Triangle Mom2Mom (www.trianglemom2mom.com) offers blogs and other articles of interest to mothers and would-be mothers. Here, Gigi Harrell writes about parents keeping date nights.

Next week, Scott and I will celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary. ... If you ask either of us what is the most important thing we have done as a couple, we would answer without hesitation. Having Sarah and Jaley is by far the most important thing we have ever done.

Ironically, while having kids is the most treasured thing we have done as a couple, raising them sometimes leaves us forgetting that we are a couple. Parenting is hard work. Being mommy and daddy is a full-time job. If we aren't careful, we spend all of our time together playing our roles as parents and no time playing our roles as a couple.

We try to schedule date nights. But have you checked out the cost of baby sitters these days. They cost a fortune. ... The kids in our neighborhood are charging close to $10/hour. ... I had a college degree before I made as much per hour as I am paying the 14-year-old down the street to watch my kids.

Although I may gripe about the price of baby sitters, I do accept it as the current state of the world. Just as we don't drive as much when gas costs $4 a gallon, we don't go out as much when baby sitters charge $10 an hour. We save them for special occasions and those times when we have just had enough (you know the ones).

That brings me back to playing our roles as a couple. At the beginning of the summer, Scott and I found ourselves spending too little time as a party of two. It was then that we officially established the minidate. Once a week (or so), we have a 20- to 30-minute date. I drop the girls at day care just a few minutes early, then we meet at a nearby coffee shop. We talk more in those few minutes over a cup of coffee than we do all week. We enjoy just a few minutes together. We chat about all the important and not so important things. We catch up on the gossip and each other.

Our mini dates may not be quite as exciting as the real deal - dressed up on a Saturday night. It is just what we need to remember that being great parents doesn't mean we can't be a great couple too. Bring on the coffee; it's 30 minutes just for us.

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