Late Night Happy Hour: The New Moms Night Out

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mom night outAnyone else feel like making plans with your mom friends is more difficult than scheduling a summit of world leaders? Bless the Facebook poll feature and the doodle scheduling app, but once you finally get a date on the calendar, something always comes up – croup, an extra soccer practice, one of those ‘other duties as assigned’ at work.

The other day, my phone started buzzing with alerts from my messenger app. One of the moms in our babysitting co-op had sent off what I’ll call a “bat signal” message to the rest of the women in the group. She wanted to get out of the house for the night. Was anybody up to meet for drinks at, say, 9 p.m.?

Typically when we plan a mom’s night out, it can take a few weeks of back and forth, but somehow, almost all of us responded within the hour: HECK YES!

I rolled in sweaty and still in workout gear after our DMMB session at Pure Barre Ankeny. Another friend joined up later after she’d tagged out with her husband. But at 9 p.m. that night, a group of us were sitting on the rooftop of a Beaverdale bar, sipping Moscow mules and swapping stories of our challenges and joys.

The impromptu gathering felt special and it felt oddly effortless, compared to our typical scheduling issues.

A few women joked that we hadn’t been to a party that started at 9 p.m. since college.

But maybe late night is the new happy hour for moms?

After all of the books have been read, teeth have been brushed, softies found, and little ones snuggled in, you sneak out and you meet up. On a weeknight, even. It doesn’t have to be drinks, either. A few girlfriends in the neighborhood and I go for walks after 8:30 once a week when the weather is nice.

In our super scheduled lives, sometimes it’s hard to remember that you can still send that random 2 p.m. “What are you doing tonight?” message and pull something together on the fly. A catch-up stroll around Gray’s Lake, or an invitation to come over for a super simple whatever’s-in-the-fridge dinner with the kids, or a late night ladies’ night. And, if all else fails, there’s always Marco Polo!

When was your last moms night out? 

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Brianne
Brianne Sanchez is a writer and community engagement professional who calls herself an “Iowan by Choice.” A transplant from Chicagoland, she moved to Des Moines in 2007 and acquired a house, husband, dog, son Emmett (June 2013) and Eileen (October 2015), which means she now has deep roots in this place. Brianne blogs at bsinthemidwest.com and is a frequent contributor at DSM Magazine. When she finds free time, she spends it crafting, reading, hiking, biking and volunteering, but never cleaning.

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