You’ve planned your night out down to the last detail. You’re ready to go when the babysitter arrives, but wait — you have kids. That means even the best-laid plans can go horribly wrong.
Take heart. You’re not the only couple whose date night has fallen flat. These eight funny date night fails will remind you that parents can plan for the best, but should be prepared for the worst:
1) Puke, Puke and More Puke
When Anna’s second child was 10 months old, she and her husband, John, from Phoenix planned a romantic dinner at a restaurant that required reservations in advance. As Anna picked up her son to say goodbye, he projectile vomited all over her chest. John quickly swooped in to grab the baby and ended up getting puked on, too. In the next five minutes, the baby also barfed all over his older sister’s head, the dog and the babysitter. Needless to say, the dinner was off, and Anna and John spent their “romantic” evening cleaning up baby barf.
2) Perfect Picnic?
Susan and Elliot of Denver planned a romantic picnic in the park, just the two of them. Before they even unpacked the picnic basket, a muddy, wet dog ran right across their blanket — breaking the bottle of wine, overturning the basket and shaking “gallons of water all over us,” Susan remembers. “We ended up going home, letting the sitter go home and taking turns showering mud and the smell of wet dog away.”
3) Fire!
Elizabeth and Ryan, a couple from Little Rock, Arkansas, had just been served the first course of their anniversary dinner when the fire alarm in the restaurant went off. “It was not a false alarm,” the couple says. It turned out the kitchen was actually on fire! They had to evacuate, leaving their expensive meal behind. “We ended up eating tacos at a fast food place,” Elizabeth laughs.
4) Car Trouble
As they were heading to the movie theater, Mandy and Bryce’s car suddenly died. As they pulled over to the side of the road, Bryce ran over something, and one of the back tires exploded with a giant pop. As if that wasn’t bad enough, when Bryce opened the hood, smoke started pouring out. “That date was over,” the Seattle couple says. Instead of seeing a movie, the couple spent the evening waiting for a tow truck.
5) Good, Clean Fun
The afternoon before their big date, the pipe in Jake and Isabelle’s upstairs bathroom burst, sending a gush of water through the floor and into the downstairs area. The Portland, Oregon, couple kept the babysitter, but instead of enjoying dinner and a movie, they spent their date shopping for a carpet cleaner, and then sucking water out of the carpet while a plumber fixed the problem.
6) Too Late
Jill from Oklahoma City dropped the kids off at Grandma and Grandpa’s house for a sleepover and went back home to get ready for her big date. Her husband, Francis, was fast asleep. Since they had two hours before meeting friends, Jill snuggled up next to him and also fell asleep. “We slept for 13 hours,” Jill says.
7) Red Alert
When Chicago mom Lara’s cell phone rang while on a date with her husband, Joseph, she was tempted to ignore it. When she realized it was the babysitter, she picked up and learned that the burglar alarm was going off. The couple rushed home. The babysitter was hysterical and was hiding in the closet with the kids, thinking someone was breaking in. Lara and Joseph panicked and called 911. The date ended up being ruined over a low-battery warning coming from a carbon-monoxide detector, not a burglar.
8) Lost and Found
Tyler and Tara from Pittsburgh were spending a romantic weekend at a spa when Tara realized her wedding ring wasn’t on her finger. The rest of the weekend was spent frantically searching for the ring. “We even went through trash cans,” Tara recalls. They eventually found it on the ring finger of her right hand. “I felt like a fool, and our weekend was ruined,” Tara says.
Sara Ipatenco is a former stay-at-home mom, who is now a freelance writer and first-grade teacher. Ipatenco holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree, both in elementary education. Ipatenco has been published in “Teaching Tolerance” and “Family Fun” magazines.
Do you have a funny date night story? Share your pain in the comments! And if you couldn’t even bear to laugh at these, take a look at Revitalize Date Night.
