To think these are typical meal times/bed times in the UK

Oh yes. We know when DD is getting tired because she has a massive manic/hyper phase before then crashing into an emotional wreck if left too long.

Agree with the hyper behaviour actually being tiredness in small children.

Interestingly mine have never really tantrummed, are exceptionally well behaved, exceeding academically etc and I think in part it’s down to getting plenty of sleep. Some of their friends are chronically overtired.

Id say this about my kids too. Ive got friends who point to their children going hyper at 9pm and say "they're not tired!" Mine get hyper like that when over tired....

We eat earlier than a lot of people. Your friend would hate me

Breakfast 8am
Lunch 12 noon
Dinner 5pm
Supper - whenever

Bed (teens) 1030 ish (adults anything between 10pm and 2am)

Your timings are pretty much exactly right for our family I could've written it myself! We have 2 boys (aged 2 and 6) and have the same issue with bed time/wake time. Whatever time they go to sleep whether it's 8pm or 11pm they are always up by 6am, so breakfast is pretty early in our home. I have a friend who has a completely different routine as her kids like a late lie in and then go to bed more like 10ish, so it's normal for them not to have had lunch yet by 2. It sometimes makes it tricky to make plans actually

@InACloudOfSparklingDust I always cooked my daughter's dinner separately at about 6 when she was very small, and did so until she was about 7. I would never have wanted to eat so early and my husband wasn't home from work that at that time most nights anyway.

Does she have kids? When I was child free and single and slim I'd have coffee for breakfast an apple around 11, eat a proper meal at two ish, snacky dinner about nine or ten. My dc are away with their dad thus week so mealtimes will be when I am hungry

Those mealtimes are perfectly normal but wouldn't work for me. I eat a brunch between 10 and 11.30 and then a main meal between 4.30- 6.30. I might have a hot chocolate or an egg in the afternoon if I get hangry.

obviously social events sometimes interfere with my preferred schedule. If that happens, like your friend, I'll bring my own food with me to plug any gaps. If I end up having to eat late (which to me means after 7pm) I'll just have a salad and a starter.

Different strokes for different folks.

However, I firmly believe that children need plenty of sleep at primary age and younger, for growth and brain development. DDs 5 and almost 3 are in bed by 7 every night, but have to be up at 6 for drop off at grandparents/for the older one to come to school with me.

Children that don’t have early working parents could probably manage later, hence the different strokes comment. Not, however, the poor soul in DD1’s reception class who falls asleep most afternoons because she goes to bed at the same time as her mum between 10.30pm and midnight.

Breakfast 6.30am, lunch anytime between 11 and 12 noon, dinner 4pm, supper 7.30/8pm.

I think the rough times you suggest are normal. Everyone is obviously different but lunch at 3pm and dinner at 10pm doesn’t fit in with most people’s working day or with school. You don’t normally get a lunch break at 3pm at work if you work 8.30 to 5. Clearly some people are on shifts etc. but your times are average. I think it’s your friend who’s rigid if she can’t have a snack earlier than usual or eat later. I would just ignore it though and let her eat without making a deal of it. I think most children going to school would be tired eating late and going to bed late.

You had them in bed for 8.30. Which fits perfectly into the window of time between 7-8.30 the OP gave?

I think the mealtimes are fairly standard for people with young children but I have never put my kids to bed as early as 7pm. When they were small I used to pick them up from ASC at 6.15, home for 6.30, dinner at 7/7.30, then homework, shower and in bed for 8.30pm.

We did a self catering holiday with MIL with a toddler and she expressed shock and disbelief at the idea of having a family dinner all together at 6pm. She genuinely expected us to feed the toddler all her meals separately, clear up and then do the adult meals an hour or so later. I would have done nothing but prepare meals and clear them away all week - not to mention that she wanted us to put the toddler to bed and then have adult dinner but said toddler was a non sleeper at the best of times and I would emerge around 9pm after the rigours of bedtime with absolutely no energy or appetite to do anything more than sit with a glass of wine. Add in the fact I was breastfeeding an eight month old baby, which also got a whole shedload of disapproval - I look back and wonder what we were thinking agreeing to the holiday at all!

Anyway, we said she could eat with us at child friendly times or on her own at 'adult times' and turns out she was fine to fit in with us after all - but there was definitely a weird snobbery about it. I don't know why or where it comes from, but she was adamant that eating dinner before 8pm was unbearably common, and that it is far more refined to dine later.

Dogs have the only set mealtimes in this house, but other people roughly fit in to your bands. DS has to be eating by 6:25am or he will miss the bus to school. Aside from that it fits around schedules so has to be flexible and we are rarely all eating at the same time.

It depends how much sleep they need. Mine (10 and 8) are asleep for 8.30 and wake up at 7-7.30. They’re be knackered after 9.5 hours sleep.
i grew up in Spain and wouldn’t have gone to bed that early, but we also had siestas so overall sleep wouldn’t have been dissimilar.
If you have kids who need a lot of sleep to function well it’s annoying when people imply you’re forcing them to bed too early. If they didn’t need that amount of sleep, they’d wake up earlier 🤷🏻‍♀️.
Interestingly mine have never really tantrummed, are exceptionally well behaved, exceeding academically etc and I think in part it’s down to getting plenty of sleep. Some of their friends are chronically overtired.

Your timings sound more typical for the UK. Nothing wrong with your friend doing things differently but she shouldn't be trying to make you feel weird for following a more usual pattern.

Can't imagine a 2pm lunch, mine would be seriously hangry if I tried that.

Exactly. The question was are her timings broadly the norm and they are. Just because others don't adhere to them doesn't mean that they are not standard timings in the UK.

All the people who have breakfast at 2am, lunch at 4:30pm and dinner sometime after midnight can crack on: people can eat whenever they want to. However, the OP is asking if her suggested timings are socially normal for typical people in the UK and of course they are.

My times are very different. I usually wake up at about 7.30-8, have breakfast at about 9, lunch between 1.30-2, and dinner at about 9. I generally start feeding the cat and washing up before going to bed at about 1 and aim to be asleep by 2. When my daughter was very young, I don't think she ever ate before 6 in the evening, and once she was at junior school we brought our dinner time forward to 7 so we could eat together, and then gradually moved it later again as she got older.

When I was getting up much earlier for the school run, I tried to be asleep by 1 but rarely managed it. We had breakfast at about 830 on school days when my daughter was at primary school but had to eat by about 7.30 once she was at secondary school because her journey was over an hour.

My hours are more like your friend's.
Ok work days I have breakfast at 7am, but lunch usually nearer 2, dinner anywhere between 6-8.30 pm, bed around midnight.
Non working days I walk the dog first so breakfast is about 9.30, skip lunch or have a late snack around 3-4pm, same dinner time... bed around 2am.

I'm a night owl, my kids were night owls and my 3 yr old grandson can get up at 6.30 am to come to me, have a brief nap around 1pm and still be on the go at 9pm. None of us have every needed large amounts of sleep (it absolutely amazes me that some of my work colleagues are in bed at 8.30 at night... I'd be up again by 2am!)

I think that 'Adult time' is a bit of a British thing, as if you go across Europe, you see families happily eating out together at 10pm, and their kids still go to school ok. Having different eating and sleeping patterns isn't a problem..or snobbish, it's jsut whatver works for you :).

I've never eaten breakfast before 8am in my life, not even at an airport.

I go off my work times for lunch
They start at 11.30am and last lunch is 2pm

I have breakfast between 10am & 11am, lunch 3:30 - 4:30 and tea can be anywhere between 8pm & 10pm - not trying to be anything, it's just the routine we fell into years ago

I'd hate my kids to be stuck in bed that early.

You say this like sleep is a bad thing.

My kids don't object to going to bed, they like their beds ;)