Continued...
-Dating with Children: Since I don't have any children, I skimmed this section. It seems very useful, though. There are programs and services available for parents that I had no clue about! Some department stores offer a few hour "kid-watching" so you can shop in peace for a small fee or free of charge! Other tips include planning ahead to create time to go out with each other by enrolling your kids in camp or youth volunteering services to free up some alone time. A really cute part of this chapter is the [ bold|
"Family Dates" part. This chapter also has a dilemma section. A common dilemma is not having a sitter. The book offers many tips to finding one.
-Stay at Home Lovers: Are you more of a stay at home couple? No problem! This section goes over various fun things to do together like making a mix tape, cooking, or making your living room into a resort. Okay, yea, this section is a little lame. How much fun can you have at home? My partner and I love to stay in when we don't have anything to do, but our fun isn't forced - that's why it's fun. I didn't take much from this section.
-Quickie Dates: Are you guys a busy couple? This chapter offers quick things you can do together, like choosing a show to watch weekly that has a scheduled time so you always know when it is and schedule around it, give each other early morning massages, or go for late night walks. This section also didn't wow me. It does, however, go into sexual ideas at home too.
-Dating Off the Beaten Path: This chapter explores the fact that when you are first dating, most everything you do is exciting because it is all new and uncharted territory. The author gives a list of date ideas that will help bring back the spark factor and hopefully increase your sex life too! One aspect of an exciting date that will bring you back together and create butterflies is the element of fear. Go to something that will be thrilling! Examples are bungee jumping, Fright Nights, or Trapeze classes. I get the idea that the author is going for, but the examples are lacking. I think better examples would be to do something you are not an expert at like horseback riding, going to a line dancing saloon, dirt car racing, or an auction. The author even suggest a strip club at one point, which I thought was bold for Redbook. Included I this chapter are ideas for getting your man excited for romance, dilemmas, and more quick date ideas.
-Outdoor Dates: We love the outdoors, so this section was a good read. Some the ideas are really cute, like making brown bag lunches on a breezy day to go kite flying. This is the one we did first. We bought five-dollar kites so we didn't care what happened to them and it ended up being a lot of fun. We laughed at each other as our kites nearly collided many times. Another idea was to go on a bird feeding expedition. We did this at a local lake and we ended up attracting more squirrels than birds, but it was a good time. It's the simple stuff! This section includes a lot of cheap dates and dilemmas of course.
-Illuminating Dates: These dates are all about learning and doing together. An example is going to an art exhibition or seminar and then attempting to recreate your favorite piece. Take fencing or rock climbing lessons, check out a special museum exhibit, or take a workshop or class together.
-Mini Getaways: This section talks about going on bigger dates. Examples include going to your home town and visiting your favorite places, going to an all new town, go to a country where you don't know the native language, visit a nudist camp. Most of the chapters include a
"Spice it Up" option. I especially liked the ideas for these, well most of them. Spice it up by renting a sexy car for the day, taking on different personas for fun, rent a limo, and wearing sexy clothing underneath your regular attire. The author provides fun links like www.milehighclub.com/flights which unfortunately doesn't work! So this book is outdated a bit. It still made me curious enough to do a google search. I found this site instead:
Mile High Flights.
-Double Dates: Of course it is nice to have complete alone time, but there are a lot of fun dates your can do with another couple or when the usual gang is around. organize a tasting night. There are probably plenty in your town or you can create your own by having everyone bring their favorite foreign beer, cheese, wine, pastry, whatever. You can host a theme dinner. These are a favorite of mine. I love to have Murder Mystery Parties. It's fun and cheap. You can buy a new box with most everything you need for around $30. I usually find mine at resale stores for much less. You dress up, get some beer or wine, grub, and have a great time! You don't even have to host one. It's more expensive but mansions and estates often have them around Halloween or even year round.
-The Big Dates: This section discusses the yearly dates like anniversaries, birthdays, holidays etc. How do you make them more exciting, or even what to do if he forgets!
-Keep the Date: This is simply the author's short conclusion.
-Index
So there you have it! This book is really long, too long in my opinion. It has a lot of idea's but a lot could be cut out to make this a faster read. I like the layout, but because it is so long, it makes it difficult to find something quickly. I'd say about half of the book is useful for us and the other is laughable. This book is written for the female audience, but doesn't have to be read by only women. Since it is so cheap, it is still an excellent buy, even if you only get 10 ideas out of it...
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wow imagine a person with lots of relationship/sex related books and if t hey actually apply what they learn most of the time to keep the spark alive...I think that would be one relationship to envy.