Is the romance in your marriage fading away? Well, you must have had your first baby. A new research has shown that parents go out together just 15 times over the first five years of their child's life. Seven in ten wish they could have more nights out together, and 57 per cent say their relationship lacks romance since the arrival of their firstborn. The biggest reasons for staying in include not having enough money and feeling guilty asking people to babysit. Most parents miss the time they had with their partner before children.

But a quarter reckons an evening away from home is no fun without a lie-in the next morning. In addition, one in three reckon that having a hangover while their children are around is unbearable. The poll of 3,000 parents was carried out by ReadyBed, part of children's lifestyle company Worlds Apart. "The harsh reality is that although parents would relish more quality time together, in most cases the children come first," the Daily Mail quoted Lucy Wynn Jones, spokeswoman for ReadyBed, as saying.

"People feel bad for putting their own relationship as a couple above their children - as well as beating themselves up about getting in the babysitters, they also feel bad for wanting time away from the children. "But it is enormously important to continue a degree of normality and romance after becoming parents," Wynn Jones added.