Do you ever get to go out without kids again?

One of the great challenges of parenting twins is that you never get out of the house without them. If this goes on too long, it directly impacts your sanity and happiness.

In fact, one parent of twins wrote and asked me, “Do you ever get to go out without kids again?”

When it comes time for a date or evening out, what do you do with the twins? Can you even leave the house?

The answer is yes. You can get a babysitter for your twins.

The underlying question becomes, “How long before you can go on your first date post twins’ arrival?”

The first thing you need to do is reconsider your definition of a date or getting out of the house.

With infant twins in the home, you have to start with low expectations for getting out of the house without them.

Start considering your get-out-of-the-house plan when you start to see a repeatable pattern with your twins sleeping. When you put them down at night, how long do they sleep?

Consider getting a babysitter that comes over once you’ve put the babies to sleep. You can then go out for an hour or two. Maybe grab a quick dinner and return home. If you are worried about the kids, don’t go too far and be sure your babysitter can reach you via your cell phone.

If you are lucky, your first date will have the babysitter watching over a quiet house with your twins sleeping the entire time.

As soon as my wife and I got a babysitter to watch our sleeping kids, we wondered why we hadn’t done it sooner.

As your twins start to sleep longer stretches of time, you can lengthen out your dates, go farther from home, or even do things that are hard to quickly return home from (like a concert or play).

Picture by Ryan