Maintaining a good balance between your marriage and parenting can be a real challenge. Giving too much attention to one over the other can cause problems in both areas. To keep your relationships with both your children and your spouse strong, you’ll need to carefully manage your time and work to meet everyone’s needs, including your own.

Method 1: Spending Time with Your Spouse

Make time for date nights. One of the most important things LatterDatingSaints that married couples can do to help keep their marriage strong is to schedule date nights. Date nights will allow you both to spend time together focus on one another and keep your romantic connection alive. Make sure you plan and keep a date night to help maintain your marriage and keep it strong.

• Take your spouse out on a date that you know they will love.
• Make sure you won’t feel rushed on your night out.
• Keep the focus on each other. Avoid talking too much about stressful subjects.
• Make sure you regularly go on dates. Exactly how often you go on a date will be up to both of you, but you should both feel that you’re going out frequently enough.
• If going out on a date is too costly, try enjoying a nice evening in after you’ve put the kids to bed.

Find something that you both love. Beyond date night, finding an activity that both you and your spouse love can help keep your relationship strong. Talk with your spouse to discover an activity that you would both like to do regularly. Finding something that you both love to do can help you enjoy each other’s company and give you a break from your kids.

• For example, you might both go bowling together on Friday nights.
• You and your spouse might want to join a club or spend time together with friends.
• It can be fun to try something new together. You both might try learning how to paint or sculpt.

Focus on each other at the end of the day. After you’ve put your children to bed, you can try spending some quality time together with your spouse. Evenings can be a great time to reconnect and enjoy one another’s company. Put away any distractions and focus on your spouse to help keep your bond strong.

• Put away your cellphones or other distractions and spend time together.
• Spend time snuggling, relaxing and connecting at the end of the day to keep your relationship healthy.

Pay attention to the little things. While you are caring for your children, it can be easy to lose focus on your spouse. It can also be tough to make time for big romantic gestures: To help keep your marriage strong, try giving your spouse little romantic gestures throughout the day.

 

• Give plenty of compliments throughout the day.
• Take care of small things for your spouse. For example, handling some of their usual daily responsibilities can be a nice gesture.
• Try leaving your spouse little love notes.

Make chores a shared activity. Although doing daily chores isn’t exactly fun, they can be a great way to spend some time together with your spouse. Doing chores together will also help you both feel like you are contributing, preventing any arguments about who does more chores. Try doing household chores together to help get things done and bring you both closer.

About author: Writing by day and reading by night, Kenneth is an avid freelance writer who regularly covers topics like love, dating, marriage, relationships and self-improvement. His hobbies do not normally stretch beyond learning a new language or watching a certain documentary.

 

• You could try playing some of your favorite music and cleaning a room together.
• Try to work on the same chore at the same time. For example, both of you could pack your children’s lunches together.

Don’t feel guilty about making time for you and your spouse. It’s natural for parents to feel dedicated and devoted to their children, giving them their full attention and time. However, it’s important that you take the occasional time out to recharge and reconnect. You’ll be able to meet the demands of being a parent much better if you are rested and your relationship to your spouse is kept strong.

Method 2:  Working with Your Children

Send your kids to bed early. It can be tough to find enough time during the day to spend together with your spouse. To help create some alone time, try setting an early bed time for your children. By sending your kids to bed earlier than you were, you and your spouse will both be able to enjoy some quiet time together.

 

• Your children don’t have to be sleeping. However, they should at least be in their rooms during bedtime.
• Work with your kids and your spouse to determine a fair bed time.

Have your kids help out. As your children grow a bit older, they will be able to help out around the house. Asking your child to help with daily chores can be a great way to buy you some extra time with your spouse and can allow your child to feel more independent. Whenever possible, try having your children help with tasks they are capable of to win you and your spouse some free time.

• For example, if you have an older child, they could get breakfast ready for their siblings in the morning.
• You might ask your child to start picking up after themselves, saving you a few minutes of time in the evenings.

Try to set realistic schedules for your kids. Although you want to give your kids the best, signing them up for too many activities can be a drain on you and your kids. You and your spouse may find that you are spending an unrealistic amount of time on your children’s activities. Take a look at how much time per week your children’s activities are taking up and decide if you want to cut back.

• For example, your children might have baseball, basketball and karate class. But maybe your children might not like or love all of them equally. You might talk with your children to learn which activity could be cut.

Teach your children about manners. If you find that your children often interrupt you and/or your spouse when you are talking, then you might want to teach or reinforce some of their conversational manners. Letting them know when it is polite to talk will help them develop good conversational skills and can give you and your spouse some un-interpreted time to chat.

• Keep in mind that teaching manners to a teenager will be different from teaching manners to a toddler.
• Younger children will be more likely to interrupt conversations.

Avoid feeling that childhood will last forever. Although watching your child grow into an adult can be a wonderful time in life, it can also be incredibly challenging. For this reason, it’s a good idea to keep in mind that your child will grow up one day and you’ll have plenty of free time to spend together with your spouse when they do. Focusing on the fact that childhood is only temporary can be a big help when going through a difficult time as parents.

Writing by day and reading by night, Kenneth is an avid freelance writer who regularly covers topics like love, dating, marriage, relationships and self-improvement. His hobbies do not normally stretch beyond learning a new language or watching a certain documentary.