Do you go out at night?

[allycat06]

DH and I didn't go out alone together until DS was 6 months old. We probably would have liked to go out a little sooner but he refused a bottle until then so we didn't really have a choice. You have to do what feels right for you. I never thought to go out alone until DS was about was 4.5 months, he was so tiny and reliant on me for food and comfort, it just didn't feel right. I know some of my friends thought I was being ridiculous but my closest ones were very supportive and always happy to work around me.

I found including DS in my social life helped to feel less cut off from the outside world. I'd go for walks and invite someone to come with me or have movie nights at my place, if someone had invited me over and I knew it was just going to be a quiet night in I'd take DS with me. If DH and I felt like eating out we just took DS with us, as long as he had some toys and a biccie he was happy as larry. He would lap up all the attention from the waitresses!

It's only now that DS is 10 months that we have started to get out a bit more. My folks and inlaws love looking after him (and he loves them) and quite frankly going out for dinner with DS is such a pain now because he's sooo active and gets annoyed being stuck in a high chair. It does feel good that I can go out now and not have to worry about DS (or whoever is looking after him). I recently went to the movies for the first time in about 12 months, just me and a girlfriend. It was fantastic!

I like to think of it as...I put the hard work in early and now I can reap the rewards as I have a very happy, chilled out little dude!

[Saffi]

I just couldn't imagine carting my poor darling the 40 min drive to his house, then not get home till well past his bedtime, what about his bath? where will he sleep there? (if he sleeps at all there) if we wake him to take him home, will he settle as normal into bed once we get home? will he get upset and cranky and tired at my dads?

Something that works for us when we have dinner at the ILs is we bathe the kids there, give them their bottles and generally they fall asleep in the car on the way home. An upside to this is that the MIL will generally bathe them and its something nice for her to do with them.

[AwesomeFoursome]

We go out at night with the kids. But we never leave them with anyone, one reason being we have no family close to us except for MIL but I would never ever leave my children with her.

[SammyRo]

You've got to do what's right for you, because at the end of the day, its you thats going to have to deal with your LO in the aftermath, however that goes. Having said that, esp. since your going to a house rather than a restaurant maybe give it a go - your LO might surprise you and settle really well, etc. But you've got to feel happy doing it.

We have always taken DD out, to restaurants, family for the evening, and hockey club functions (only the family friendly ones though, the days of drinking lots are long gone!) and as a result, she sleeps really well when we are out and will sleep in the pram if she needs to. The one thing we have changed now she is older and eating with us, is we go to dinner at 6.30pm if we're eating at a restaurant so she isn't too hungry and we're not there too late.

Whilst we have a routine at home of dinner, books, bath, milk and bed, when we're out, she will happily skip most of this and still settle well - it may be half hour to an hour later, but thats generally because she's happy being up that bit longer - as soon as she gets cranky, she's off to bed wherever we are.

[ElleJay]

We go out to poker (only once a week - sometimes twice a week), but DS comes with us and he's happy to sit in his pram and play with his toys and falls asleep, generally at 8pm and stays asleep usually until 2am (we get home at about 10:30pm each time we go out), wakes up for a feed and then goes back to sleep - though of course, he's teething atm so he's up at all kinds of hours