Why You Need A Girls Night Out…Seriously!

Let’s look back at the past month.  How many times have you closed your eyes and told yourself you needed some alone time, time with your friends or just a night out to have dinner without the kiddos?  I know I probably tell myself this at least once a month.  Mommy life can be nerve racking and rewarding all at once.  However, you cannot spend the entire 18 years of your child’s life inside the house – surrounded by toys, laundry, video games, sippy cups and refrigerator art.  YOU NEED A GIRLS NIGHT OUT!!!

I am very blessed to have a handful of really wonderful friends and fellow mommas who I can depend on and get together with.  We all have children that are about the same age so it’s easy to get together for play dates because we know the kids all get along well. But one day we all decided we were tired of trying to have adult time during the play dates.  That is when we decided to start doing mom’s night out.  We try doing them once a month and usually skip the big holiday months.

I remember the first couple mom’s nights we had.  They still make me laugh a little when I think about them. Since we all had “mom” cars, we could all fit in one vehicle.  It was quite a site seeing all these moms pile out of one vehicle.  Before it would get too far into the night we would line up and take pictures, for keepsakes, in case it was an utter disaster for our spouses at home.  When we drove out of the neighborhood we were already laughing like there was no tomorrow.  I think we were all laughing because we couldn’t finally believe we were having a real mom’s night out. On one particular night we went to have a light and simple dinner at Chipotle, then we headed to the movie theater to go see Tammy.  We got to the theater 40 minutes before the movie started. That never happens!  We then decided to go to the Wobbly Olive next door to grab a cocktail and kill some time.

Our waiter came to our table and took our drink order.  He asked what a bunch of moms were doing out together.  We told him it was our mom’s night out and he got a real kick out of that.  In those 40 minutes we laughed and laughed and laughed some more.  We laughed so hard someone complained to the manager.  The manager instructed our waiter to come tell us to bring it down a notch or we’d have to leave for disturbing others.  We laughed so hard when the waiter told us how he took care of the situation with his manager.  He told his manager, “It’s just a bunch of moms on a mom’s night out.  They don’t get out of the house much so I think they need this.”  How much more right could he have been?  Our laughs were all in good clean fun.

After those 40 minutes had passed, we were too good of a time to go sit down and be quiet in a movie.  We had all been telling stories and cracking jokes and we just found it so hard to be quiet.  We decided to move our laughter outside to a restaurant patio.  There we talked more, told more stories and created bonds with each other we will never forget.  We laughed a lot more there, too. Because of that night I was instantly closer to those four other moms.  We needed to laugh, we needed to talk and we needed each other to do that with.

This is why you need a mom’s night out.  You need to create those bonds with other moms.  You need to laugh like there is no tomorrow.  There is a reason they say laughter is the best medicine.  We are all going through this crazy military lifestyle together.  Momma, take just a few hours out of the 730 hours that are in one month and have a girls night out.  It doesn’t have to be anything crazy.  It can be as simple as going and getting coffee and ice cream. Just have fun and laugh!