National Mom's Night Out

In case you were searching for an excuse to take a break - Bahama Breeze restaurants have declared March 22nd as a National Mom's Night Out:

This first-of-its-kind event encourages moms to take a well deserved night off from the family and experience the feeling of a Caribbean escape at Bahama Breeze with other moms and friends (if you don’t have a Bahama Breeze in your city, we encourage you to still take the night off and go to your favorite local restaurant).

Bahama Breeze will donate 100% of the profits in each restaurant on March 22 to Boys & Girls Clubs of America.

In my short momhood career, I've honestly only gotten to enjoy one Mom's Night Out where it was just me & the girls out for dinner and drinks. OK, it was just dinner and a virgin margarita as I was already expecting Tex. And, it was just fabulous fun! Do it ladies - and do it often!!

Peanut's papa & I get to go out about twice a month thanks to a great babysitting arrangement we have with two other toddler families. We rotate houses every other Friday and pile the Toddler Trio onto our own version of the Super Nanny who keeps them happy and busy for five hours. The hosting house provides dinner and snacks. Sharing the costs, we each only pay $20 a night - you can hardly do better without family around!

There's also the option of setting up a more/less formal babysitting co-op where moms agree to take turns watching each other's little ones. Everyone does a little extra work and everyone gets time off in return. Depending on who and how many people you involve, it can be as easy as agreeing to swap Fridays with a friend or detailed as an organized co-op.
Smart Mom's Co-op Handbook
Starting a Babysitting Co-op