About Date Night YYC

Welcome to Date Night YYC!  This is a blog dedicated to couples looking to connect with each other, beyond “Dinner and a Movie.” Here, you will find date night (and day) ideas that are unique, fun, low-cost if possible, and facilitate connection between partners.  They will work for couples who are just getting to know each other, and couples like us, who are in long term relationships.

This blog is the culmination of 23 years of marriage and five children belonging to Peter and Judy Arnall. We met while volunteering as crisis line phone listeners at the Calgary Distress Centre in the late eighties and through raising five children and working, we continued to volunteer for 13 more years. We knew first hand that communication, listening and relationship building needs time and a place to grow. We first began date night on Tuesdays when we had three children under the age of 4 and felt we were just getting by in the day to day survival of house, kids, jobs and laundry.  We discovered that for some people, attending church weekly is a renewing, connecting and fun way to stay close to their faith and we decided that our relationship needed the same ritual opportunity on a weekly basis.  We tried monthly, but it was too far apart and too hard to plan for.  Thus, we hired a babysitter to come every Tuesday evening at 7 p.m. whether we were excited about going out or not.  For ten years, she came, and although we paid enough money to fund her college education, we figure it was still cheaper than divorce.  Some nights, she came, and we just grabbed pillows and headed to the car to nap.  Other nights, we did educational challenges like Toastmasters, and other nights, we just walked to the local pub to have a beer and blissful uninterrupted conversation.  Over the years, we had friends join us on Tuesday nights often enough, that we moved date night to Saturday when we didn’t need sitters anymore and could plan for the premium night of the week.  The past year, we came up with a new formula – each partner takes a turn as a host one week and does the planning, paying and feed the kids.  The other partner is the guest.  The next week, we switch, so that no one partner feels that this is their job.  Each partner takes responsibility for a week. Please visit the other page for “The Rules” so that date night can be enjoyable and guilt free.  The following pages are ideas of where to go and what to do.  I hope you enjoy the ideas and implement them into your partnership as much as you are able.  Enjoy each other, enjoy Calgary, and enjoy yourself!  Your relationship deserves it.