What time do you eat your evening meal, esp if you have a toddler?

[DitaVonCheese]

Just interested really. I always sit down to eat breakfast and lunch with nearly 3 yo DD and I sit with her while she eats her dinner but usually eat with DH later. For the past few days we've been experimenting with eating dinner with DD as (1) I like the idea of us all eating together, (2) I thought it might encourage her to eat more things (not working so far!) and (3) DH thinks we will go to bed earlier if we eat earlier (also not working so far ). So we are eating about 6 pm, before DD's bath and bed. This is up to 5 hours earlier than DH and I usually eat so we are spending all evening snacking.

Just wondering what everyone else does re timings, though can't imagine feeding DD much later or us eating much earlier.

[MumblingRagDoll]

We have a 7 year old and a 3 year old DD....we've always aten with the DC....it's not good to be eating large meals after around 7.00pm....bad for your digestion...do you really usually eat at 11.00pm? That's seriously late!

As for the snacking....make sure you have a lot of fruit in the house! I eat tonnes of apples in the evening and pop my own corn sometimes with a dry popcorn maker...no butter....just salt.

Sometimes on a Friday we get a takeaway when the DC are asleep...on those nights we give the DC something lighter for their dinner..like scrambled eggs and toast with a pudding..or maybe sandwiches or pasta.....

[lindsell]

Have a 2.3yo and in the week dh is never home til 8ish so I feed ds about 6ish and he goes to bed c7.30ish and then dh and I eat about 8-8.30.

At the weekends we try to all eat together at about 6.30-7, means Ds goes to bed slightly later c8ish but it means we can eat together.

[Seona1973]

the kids (age 4 and 7) eat around 5/5.30pm and me and dh eat around 8/8.30pm as he gets home from work later than we would want them to eat. At the weekend we all eat at the same time.

[MogandMe]

We all eat at 5.30pm - then DC has bath and bed.

[bacon]

Toddlers need to eat around 5pm. I have always fed the children earlier and we eat later around 7-8pm.

I wouldnt worry about eating together at that age. If you have breakfast and lunch then thats brilliant its not fair for a little child to wait too long.

I just did a lot of re-heating.

[MegBusset]

The DC (2 and 4) have their tea around 5, DH and I eat later at around 8. We do have breakfast and sometimes lunch together.

[RitaMorgan]

I have a 1 year old and we all eat together 6-6.30pm. He goes to bed about 7.30pm.

I don't see why toddlers need to eat at 5pm?

[ShowOfHands]

We always eat together (dd and I plus dh if he's here- works shifts) and between 6pm and 7pm usually. But sometimes it's later. We don't have much of a routine tbh but once dd starts school in Sept it will probably be brought forward a wee bit.

[ivykaty44]

We eat around 8.30 ish but we do tea/snack fruit yogurt etc after school or around 4pm

lindsell I now wonder though if the whole of spain knows how bad there eating times are I doubt you would ever get a spanish family to eat before 7pm

[ivykaty44]

sorry lindsell it wasn't you that said it was bad for digestion to eat after 7 - it was the person on top of you...

[MegBusset]

We also tried having tea as a family but it was disastrous. Fussy DS1 ate even less with the attention of two adults on him, and the distraction of adult cutlery/drinks/condiments. DH and I got stressed by the normal toddler shenanigans. Then DH and I still got hungry later in the evening. We abandoned it as one of those things that Better Families do

[FairyArmadillo]

Between 6 and 6.30pm. Occasionally I'll wait and eat a child free meal in peace after he goes to bed.

[BsshBossh]

I have breakfast with DD(3) at home, she has lunch with the CM and other mindees and then dinner at the CM with CM supervising. I wait till DH returns home to eat dinner at 8 or 9, a good hour or two after DD is in bed. On weekends we eat breakfast and lunch as a family, around the kitchen table, but DD has her dinner at 5 for a 7pm bedtime and DH and I eat later, unwinding as a couple. If I ate dinner with DD at 5 I'd be snacking a whole lot more later in the evening.

[Sirzy]

5.30 ish, I think it's nice if you can eat together (work permitting of course)

[DitaVonCheese]

Meg

DH is back at work next week so am wondering if my new regime will fall apart if I have to get dinner ready for 6 with the help of a toddler and newborn ...

Mumbling it's not always or even usually 11 but it's certainly not completely unheard of - we generally eat around 9-10 then go to bed at midnight (though also not unheard of to eat at midnight, or get to midnight having not cooked and just having cereal instead ). In my defence, we have no kitchen, so cooking is not much fun at the moment, and I struggle to think of interesting things to cook for veggie DH.

[RabidRabbit]

DD (2) usually eats between 5-6pm, and me and DH eat when he is home from work and DD is in bed, usually around 8.30pm by the time we sit down to eat. I wouldn't change it tbh, I eat with DD during the day, and it's nice to have that time with DH to catch up on the days events and eat in peace without little fingers poking the life out of yet another of my meals!