Milk is an important source of nutrients that you and your family shouldn’t miss out on. If someone in your family has lactose intolerance and the rest of the family still want to enjoy the taste of real milk, try Lactofree - the UK’s first virtually lactose-free dairy drink.
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Food
: If your family all eat dinner together at what time do you do it?
(38 messages)
My kids are 4 and nearly 2. I usually feed them at 5 ish. Then DH and I eat about 8.30pm.
I would lurrrrrve to cook just one meal and then close the kitchen but DH just isn't hungry earlier.
At weekends I sometimes persuade him to do an early meal at say 6 or 6.30pm.
I have tried a few combinations. I think the ideal for me would be 6pm so I could get the kids ready for bed then dinner all together then pop them into bed.
It should work for us as DH works from home but I can't seem to get him really into it.
I want the family thing and the less work thing. Would it be awful for me to just announce that dinner will be at 6pm on say 3 nights a week and him have to lump it.
I don't really want to force it on him as I ain't his mum but maybe I should just introduce it for a trial period and hipe he likes it.
Maybe I should just make it 7pm and get the kids to bed later....
Dh is usually home by 6 so I do tea for us all then. I have a 5yr old, 4 year old and a 2 year old. Dh is not that keen on eating that early, but does it for the sake of sitting as a famliy. It's also cheaper and healthier for us as he tends to want take away if we don't do that! It's a bit of a rush to eat and get the kids in bed, but at least this way we arent starting over with tea later on, and we get some nice time together.
5.30pm. DH walks in the door and we eat. Make him do it. He will get used to it . Only prob is when we go out for a meal we are starving way before the table is booked for. Doesn't happen often though .
We tend to eat together around 5.30-6.30 ish. That way once the children are in bed we are free to unwind and don't have to start cooking for the second time.
I do dinner for 6pm, DP gets in then so it is ready almost as soon as he walks in the door, he'll let me know if he is going to be late. I'd tell DH that dinnertime is something you believe to be important to share as a family, plus are fed up cooking two meals so it will now be at 6pm. He shall have to eat less at lunchtime, and have a snak at supper if he is hungry later.
i do fast meals so tongiht we are haveing a a marks cook thing( i haev been ill!!) and salad if its triky i prep half of ti before i start the story extravagnaza
yes oyu need to menu plan so oyu kwno what you are habing and make sure they are fast meals on the nights you are working liek spag carbonara - fry the bacon and onion whenkids are earing and mix the cream dn eggs etc
We eat later, sometimes not even till after 8 pm, but my boys are 16 and 13!
Why don't you give them a snack - like an afternoon tea - to keep them going, so that you can eat a bit later, altogether, with DH. I'm with him I'm afraid - I wouldn't be ready to eat that early.
I do dinner around 5:30, if dh isn't hungry he doesn't have to eat, but I would be shocked if he actually expected me to prepare a whole other meal for him later on! If he wants to eat later than the rest of the family he can heat it up later or fix himself something else. FGS I can't imagine fixing two evening meals, would drive me crazy. DH is an adult, he can feed himself if he doesn't want it when it's offered.
We try to all sit down together and eat at 6pm. Tonight it will be 6.45pm as it is roast pork and I only just got it into the oven a few minutes ago (forgot to factor in after-school clubs). When the children were younger we did often feed them first and eat later, but as DH works from home it makes sense to do this - and it is nice to all sit round and discuss our day.
We do 6pm, dh gets in just before then. I quite often have a meeting at 7pm so it works well for us. I like eating together. We are all so busy so quite often its the best chance we get to talk. Also have breakfast all together but we tend not to talk then, we grunt.
Yes Cod you're right there usually is a bit of "it's chicken, you like chicken, eat the chicken, no you cannot have a coke drink your water" etc. I still wouldn't want to cook twice! Or plan two meals. Urg and clean twice.
Lol Cod, I wouldn't have thought you were th type to put up with multiple toilet breaks
I think maybe the reason we eat dinner together is because once it was just me and DD, so we ate the same thing, together, as she grew up I got DS1 and DP, and now DS3(though I try not to feed him at dinnertimes, it's hard eating and bfing, especially if you need to cut something) so whoever came along jsut had to fit into when I cooked dinner, if it had been me and DP eating after work etc first, before DC's I'd imagine it could be different.
But one thing we do do is feed dd by herself on a friday evening and then we have a nice proper adult meal with wine later on. dunno what we will do when she gets older though.
And then we say. Oh god, you've spilled your drink again, why can't you be more careful DD3, no DD you don't need more ketchup, you've already got the European ketchup lake on your plate, I don't CARE if the Simpsons is just starting DD1, you are eating your dinner at the TABLE.
We eat together at the weekend, mostly just lunchtimes, and sometimes at 5pm dinner if we have not had something decent midday. Weekdays, there is no way I would jeopardise my lovely quiet evening meals chatting to my DH and remembering that we are also in a relationship. It gives us a chance to be a couple!
Dss are just 3 and 5mths though, so no doubt in a few yrs we'll eat together weekday evenings too.
Mostly it's me saying, brightly, "so how was your day today?" To which both boys say "fine". I then say "what kind of fine" and they both look at me with pity.
we had ONE great meal the other day that stunned us all dh laothes them so tends to either eat fast silently or nag the kids.... i feel liek referee. kids rather fussy so uiless iw anted to eat "pub grub" all eyar i eat afterwards
Milk is an important source of nutrients that you and your family shouldn’t miss out on. If someone in your family has lactose intolerance and the rest of the family still want to enjoy the taste of real milk, try Lactofree - the UK’s first virtually lactose-free dairy drink.
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