Real Life Marriage: Weekend Warrior Dating

My husband and I mostly dated on the weekends. We both had crazy busy jobs, and the only time we could reliably carve out was Friday/Saturday, so that was the time we spent. When we decided we wanted to get married, I looked forward to sharing a home and hopefully, more life together with him. Little did I know how God would use our dating style to prepare us for our next season.

Shortly after we got married, we decided for my husband to go back to school. He expressed interest. I supported him, and away we went! Then the hours got long and arduous. (He also worked part-time.) I also worked long hours, so we saw each other briefly in the morning, and briefly at night. Weekends were our only periods of quality time. 

We let weekends go for a while. Then, during COVID, I decided to prioritize date night, even if only at home. It helped, some. We had to actually focus on each other, and that was good.

Now, we are in yet another intense season as my husband has stepped up his work while finishing up his classes. While I am thankful that we do share a home together, and thus a little more time together than when we were dating, we are still weekend warriors. We text when we can during our work days, and we chat a little in the evenings. Other than that, weekends are our time, and we have learned to protect them as such. If we go out with individual friends, we try to do that apart from weekend time. If we have guests, we try to make them couple or family guests. We endeavor to be intentional.

I try to plan a date activity every weekend. It sometimes is not much, but it is something. Gary Thomas (2023) talked about using 100% of what is left in a summer podcast. That is what we are doing with our weekend warrior dating. Would we like to spend more time together during the week? Yes, but it is not our reality, so we do the best with what we had.

Our dating experience was good (or at least I think so). Our marriage is a blessing, too. Our time together might not look like what we expected, but we are together, and that is what we value.

Reference.

Smalley, G., Smalley, E., & Fuller, J. (Hosts). (2023, June 8). Giving 100% of what you have left. [Audio podcast episode]. In Focus on the Family marriage podcast. Focus on the Family. https://podcasts.focusonthefamily.com/show/focus-on-marriage-podcast/giving-100-of-what-you-have-left/