It’s easy to become complacent in a long-term relationship. If you need a little help keeping the romance alive, follow this rule to keep regular dates.
Picture: Glenn Loos-Austin
For lots of people, the best way to keep a relationship thriving is “never stop dating”. Redditor ckernan2 came up with a great rule to keep him in check:
On our wedding night, I told my wife that we now had a 2/2/2 rule. It goes like this:
- Every 2 weeks, we go out for the evening.
- Every 2 months, we go out for the weekend.
- Every 2 years, we go out for a week.
We’ve stuck to it, and it really has made things awesome. We got married in August and people still ask how long our honeymoon phase will last. I think it will last as long as we stick to our 2’s.
Of course you don’t have to be militant about it, but it’s a good guideline to keep in the back of your mind. If it’s been a month since you two had a proper date (and you both enjoy going out), it might be time to play catch-up.
Check out the link below for the full thread over at Reddit — it has quite a few relationship tips that will keep you both happy.
What’s the Best Relationship Advice You Have Ever Heard? [Reddit]
Comments
11 responses to “Never Stop Dating Your Significant Other With The 2-2-2 Rule”
I wish I could afford to go away for the weekend once every two months!
Going away for the weekend does not have to be expensive. We would go camping or stay at a cabin at a caravan park, typical weekends are quite cheap to book. Most places have communal BBQ’s etc.
Just hang out with her somewhere like park or just hang out on a beach. Affording something is about budgeting, saving and knowing your priorities
Exactly. I wonder if they have kids? Probably not. 🙂 We are lucky if we get to go out on our anniversary.
Same… Im finally taking my wife away for a weekend after 13 years….. had to scrounge for that.
Do they have kids?
a night out every 2 weeks with kids in the picture. yeah right! In fact just going out with 1 kid (6mths old) seems like pure bliss these days.
Yeah love to be able to do this. But having two kids in a City where we have no family means asking friends to babysit or take our kids overnight or for the evening. That will get tired REAL fast. Best we can do is a family date during the day (weekends) or feed the kids early get them to bed and we have an adult dinner (usually takeaway Chinese or similar) and snuggle with a movie or binge TV show (thank you Netflix Aust).
Not that I am complaining… we love our kids and moved here for a reason (work, opportunities and lifestyle) it’s just unrealistic in our current financial situation to do anything remotely like the 2 2 2… unless you shift it all have an evening out every 2 months, a weekend every 2 years and a week away every 2 decades! We might get close to doing that.
I can see a time coming when I will have more leave that I can use as we simply can’t afford to go anywhere so why waste it…
I have kids, but my wife and I swap with other couples. Not as nasty as it sounds, by that I mean we take turns looking after friends kids for a night so they can go out and then they return the favour. It means everyone gets a regular break.
That’s a great idea.
Let me know how the 2-2-2 rule works once you factor in kids. Or is there a now 4-4-4 rule for 1 kid, an 8-8-8 rule for 2 kids, and a 12-12-12 rule for 3+ kids?