"The Decider Weekend" Is a Trick That All Couples Should Try ASAP

What do you want to do tonight?
I don't know . . . what do you want to do?

Every weekend was the same. Friday evening found the two of us scrolling through movie times and restaurant reviews, trying to make the perfect plan. But we couldn't agree or everything was booked, and we ended up at the same Thai place ordering the same dishes. I love that pumpkin curry, but we were stuck in a rut.

Until we invented The Decider Weekend. It seemed so simple once we thought about it. Now we take turns being "The Decider," which has sort of a superhero ring to it. The Decider makes all the decisions about what to do and where to eat, while the other one (The Nondecider? The Decidee?) is free of decision-making for an entire weekend. As someone who can't help but plan things out all week long, I find it's kind of glorious to say, "Whatever you want. You're The Decider." The next weekend the roles will flip, and I'll get to choose. To keep things even, we take a pause when a holiday or vacation rolls around, and birthdays mean automatic Decider status.

We've found we try things we didn't before, like a Walt Disney/Salvador Dalí exhibit, a stand-up comedy show, and a swim at a hot spring. And the new experiences have become some of our favorites. We've also been surprised the other one liked something we didn't expect. I love old movies and was thrilled to find us both laughing out loud during 1968's The Odd Couple. And while I wouldn't normally spend a Saturday wandering through San Francisco's Presidio looking for a Yoda statue, it turned out to be a pretty fun day exploring more of our city.

It's been a few years, and The Decider Weekend is still going strong. Now we're a family of three, and most weekends the decisions are more about what toppings to order on our pizza and what to pick from the Netflix queue after the little one goes to bed. One day when he's old enough, he'll get his chance to be The Decider, too.

So what will it be this weekend? Art museum or farmers market? Vietnamese or Caribbean? Only The Decider can tell!