Mystery story - and then threw a party to bring the characters and plot to life.
- Book Club - Pick a book that would lend itself to questions to better get to know each other. That doesn’t necessarily mean a self-help book, but a book that brings up interesting topics. Set an amount to read and how often you will meet to discuss.
- Day in The Life - Through the Marco Polo app (which I dearly love and highly recommend) you can easily leave video messages for one another. Take a day to walk in the other person’s shoes through the moments of their day/routine you may otherwise miss. First talk about what is their normal routine/approach to a day and let them share it in little video moments to you. Later on, reverse it where you spent a day in their style/routine and visa versa. For example, I had to wake up early and go read a book in the park to start my day when I was living like my partner for a day. He had to get out of bed and dance to a song to start his day like me.