From School Bus Sweethearts to Raising Three Kids: Why We Still Make Time for Date Night
You probably don’t know this about us, but Larissa and I started dating when we were 15.
We went to the same high school, although I was in the year above her.
When her group of friends started hanging out with my group of friends, we…
didn’t really talk much. 🤣
You see, I was shy.
Larissa wasn’t. 😏
The bus-shirt incident
I distinctly remember our first proper conversation after she sat next to me on the bus home.
I ironed my school uniform every day, but that particular morning I had not bothered trying to iron the sleeves without creases.
It’s the fiddliest bit, right?
I remember thinking:
“No one will even notice.”
I was wrong. 🤣
“Do you iron your own shirts for school?” Larissa asked cheerfully.
“I bet you do, because mums always iron the sleeves without creases.”
I was equal parts mortified and in love. 😍
From two kids in love to raising three of our own
Fast-forward sixteen years, and we had gone from two teenagers on the school bus to parents of three awesome kids.
There had been beautiful seasons.
There had also been genuinely hard ones.
New babies.
Exhaustion.
Business pressure.
House moves.
Days where we felt more like a logistics team than a couple.
We didn’t make it through those seasons because romance flowed effortlessly.
We made it through by continuing to choose the relationship—even when the way we did that had to change.
Date night after kids looks different
Before children, a date might have been spontaneous.
After children, spontaneity often requires three calendars, a babysitter and military-grade preparation. 🤪
That doesn’t mean date night is no longer possible.
It means we need to make it easier.
Sometimes our date is out of the house.
Sometimes it is takeaway and a conversation on the couch after the kids are asleep.
Sometimes it is simply putting our phones away and giving each other the best hour we can manage.
We are not perfectly consistent.
But whenever we make the time, we feel the difference.
Why we created the Date Night Diary
After our first two children arrived only a year apart, we felt what happened when our relationship slid to the bottom of the list.
Understandably—we were caring for the most precious and demanding little people our hands had ever held.
But we missed us.
That experience became the reason we created the Date Night Diary.
It was made for parents like us:
- too tired to think of an idea;
- not always able to organise a babysitter;
- wanting better conversations than “What time is swimming tomorrow?”; and
- still very much in love, but needing help creating space to feel it.
First make it easy—then make it happen
If you haven’t had a date in a while, don’t begin by planning the perfect one.
Choose the easiest version:
- pick a night;
- choose one simple activity;
- put the phones away; and
- ask each other one question you haven’t asked lately.
You do not have to recreate life before children.
You’re building something new together now.
But every so often, it is lovely to remember why you chose each other in the first place.
Cheering you on!
Jeremy Jones
Dad Certified
Adapted from an update originally shared with Dad Certified subscribers on 8 February 2026.