Childcare

Date night (or whatever you call it in your house) helps keep couples happy, and reminds kids that mommy and daddy really do have lives of their own. Unfortunately, it's a pretty pricey proposition once you tally up drinks, dinner, an activity and, of course, the sitter—who sometimes costs more than the meal!

Sure, every once in a while you can swap kid-watching duties with another mom, and as children get older, there are sleepovers and sleepaway camp. But in the meantime, the cost of a night out scares many couples into settling for the couch, Netflix and a bottle of Chardonnay.

But date night doesn't have to be that way. Several play spots in the city offer safe, supervised drop-off nighttime care for kids for less than your average sitter. Better still: Not only do you get some adult time, your kids get to enjoy a night out with their peers, too.

Finding good babysitters for an evening date night can be hard, but there's one solution that's a total no-brainer. Kids for a Cause hosts monthly date night drop-off evening childcare events run by NYU and Columbia University students to raise money for Baby's First Home, a charity that helps provide shelter for NYC homeless teen mothers. And they are Pay-What-you-Wish.

Talk about Win-Win! You get inexpensive, fun babysitting by great college sitters and get to help young mothers and their baby's at the same time.