Great advise given to me before we had kids, spend money on babysitting for a weekly date to prevent spending money on marriage therapy.

Married man with 5 kids (just had my fourth son 2 weeks ago). Before I got married, a met a man with 6 kids and a strong marriage and I asked him for advice for staring our future family. He said, "If you are going to have children, you have two choice. *You can either spend $100.00 a week by getting a babysitter and going on a date, or you can spend $100.00 in marriage therapy (aka couples counseling). *" He said this with a very serious look on his face.My wife and I discussed this and 12 years ago (at the start of our marriage) we chose the date option. Although it doesn't cost us $100.00 a week (we can't afford that), we love this time away together (we go out 2-3 times a month).We also make sure it is super fun for our kiddos. For instance, when the babysitter comes (order a pizza, rent a movie, extra video-game time etc.). Believe it or not, after 12 years of this, our kids sometimes approach us and say "Mom and Dad, don't you need to go on another date soon? As a side note, we also do a family fun night every week (protected time) that our kids love as well.TL/DR: Go on dates, it is worth it, and if you start when your kids are young they may even look forward to it. via /r/Parenting http://ift.tt/2dGKIQE