How often do you go out if you have kids / don't have kids?

[hopeishere]

DH and I are 40s with two kids ages 10+. We go out prob two or three times a month together for dinner / cinema / theatre or with friends. We also go out alone to see friends as well. DH thinks we hardly go out though!!

Friends same age, no kids go out once a month together and that's it. The don't do any other activity together.

Date night every two or three months, night out with friends maybe once a month....

We do manage to have a weekend away or two by our self once a year.

We go out for dinner, lunch that kind of thing often but take our little girl with us. She is four.

We both love the gym so that takes up a lot of time in the evenings. We rotate, he goes straight from work, I then will go once he is finished. Prefer this time on my own than to going out really..

We’re very lucky in that we have two sets of hands on grandparents and a lovely babysitter (my friend’s daughter) who will babysit for us. We rarely go out the two of us though due to DH’s job and my sideline job/hobby where I am out a fair number of evenings so we use most of our babysitting for that. It varies how often we see our friends independently-I’ve worked out in January I’ve got 3 evenings out with friends but some months more, some less. I’m very lucky to have the support that we do.

2DC under 10 - go out in the evening together, maybe once a year. My mom does look after the kids during the day so we can go out to the shops or a walk though maybe twice a month. During termtime we have one day a week where we spend time just the two of us. DH goes out once a week, I work away at least one night a week where I’m pretty free to do what I like in the evenings (apart from drink).

At least twice a month using paid babysitters. All my children are fine with whoever comes to babysit.

A couple of times a month with own friends, once or twice every couple of months with partner and most weekends with children. Not every outing is with alcohol.

3 young DC, 6, 4 and 1. We go out once a month together (my mum babysits). DH works in London 2 days a week and stays overnight so tends to go out with his friends on those evenings (friends mainly London based, unlike us). I go out with my friends every couple of months. Would be more if my baby slept through the night and I wasn’t so bloody exhausted all the time.
Pre children we went out maybe 2-3 nights a week. Once the baby sleeps better it will hopefully go up again!

My DP goes out 4-5 times a week. That's because I'm at home with DD. I go out every couple of months with friends and rarely wipe DP.

Lone parent here (widowed). Go out about once a week, because otherwise I'd be starting at the walls! Have done since DD2 was able to take expressed milk (DH died when I was pregnant). I was absolutely determined to have a social life for sanity.

Very worried by the post by DDIJ - are you ok?

Baffled by posters who don't go out and have partners to babysit. Cultivating friendships is vital, you never know when you might need them. Also separate interests are healthy!! DH and I used to have a night out a week each once DD1 was more or less sleeping ok.

Protect and cultivate friendships-marriages only have a 50 percent success rate.

If mil is the country then we go out on our own maybe once or twice a month but will go out on our own too. If mil is away ( she visits family abroad for months at a time) then we can go for months without a night out without DS. However, when she is at home she's great and we get weekends away.

It sounds like you get more than most OP!

We're lucky though....we live in a very sociable village so it's easy to pop to the pub for a few hours with or without DS.

Mid/late 30s, a 3.5 year old and nearly 2 year old.

Been together nearly 12 years and when we first got together used to go out all the time.. petered out as we got older but we still used to do a lot together, meals, cinema, gym, running, long hikes.

Since we've had DC, hardly do anything together Don't have reliable childcare - my mum has dementia and is in a care home, father is an alcoholic.. PIL will look after them if we ask about three months in advance but they have busy lives, including basically being third parents to their golden grandchildren. We should probably ask them more though.

We do occasionally both take the day off work when DC are at nursery and go out for lunch but that will sadly diminish as we will need to save holiday for school holidays as DC1 starts school this year.

So probably luckier than some in that we do have some options but I do miss the regular things we used to do together like going for runs and long walks etc.

I go out with friends once a week when dd is at her dads, and my friends and I have rotating dinner at each other’s houses once a week also, so I’ll take dd and she sleeps upstairs at theirs. We all live within a 2 minute walk so it’s lovely.

I’m an extremely social person and I’d go mad if I didn’t see my friends often!

Lone parent. No family nearby. I went out in 2015.
I used to use the Dc's nursery staff when they were little but those days are gone.

About once every 3 months- four kids aged 2, 3, 6 and 11.

megal have you really not gone out since 2015?

Lone parent, once a month when my cousin babysits for the night. She’s moving abroad in two weeks, so after that I have no idea how long it will be until I have child free time that isn’t during work hours.

Once every 2 months if we're lucky. We are managing to go out a bit more now DS isn't so little (19 months).

We’re late 40s with two, the youngest now 10. We go out 4 or 5 times a year together & childfree - usually with friends and very rarely just the two of us (that’s more like once a year!), once a month with friends individually but pretty much every week with us & kids (to friends houses or them to us) & over the summer/holidays a lot of group socialising in the evenings with tribes of children! I prefer a big group and a houseful to a candlelit dinner tbh though.

Pre-children it was out most nights and all weekend plus going to the gym most days, but finances and lack of childcare soon put a stop to that!

Other than one set of friends I can think of (who are wealthy & have a live in nanny so have the time, money and opportunity..) then I’d say you go out more than anyone else else I know who has children OP!

hope Not without the Dc's. We go out for food together and days out, I'm not a hermit. But I've not had an evening with adults without the Dc's under my feet since then.

We don't have children and are in our 60's. We go to the cinema most weeks. We have lunch out at least once a week (more if DH is not working all week). We usually have breakfast out once or twice a month.

We go to London about once a month and usually go to the theatre plus eat out.

Other than that we don't go out that much in the evenings. We don't often eat out as almost always disappointed in the food (we can both cook well) and the amount it costs.

We do go out during the day though. Again depends on DH's work. We go for walks, we go to visit National Trust and English Heritage places, go to gardens, museums, art galleries. We like to go for a drive and stop off in a village or town we haven't visited before and explore it

Mid 30s, no kids, single. Very rarely but that's down to my personality and preferences, I've never been a big "going out" person and actually living alone means I'm not very happy coming home late on my own (long-ish walk from public transport connections, dark streets/having to walk across a park). Most of my friends are childless too and so busy with work and volunteer work that we prefer staying home and talking to each other online/on the phone instead other friends live too far to be able to see them very often.

Maybe on average once every two months I meet friends for a meal and a few drinks or similar.

@Silversun83 I know it’s not quite the same but do you take the kids on long walks? We are really lucky as we live in a beautiful part of the country but our dc can comfortably do four to six miles with a picnic lunch.

lynsey you sound like us!

Almost never without dc - maybe 1-2 times a year. Dc have been going to their dads eow for the last 10 months so I do have the opportunity but I don't really have the money or the inclination.

With Dc we probably go out 2-3 times a month as they love to eat out, go to cinema/ theatre etc. I'd feel bad going without them with funds being limited

Hi we go out at least once or twice a month, we have four between ages of 13-18 and if we didn’t get time to ourselves we would crack up. My partner keeps me sane and at the age the kids are they suck the life out of us at times. It’s also easier now they are older, I leave the older ones at home but my 13 year old tends to be at my sisters or at a friends house. Never feel guilty about going out, time for yourself to re- charge batteries is crucial. Happy parents = happy kids