I come from a big family and still have fond memories of 'special time' with mum or dad. It probably only happened once or twice a year, but the kid would get to decide what they wanted to do and whether it was mum or dad who went with them. I used to go out for a hot chocolate and cake with mum, and i have still have a couple of books that have written in the front of them "love from mum on our special night out", one is dated 1984 so i was 5 or 6 years old.

My hubby's family did a similar thing but they had special night in. they always lived in the country, so not so many things to do close by but on their special night the other kids went to bed, and the kid whose night it was got to stay up late and watch a video or play games or cook bikkies or whatever it was they chose for their activity.

We are definately going to do this for our kids.