It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that life is just a wee bit stressful at the moment, as we navigate the tail end of the pandemic, the rising cost of living and, you know, winter.
While on the surface all of these reasons might make it easy to flag a date night with your significant other, now more than ever is it important to reconnect and recharge with your boo – after all, a happy relationship means a happy home, happy kids, and happy times!
We spoke with date organising app Cupla founder Erika Palmer (pictured with husband Will) about why we need to prioritise regular date nights, and how digital dating aids have come a LONG way since the introduction of apps!
Hey Erika! In your opinion, why is it important to have regular date nights?
In our busy modern lives it is easy to be consumed by external pressures that are constantly pulling on our attention; careers, kids, friends, family. The longer you are in a relationship, particularly if you live together, the more the focus can shift to execution of tasks, keeping the household running and just getting through the day! It’s easy to forget who we are as couples.
Having uninterrupted time for just the two of you helps you remember who you are as a couple, gives you space to break out of your everyday roles, aiding to rekindle the romance. Date night can also bring novelty back to your relationship with new and different ways to get to know each other, as well as creating dedicated time to focus on you, to discuss goals for the future, favourite memories, or just generally enjoy each other’s company.
Dating in a digital world is often looked upon as a negative – tell us, what are some of the positives?
I believe that stigma has shifted dramatically since the rise of dating apps more than 10 years ago. It’s now not unusual for people to meet their partner via a dating app. We have normalised using technology to find love, yet the idea of using it to sustain love is still in its infancy, which I think is unusual given how many other aspects of our lives technology touches. We are all so busy now, what’s not to like about streamlining the process of booking amazing date nights so we have less time administering them and more time enjoying them?!
What was the inspiration for founding the Cupla app?
Will (my husband and Cupla co-founder) and I were inspired by solving our own problem, for us, even just finding the time to be together was a hurdle to booking date night. We assumed that this must be a solved problem so when we researched and found that there was nothing in the market, we saw a huge opportunity to solve not only our problem, but improve how couples date overall, which is an incredibly motivating purpose.
Cupla is a shared calendar app for couples that links your world with your partner’s. By syncing both your calendars it gives you a single view of your partner’s schedule alongside your own, allowing you to easily find the space to be with one another.