When was the last time you had a date night? If you can’t remember, the chances are it’s high time you had one.

On average I’d say we get a night out on our own a handful of times a year. We haven’t used a ‘proper’ babysitter yet – and by that I mean we’ve never paid anyone to look after BB and Little B – and they’ve only ever been cared for by family members.

If you don’t get out much either there’s no reason to forego a date night – just have a stay-at-home one when they’ve gone to bed instead. Of course that’s easier said than done, but with a little planning you can actually have a lot of fun instead of slumping on the sofa in front of your separate screens every night.

We definitely need to make more time for each other and remember we’re a husband and wife as well as a mummy and a daddy, so I’ve been having a think and have come up with some stay-at-home date night ideas:

1. Movie date night. Ok, I know this is an obvious one but it’s also a goodie. We never get the chance to go to the cinema these days and there are so many films we’ve missed out on the list is endless. Plan what film to watch, put the pizza in the oven and settle down on the sofa with a big bowl of popcorn. Perfect!

2. Cocktail date night. I don’t know about you, but I love a good cocktail. Misery Guts is a bit of a connoisseur (he rolls the rim of glasses in sugar and salt and everything) and while it is rather easy to get plastered, it’s also jolly good fun. Get a cocktail recipe book and all the bits and bobs in advance and you’ll be giggling before you know it.

3. Plan a holiday date night. Instead of trying to research locations and browse hotels if you have a spare five minutes while trying to do 10 other things, make a night of it instead. Sit down together and peruse the places you’d like to go – you’ll be surprised how fun it is. And if you already know the area you’d like to go plan a meal and drinks to match the place – sangria and tapas for Spain, or a cup of tea and fish and chips for Bognor.

4. Off-grid date night. The total opposite of the plan a holiday date night, switch all computers, phones and electrical items off and rely on fire and candlelight instead. If you have an open fire, light it, or if you have a garden wrap up warm, light the barbecue or chiminea and sit round it. If (like us) you don’t have any of those, use candles instead. And then just talk.

5. Deliveroo date night. I thought those Deliveroo scooters you see around town were couriers delivering paperwork to offices. It turns out they’re far more exciting than that. In fact, Deliveroo is a premium food delivery service that brings local restaurant food to your door.

So basically you don’t have to cook. Mumsnet asked us to review Deliveroo here in Brighton and Hove and needless to say I didn’t need asking twice! You simply go to the Deliveroo website, either on your computer or via their app, tap in your postcode and the restaurants that can deliver that evening pop up.

We chose a local Indian restaurant (you can’t beat an Indian) and after choosing your dishes you can make any special requests (we asked them not to ring the doorbell but to call when they arrived so as not to wake Little B).

The order goes straight through to the restaurant and after it’s accepted Deliveroo keeps you updated on the status of the order and even tells you when it’s en route. All of this only took a matter of minutes and I found the site really easy to navigate – far easier than Just Eat which we’ve used up until now. What could possibly go wrong?

The delivery driver rang the bl**dy doorbell.

Luckily it didn’t wake Little B, but if it had I’d have been mightily unimpressed. That kind of thing drives me mad – what’s the point of having a ‘delivery instructions’ box if no-one’s going to read it?

Anyway (*breathe and count to 10*) the food came beautifully wrapped and presented (quite unlike our usual takeaway) and it really was good.

The pilau rice was peppered with fresh pomegranate (sounds weird but was delicious) and we didn’t wake up with the bilious feeling you sometimes get the morning after a takeaway (please tell me I’m not the only one).

So all in all I can highly recommend a Deliveroo date night: it’s simple to order and you get food you didn’t have to cook that’s better than you could have cooked anyway. Which has got to be a win win, apart from the doorbell thing (we got the selfie stick out to prove what a good night we had!)

Unfortunately it was back down to earth with a bump at the end of the date night, because we’d forgotten to piece back together the Mountain Buggy tyre that got a puncture and it was still sat on the kitchen worktop with a peg over the puncture repair patch I’d glued on earlier, and we needed it first thing in the morning. Who said romance is dead?

Do you have stay-at-home date nights? What would you recommend?

I was asked to review Deliveroo’s home delivery service free of charge for the purpose of review by Mumsnet. I was given a voucher in return for my time, and as always all opinions are my own and based on my own honest experience.

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