Have you ever heard of solving cold case files as a date night?

In this episode, I share this idea for a date night, our experience doing it, what it’s all about and some things to consider if you decide to do this as a date night.

I also share some of the benefits of a date night like this that involves thinking and solving.

For more date night ideas as well as date night reviews, resources and community, come join The Couple’s Playhouse.

Have you ever heard of solving cold case files as a date night? In this episode, I share about our experience doing this, what it's all about and some things to consider if you decide to do this as a date night.

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Come join the Couples Playhouse, the free community for date night ideas, date night reviews, lots of resources for creating connection and a community space for connection as well.

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You can join at playdatesforcouples.com/playhouse.

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So, my partner and I got some cold case files as a Christmas gift from one of our sons and his wife. She loves true crime and so do I. So I was excited about this gift!

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We decided together which case we wanted to start with and began reading through the instructions and the file of information. It's got police reports, coroner reports, descriptions of items found at the crime scene, a list of suspects with photos, receipts,

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newspaper articles, pictures and other important details. It's quite thorough. We thought it was fun to read through all the files together and we both enjoyed that.

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After we read everything, my partner found that he needed a break and I continued on my own with digging into all of it to make a decision about what happened and who was guilty.

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I went through it all again, took notes, created a chart, noted who had motive, opportunity and means and made my decision of who was guilty. I was correct and that added a sense of satisfaction to it as well. We both thought it was fun to think about how all the parts connected and how the things fit together.

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It was more of a serious kind of fun. So I'm not sure I would call it playful, but it was definitely fun. It was also something new and different, which is great. It didn't cost anything since it was a gift. However, if you haven't received it as a gift, you will need to invest in some cases. You can get them online.

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It did take a fair bit of time, so definitely take that into consideration. And my partner wasn't in the frame of mind to continue after reading through everything, but we didn't realize when we planned it that that was probably not the best time for us to do it.

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He would've preferred to wait until the next day to dig into the info and come to a decision about who did it. He said it involved too much thinking with the frame of mind that he was in that day.

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Although it was fun, it didn't really create a deeper connection for us. However, that could be because my partner needed a break and I finished on my own. So my partner rated it at a 7.5 outta 10 for fun. I rated it as an eight or a nine for fun because like I said, I love these things.

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At the time, we decided that we would do it again and we had two more that we wanted to do right away. With the next ones, we were gonna be sure to do it when we could both devote the time to it and when my partner's head was clear. So not after a day of work, for example. And I would recommend that anyone take their capacity into consideration when choosing a time for this type of date night.

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However, when it came to do another one, the situation had changed. In the last episode ... so if you haven't listened, go back and listen to that ... I shared seven ways to handle it when you and your partner have different play personality types and in that episode I shared that my partner and I also have different play types or play personalities and personalities in general.

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My partner is the peaceful play type and I'm the purposeful play type. This cold case file date night became a great example of this difference. So, I love these kinds of things. I love true crime, criminal minds kinds of things, I love solving puzzles and mysteries and even as a kid, I could spend hours reading mysteries and solving logic puzzles.

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I was so excited to work on these cold case files, but my partner decided that he wasn't interested at all anymore. I did the rest of my myself. He said that he would have to be in a very particular frame of mind to be able to do all the thinking work, which I love. And on days when he's tired from work or on weekends when he wants to reenergize, it doesn't work for him.

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But I could literally spend days and months and years on this kind of stuff. I'm an investigator, a studier and a researcher by nature and figuring things out as a passion of mine. We agreed that I would do them myself and we would do something else for our date nights together that we both enjoy. So, just a little note here that that's totally okay if that happens in any type of date night. It's gonna be quite common that you find that one person likes something more than the other person or some someone else

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really dislikes a particular thing. And it's okay to tweak it. It's okay to not do stuff again. It's okay to do it separately and do something different together. So continuing on with this particular date night, if you decide that it's something that you'd like to try, there are actually quite a few benefits.

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Number one, playing cold case file games is fun and also good for your brain. For example, analyzing evidence, solving problems and connecting the dots improves your critical thinking skills. Number two, it's a fun shared experience that creates teamwork. Number three, it creates a context for communication so you can even improve your communication and listening skills.

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And number four, it's an immersive experience, so it's more like being in a book or a movie, you know, right in the midst of the crime. So it adds a whole other level than just a regular type of game. If you wanna try it, but you wanna change it up a little bit, here are a few things that you can do. Number one, you can dress the part, so dress up like detectives and set the whole scene if you really want to get into it.

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Number two, have drinks and snacks along with it and even make those related to the theme. And number three, create a month of date nights around the detective theme. So you could go to a movie one week., read a mystery novel together one week, do an escape room one week and work on cold case files another week.

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So what do you think? Will you try solving cold case files as a date night? Come join the couples play host and let me know there. And also access the various date night reviews and date night ideas that I have in there, as well as lots of resources and community. So you can join at playdatesforcouples.com/playhouse.

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And the link will be in the show notes too. Be sure to follow the show so you don't miss any upcoming episodes to help you create an awesome relationship with your partner. Thanks for listening and see you on the next one.