Advice?

My husband and I havent had a date night in over a year and raising twins has been really hard on us. We are first time parents and winging things as we go.

For the first time we are leaving our kids alone with a babysitter tomorrow night. We have met her previously, asked tons of questions, and introduced her to the kids. The kids of course were scared because she is a stranger. They are 1.5yrs and it typically takes them an hour or so to warm up to people.

My question is what do you do when you dont have an hour to hang out with everyone together? We have a couple hours for a dinner and go shopping. We(and babysitter) agreed it wouldnt be a long date night, more of a trial on how comfortable she feels with the twins.

So how do you do it when your kids aren’t comfortable with someone yet?

I thought about having her come 10 minutes early see we have a few minutes all together.