Fun doesn’t require perfection. Fun requires participation. For Nancie and me, once all our kids were in school, Friday mornings became the best time for us to have a date. We love Friday mornings. We typically take a couple of hours to work out together or grab lunch or go to a movie or to a museum or stay home—which is my personal favorite. No kids banging on the door is amazing! In fact, we don’t even have to shut the door. Friday mornings are probably out of the question for most couples, but whenever you can have fun together, you should.
That’s how you end up with a fun life, a life filled with a let’s-not-take-ourselves-so-seriously tone. We need to be intentionally fun when we’re together at home, when we text or call each other, or wherever we may be. It’s important to make what you are already doing fun. Here are 9 doable ideas to make your marriage more fun.
- Make dinner more fun by turning off the TV and cooking together.
- Turn on music you used to listen to when you were dating, and make out in front of the kids until one (or all) of them screams, “That’s disgusting!” Then kiss for 30 more seconds.
- String Christmas lights up in your bedroom . . . in July.
- Watch some goofy YouTube videos.
- Leave funny and sexy Post-It notes for each other.
- Send some silly or sexy texts in the middle of the day.
- Leverage sarcasm if you and your spouse are both into it. One of my close friends says that in his marriage, snarkiness is their love language.
- Make an awkward family reunion fun by choosing a word you have to interject five times into conversations with relatives. I personally love the word whippersnapper, but feel free to choose your own.
- Make reconnecting at the end of the day fun by meeting at the door and making out, dancing, etc.
Choose to be fun. Then, to make sure it happens consistently, schedule fun. Yes, you read that right. You need to schedule fun. We have to make time for fun, just like we make time for other things, even the things we don’t want to do, like going to the doctor or soccer practice four nights a week. We have to make time to have fun as a couple.
Sound off: What ideas do you have for how to have more fun in marriage?
Huddle up with your kids and ask, “How can you tell that two people love each other?”