Valentine's Day for Parents

For Valentine's Day last year, I had a nice dinner at Buca in Los Angeles. The lighting was low, couples were everywhere and romance was in the air.

The food was great and so was the company. My husband, however, was 2,000 miles away watching our boys. It's the first Valentine's Day we've spent apart since we've been married.

When I flew back home the next day, one of the first things I told my husband was that he was a cheap date. Of course, he laughed knowing he got out of an overpriced dinner because I had spent the previous week on the opposite coast.

This year, we're celebrating Valentine's Day with our boys. Once they're asleep, we'll be having our own Valentine's date night.

It doesn't take much to have a special date night without having reconfigure your family budget. Some of the best dates have come from these cheap date ideas. Numbers one, three, four, nine, ten and twelve on the list have given me some of my favorite date night memories with my husband.

Of course, you don't have to wait around for Valentine's Day to do something special for each other. My husband gets a kick out of the notes I slip into his lunch and I love it when he surprises me with flowers, an unplanned weekend getaway or an afternoon where he takes our kids out of the house and encourages me to just do ... nothing.

Even if you don't go anywhere for Valentine's Day or don't buy into the commercialization of the holiday, it's still important to balance your children and married life. There's nothing quite like recharging your mom meter with some one-on-one time with your spouse. And we could all use a recharged mom meter when dealing with diapers, tantrums and sibling spats all year long, right?

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