10 out-of-the-box Valentine's Day gift ideas for couples with young kids

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A massage machine that costs half the price of a single session at the spa and never gets tired hands is a thoughtful Valentine's Day gift.

• The way you celebrate Valentine's Day changes once your lives are dominated by young kids; so too, then, should the gifts partners give each other evolve.
• While romantic nights out, flowers, and wine might be lovely in theory, practical gifts that make day-to-day living more enjoyable are the best gifts for parents.
• Here are 10 Valentine's Day gift ideas that might not have come to mind at first but that will be appreciated long after those roses have wilted.

When we were dating, engaged, and married, my wife and I went out all the time. We saw movies, we went to restaurants and bars, we went to museums and the theater, we hiked, we saw friends, and so many other things. Now, with two young kids, we still go to museums, but they tend to be geared toward people 12 and under, and we still hike now and then, albeit now with a baby on my back and our range limited by the stamina of a preschooler.

As for dining out? That's usually more stress than it's worth. Bars and movies? Forget about it. So these days our date nights are mostly spent at home, playing a game or watching a movie. And I'm totally cool with it - it's exactly as I expected life to be, really. But being generally limited to nights in, it has proven a bit harder to find a decent Valentine's Day gift. Taking my wife to a nice dinner means securing child care, timing things around breastfeeding, and waiting for that call that it's time to rush home because of [insert one of many issues here]. Not... very... romantic.

While I could bedeck the home with roses and candles and open a 2016 bottle of Légende Bordeaux Rouge to create a romantic evening, there's already enough stuff around what with the toys, the baby gear, the art projects, and everything else that comes with this stage of life. Also that stuff takes time. The decorating, I mean, not the Bordeaux.

How then to get a thoughtful Valentine's Day gift during the busy days of parenting? Think outside the box.

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