- Oh Wyatt's cranky.
(crying)
You're not hungry?
Okay (laughs) you don't have to eat.
(upbeat music)
^Hi I'm Hannah and I'm the world's okay-est mom.
Now ever since I had my second kid,
I feel like date nights have totally gone out the window
but at this point he's three years old
so I've no excuse,
it's time to bring them back.
But I get that guilt of a working parent
where I'm gone five days a week
and leaving my kids for longer than I already do
just makes me feel super guilty.
And plus if I had to plan a date night
I wouldn't even know where to start.
So I want to try something
that I think will be fun for the whole family.
I'm gonna let my kids plan my date night
start to finish.
It could be four hours of just straight playing Legos
or it could actually be something really fun.
As long as it's not watching Caillou, I'm cool with it,
so let's see what they say.
I don't think my kids quite know what a date actually is.
^I think Jackson's idea of a date
^comes from Disney movies
and in those,
the date consists of the woman
dressing up in a ball gown
and there's magic and sparkles
and some fairy godmother blesses her with a wand
to make everything come to life.
It's very over the top.
^Wyatt's idea of a date is probably like a sword fight
^or something, he doesn't know anything (laughs)
^Have you guys given any thought to our date night?
- [Wyatt] No.
- What do you think?
- First you go to Chuck E. Cheese
^- Chuck E. Cheese.
^- Then you go to the park,
^then you get ice cream,
^then you watch Adventure Time.
^- All of that?
- [Wyatt] Yeah.
- Oh my gosh, what do I wear to something like this?
- [Wyatt] There's a lot of games.
- There are a lot of games to play, huh?
- There are a lot of toys.
- A lot of toys?
Is Chuck E. Cheese dinner?
- Ice cream is dinner.
- Ice cream is dinner too?
So Jackson made this little joke
about how we should have ice cream for dinner
on the date.
And Wyatt clearly was half listening the whole time
but then heard that little end bit
^and jumped in to remind us all
^- [Wyatt] Ice cream is dessert.
- No ice cream is dinner!
^- [Wyatt] No it's not!
- Definitely not pleased with that idea
^and it was not going to happen.
^- It's not dinner.
- You're right.
You guys, that's what you've decided?
That's what we're gonna do.
- But you need to dress up really fancy
fancy because it's a fancy date.
- [Hannah] If you had a girlfriend
would you take her to Chuck E. Cheese?
- Uh yeah.
- Yeah? (laughs)
^I have my collagen eye pads on right now
so you know I'm taking this very seriously.
Now when I went to get dressed for this date
I really had to reach back in the closet,
kind of like behind all my daily wear
to bring out something that's a little fancy,
up to Jackson's standards.
As a mother, I feel like I shop very practically.
Everything I buy is machine washable
because it's all gonna end up stained.
I don't own cocktail dresses
or night time outfits
because whenever I go to buy one
I have to remind myself
that I have no where to wear it.
But for this, we're going out,
got a nice dress and I put in some effort.
I got it together and got makeup on.
Ready to go.
^Matt looks very nice.
He's very excited. - [Matt] Excited.
- Not at all.
We realized that we kind of have to do things out of order
because if we go to Chuck E. Cheese and then the park
it's gonna be pitch black by the time we get to the park
and that means it's technically closed, I think,
they close at sun down.
So we're gonna go to the park first,
then Chuck E. Cheese, then ice cream,
and then we're gonna watch Adventure Time.
There's a free swing, but they're not next to each other.
This is so embarrassing,
this park is full of kids.
So our first stop was the park
which was the stop I was least excited for,
but we did it, we wanted to make good
on this date.
Matt and I went and we forced ourselves to play
on the play equipment.
(laughs) He's pushing me.
Oh my God, we are so weird.
He's pumping, he's into it. (laughs)
We made sure to go on each and every
piece of equipment
because I though that that constituted
a full park play experience.
(screams) Oh my God!
It never dawned on me until I actually went
and tried playing on this play equipment
that kids are a lot more dexterous than adults
and I felt most embarrassed about the fact
that I could barely get through the monkey bars.
I can't do that (laughs)
I can't do it, I'm weak.
It's hard, it's hard to do!
(playful music)
I'm a dinosaur.
One, two, three (yells and laughs)
Oh my God.
All aboard.
Matt's driving the train.
Okay, this is so awkward
and I honestly wouldn't be surprised
if a parent approached us
and asked us to leave.
We really stick out right now,
and also this park is so crowded.
- We're getting a lot of looks.
- We're getting a lot of weird looks,
so we're gonna go.
This was fun.
While at the park,
my first priority was just to not make eye contact
with anyone
or look at any child for too long.
We had a couple fun moments,
it was all around very awkward,
but it wasn't horrible.
So off to Chuck E. Cheese,
'cause that's not awkward either.
Hey, oh it's bright.
It's like early bird special dinner at Chuck E. Cheese.
I don't even remember what kind of food they serve there,
I think they have pizza,
salad
- [Matt] Boxed wine.
- Boxed wine. - [Matt] That's what I'm
excited about.
- That's for sure necessary.
I was so hurt and disappointed to find
that they eliminated the box wine on tap.
The last time I went to Chuck E. Cheese
they had boxed wine on tap,
that was actually my first legal drink,
was boxed wine on tap at Chuck E. Cheese.
When did that happen?
I didn't see a press release.
- [Matt] Ah, it ripped.
- Mine too, cheers.
Cheers guys!
So I was a little salty about it when I first
tried the wine.
Devastating.
Okay so we got wings,
endless salad bar, two glasses of wine,
a play pass, it was like 50 bucks, not bad.
Such a mad house here
that literally nobody is noticing
that we don't have any kids
because it's full of parents sitting at the tables
by themselves while their kids play.
So I'm kind of breathing a sigh of relief right now.
I almost finished my wine already.
23 tickets for taking a survey.
We're gonna play this Batman whack a mole.
I need a beer, okay.
It didn't quite dawn on me
until we got there
how much Chuck E. Cheese is without kids.
Usually when we go with the kids
they're playing all the games
and I'm just kind of there supervising,
eating some pizza.
When we went without the kids,
we got to play everything.
And I was there holding a beer in one hand,
playing Batman whack a mole,
just living my best life at Chuck E. Cheese.
(yelping on game)
I am inherently competitive
and when it's me and Matt, I have to win.
And so the most frustrating part about being at
Chuck E. Cheese with him
is that he was way better at the games than I was.
Oh my gosh, you won 50 tickets
- [Matt] Yeah! - How did that happen?
I'm genuinely excited, look at that, balling.
That's it?
Look at him go.
It's Michael Jordan.
Because I was losing,
he was getting a multitude of tickets,
and I'd had a little wine.
I did a couple of things
that I'm not proud of.
- [Matt] Oh my God, are you stealing?
Are you taking that ticket?
So mean.
- Nobody even wanted it.
It was fair game, I'm sorry,
if you leave your tickets at the game,
that's just Chuck E. Cheese code of conduct
rule number six.
Thou hast left a ticket,
it shall be claimed by the nearest adult.
We've almost 200 tickets.
I feel like that's pretty good.
Matt and I got super excited at the end
when we were picking our prizes,
and you know we wanted to bring something back
for the kids.
We were excited about picking out
something really cool for them.
I'm gonna pass out right now.
Can we get two of those rockets?
- [Attendant] Two rockets.
- Thank you so much!
It was fun, and it probably was
partially due to the chardonnay,
but it was still fun.
(laughs) I didn't really think
I'd be so into this.
I'm so excited, we got a ball,
we're gonna give these to the kids,
we're not keeping them.
- They're gonna be so psyched.
- We got two rockets, Chuck E. Cheese rockets,
two balls and two spinning tops.
Oh my gosh the boys are gonna be so excited
because they weren't expecting this.
I had the best time ever.
Now after Chuck E. Cheese,
all that was left of the kid's date idea
was ice cream and Adventure Time, but
It's 6:30 p.m. (laughs) how you feeling?
- I'm feeling good.
- So we decided to go a little rogue
and incorporate a couple of grown up things.
Because I was dressed, I had makeup on,
we gotta do some more.
We were not driving at this point,
we left the car at the house
and we took a ride share to all of these stops.
We were not being irresponsible.
We're parents, come on.
Okay so we took a little detour.
When I've had a couple glasses of wine I like to shop.
What they don't know won't hurt them.
We're just expanding on our date.
So while we were at the vintage store,
I just got completely caught up in this night for us
and we're out,
and oh my gosh I'm gonna do this forever,
we're gonna do this every weekend.
So I ended up leaving with this fake fur leopard coat
(laughs)
I'm so excited, this is what I got.
Yeah, for future dates (laughs)
Okay so we're walking down the street,
this guy comes up to us and is like,
do you wanna go to a speak easy?
And he's in front of this dark door,
and we say, well Matt says no,
and I say maybe.
- I didn't say no, I just kept walking.
- You just kept walking (Matt laughs)
and I was down for it. - [Matt] He was kind of creepy
- I'm in this fur coat, so we ended up
getting into this speak easy.
It's really cute.
We got some mint juleps.
- Cheers.
- I mean date night has gone off the rails.
At the speak easy we were able to just sit
in a quiet corner and people watch.
I think it's a lot more of our vibe as adult parents,
we're not super I want to jump up and down for two hours.
You just kind of want to sit and relax.
Have a little cocktail.
Last stop of an epic night, it's ice cream time.
I'm a little over dressed.
- Cheers. - Cheers.
And finally at the end of the night,
we got home, put on Adventure Time,
and within 30 seconds Matt was passed out completely.
That is a skill that I swear you get
when you're a parent.
You can just fall asleep anywhere in 30 seconds.
I mean I've seen Matt just fall asleep
with a coffee cup in his hand
because he needs to.
Too much partying. (laughs)
I'm not mad at him, I'm right there with him.
I was like, I'm gonna film this
^and then pass right out myself.
^I had a lot of fun on our date.
- You like it?
- Yes, thank you for planning it.
- You're welcome.
- It was really fun.
I wanna go back to Chuck E. Cheese more,
does that sound good?
- Yeah!
- In the end, after this date,
I'm really grateful that I gave my kids the opportunity
to do this.
I had a blast
and it just opened my mind
to a whole new perspective of what date night could be.
Now what did I learn?
I learned a few things.
I learned first that Matt and I
^can afford to go out a little bit more often.
I feel like as parents,
the focus is so much on the kids all the time
that you lose that connection to each other sometimes
and you forget to take time for your partner.
So having the date night out of the house
and just doing something that was for us
really reminded me that I need to do more of it.
^The second thing I learned was
^I have a lot more energy than I thought I did.
I think being a homebody,
it's the effort of motivating myself to go do something
that's most of the work,
and then once I'm out,
I'm there and I'm having fun
and I have energy.
We just ended up going all night, and it was awesome.
And then third, I'm not even ashamed to say
^that since that date,
^we've gone back to Chuck E. Cheese
^at least three times.
This is going to be a regular thing
for us and the kids.
It is so much fun
and I really think that at the end of the day
this date plan was Jackson's long con
to get to go to Chuck E. Cheese more.
And it worked.
So that's all I got for today.
I'm Hannah, and if you have any date ideas,
^leave them in the comments
^or you can text me, this is a real number,
^I don't always respond 'cause I get a lot of messages,
^but I do read them all.
If you'll please excuse us,
we're off to an epic date night
at Jackson's elementary school
at family dance night.
Can you tell me any date ideas?
Please help us.
Til next time.
(upbeat music)
Are you ready to rage?
(laughs)
^(upbeat music)