This weekend is going to be a big one in our family - we’re going on dates.

Yup, that’s plural, you read it right! For the first time ever, we’re doing one-on-one dates with our kiddos. This time, Dad’s taking Maggie to the Sesame Street Live show and I’m taking Jake to either the park or the Children’s Museum. This is something that we decided we really need to do as our kids get older - we realized that neither of us has had any one-on-one time with either of the kids since Jake was an infant. He’s 18 months old now, so it’s about time to start carving out some precious time to just soak up each kid’s individuality.

I was shocked when I thought about the fact that although Maggie and I were home alone together for 15 months, I’ve never known Jake in that way. Our alone time is usually measured in minutes and I honestly don’t know *how* to play with just him! It’s always a group playtime and his dynamics with his sister factor heavily into how we all interact. We get a lot more alone time with Maggie right now as she goes to bed a bit later - poor Jake gets none of that time!

I’m really excited about this weekend and our parent-kiddo dates and also look forward to the next round when it’s time for a Mommy-Maggie outing!

I’d love to hear ideas of what other parents have done to make sure that they get one-on-one time with each of their children………

Kate Olson is a mother of 2 toddlers and lives in rural Wisconsin. She balances motherhood & working from home in a semi-functional fashion - you can read more about Kate on our contributors page. She blogs about education and lots of business/tech stuff at Kate Says . Want more? Read all of Kate’s posts!