The long nights in! What do you do?

[ShePersisted]

With the cost of getting a sitter being so high and without any relatives who can mind the kids, what do parents do with themselves during the long winter evenings in??

Our kids go to bed at 7pm as they're still quite little (2 and 4) and whereas pre-kids our weekend nights would be spent out on the town, now we're stuck at home most nights. We either watch a movie, do our own thing (read or catch up on work), or -when I can convince DH - play a board Game. TBH, we're going stir crazy! Are we missing a trick?

Thanks!

You could try setting up a reciprocal babysitting circle if you have friends or neighbours with kids.
Have sex?
Go for a run?
Invite friends round?
Batch cook?
Listen to podcasts?
Play music together?
Craft together?

Sounds about right to me! Our 1 year old still wakes most nights so we’re way too knackered to do anything much in the evening...
However, every now and then (not often enough) I try to have an evening out with a girlfriend while DP stays home and he sometimes goes for drinks after work, that sort of thing. But date nights are hard when you have no babysitter.

We used to play rummikub some nights but that’s ages ago... the telly it is now, usually.

Midweek we take in turns to go out (swimming / running), at the weekend one of us will be out with friends and the on the night we’re both in we’ll cook or get a takeaway and watch a box set or film.

We hardly ever go out together anymore but will get a babysitter once the youngest is a bit more reliable at staying asleep.

Sounds more exciting than our evenings op

Are you young ShePersisted? I have a 2 and 4 year old and I'm exhausted. I usually just want to go to sleep or watch a episode or two of a boxset. I wish I had your energy. I'm 40 so not terribly old!

Not much younger - just gone 35 - but we're lucky that our girls are super reliable sleepers, so not as knackered as others might be.

I am in a babysitting circle with some neighbours/friends. Free childcare, we just make sure we take it in turns. Works well

We both have jobs where we need to work in the evenings so quite a lot of time is spent on that.
Otherwise, watch tv, have sex, go for a run, go out separately with friends.