By Heather Tomasello, Staff Writer

Caring for young children can emotionally and physically tax even the most energetic couples. Do you find that you and your spouse keep giving one another your "leftovers" of time and attention? You may be quickly realizing that what is left after a day with a three-year-old can be meager at best! How can you keep your love life fresh and renewed with your husband or wife and still be a great mommy or daddy? I interviewed several couples with young children to learn their tricks of the trade. The following is a compilation of their best ideas.

Do Not Disturb
Having had five children in ten years (one was adopted), Jennifer is an expert on being married with children. One way that she and her husband were able to spend a few precious hours together was by capitalizing on the popularity of Saturday morning cartoons. "Not every Saturday, of course," She explains. "We didn't want our children to watch much TV, and we had rules about which cartoons were off-limits. It was more the camping out experience that the kids loved anyway." Every so often on a Friday night, Jennifer would pack a cooler with orange juice, milk, apples and bananas. She set cereal, bowls, and utensils out in the living room. Then she told her kids to get their sleeping bags for a living room camping trip. They could sleep out in the living room and make their own breakfast in the morning and even watch a few cartoons.