Dating with Kids (including teens) in Tow

What do you do when you both have teens and younger children as well when you want to date? You find activities that satisfy everyone. One of the safest and surest bets for everyone being happy was at my parents home. We could hang out and watch movies on their big tv, play air hockey and ping pong, play games on my Wii system, and play more games on my two computers. It was comfortable in the basement of my parents home where I lived, and the kids liked playing down there as well.

On one of the first family group dates we did together, David and I had been upstairs where it was quieter. Pretty soon we wondered why it was so quite downstairs, so we went down and found all five kids watching Davey's itouch. It was a memorable moment!

Another time, Tyler and Davey were playing X-box in David's basement together.

One of our group dates was to the Black Island Pumpkin Farm and Corn Maze. The kids had a great time here, and I'm sure it will be a family tradition to go there. The picture above is of Hunter and Dallin.

One of the slides at the corn maze.

The kids playing tic-tac-toe at David's parent's house.

Davey, Tyler and Sydney using one of my computers in my parent's basement.

David playing against Dallin

Hunter cuddling up for a movie during a late night at my parent's house.

This picture is of one of the first times I met and played with David AND his boys. It was a Sunday and I had gone to church with them. My kids were with their dad that weekend. David always has his boys back by Sunday morning to take them to church with him. My kids go to church with their dad when they are with him.

 Sydney, Tyler and Davey heading out to tackle the corn maze together.

Celebrating Tyler's fourteenth birthday with David and Davey.

Hope you enjoyed a glimpse into what it was like dating with kids in tow! We have other pictures somewhere of when we went to the hot springs, and another time we took the kids to the local aquatic center. We had a great time together and for the most part everyone got along- miraculously!

Meeting His Parents for the First Time

After our first official date, I believe that next day I met David's parents at their house. Little did I know that in a few months, it would be "our" house.... Davids parent's are the type that when I first met them, I felt like I knew them forever. His dad is Scottish with all of the features that come from that blood line such as fair skin and freckles, and his mother is Spanish (Spain) and Navajo Indian with a small stature and dark features. At our first dinner together, I was told that I was the first woman that David had actually brought home to meet them since his divorce. I was flattered and grateful at the same time.

They had felt the same way about how fast our relationship was developing and attributed it to their praying hard for David to find someone special. They had desires to serve a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints but found it hard to leave David and his two sons. He had been living in the basement of their home while he earned his Master's Degree and had just graduated in January. Since then he was only able to find two part-time jobs, and one of those was coming to an end because of limited government funding. They didn't want to leave their son and grandsons in a position to not afford housing. When David brought me home, they saw me as possibly being able to help support and sustain David and the boys. This was an answer to their prayers, and they let me know this! I didn't feel pressured- I was seeing my own miracles happening by being with David, and their revelation to me only furthered my interest in him.

Our First Date

Being single with children and trying to date, presents some interesting obstacles- especially if you are living with your parents. David and I were both in this situation because we were both so lucky to have family to let us live with them and help take care of our kids while we were in school. Who knows how many hours of babysitting our parents racked up so that our over-all earning potential could increase. David had lived with his parents for 2+ years while he finished his Masters in Library Science. He had lived as a single parent for two years prior to that. I had lived with my parents ever since I had left my previous husband. I didn't fight for the house I previously shared with my ex because I knew I would stay in school and didn't need the responsibility of a house on top of all the other things I would have to take care of- including myself. Healing for myself and my children would take up any other free time- until I met David.

David and I decided from the beginning that our children didn't need to be brought into meeting people that we dated until we were farther into a relationship. This helps them not feel jerked around and fall in love with another adult only to have that relationship taken away if things don't work out. As a result, David and I dated for about a month before our kids met us.

After our first "meeting" at the pool, reality set in that both of us had our kids everyday and every other weekend since he had full custody, and I had two of mine living with me. They still needed us, so we decided to not go out together unless we didn't have our kids, or our parents could watch them.  Soooo, to make a long story short, we didn't get an official "date" until three weeks after we met. We still tried to go swimming at the water areobics class during the week while the kids were at school, but we were surrounded by people. I had classes to go to, and he worked two part-time jobs at the time. He worked at the Bountiful Public Library, and at a part-time government records position. He had graduated in January of 2010 with his Masters, but good positions in the library system are hard to come by- unless someone dies, or moves (which doesn't happen for librarians often).

This photo was taken on our first official date- while waiting for the dance to begin.

For our first real date, David picked me up at my parents house and we headed south to Salt Lake City. He knew of a cute authentic mexican resterant to take me to. The food was delicious, and the atmosphere was like stepping into a South American movie. He had served his two-year church mission in Puerto Rico, and loved the food. This was similar to the type of food he ate there. Afterwards we decided to head to the movie "Prince of Persia", which was playing at the time. It was a really good movie and had quite the european flair to it. Even though this was our first real date, we had already spent so much time talking, texting, and being at the pool together that we had moved beyond friendship quickly, and it felt so right!! So, on our first date, I enjoyed snuggling with my "boyfriend" and having conversations with him! After the movie, it was still quite early in the afternoon, so we walked around and visited a Barnes and Noble bookstore to browse. 

When evening came upon us, we headed down to South Jordan to Dance the night away at a local LDS mid-singles dance that happen's regularly. It's called Dee's Dance at the Noah's building in South Jordan. It was an okay dance place with a few interesting people, but the best part was being with David and getting to know him and his likes better. I found out that he could dance, and that he could sing- which he did quite often just for me. We had a ton of fun, and he dropped me off at my house, exhausted non-the-less.