To absolutely hate tea time with small children (3 and 1)?

Live in central London. No car. Everyone lived close- as all attended same nursery (or nearby). Appreciate it doesn't work if you live in a suburb, or are more remote.

Meant more social approach for the adults too- and only worked as we were all heading back from nursery. I wouldn't have taken my kids out to tea- would have been a pain.

I prefer him to eat and for me to clean up to be honest. Doesn't mean I have to enjoy it, but I'm parenting the child I have.

He eats a brilliant variety of foods in small amounts, and entertains himself mushing up the rest. Then crawls off to let me deal with the carnage.

At 8 months old you can easily stop this you know!!!

Food in the high chair.
No food outside the highchair.

Simple.

If he doesn't eat that's fine, he can have milk.

I started inhaling my food to tend to DD as soon as she was born. We just did one family meal as soon as she was mostly weaned, she often ended up eating yoghurt or porridge instead of what I cooked but getting there.

My DH happily gets up to help DD but it means it takes him an hour to eat. She’ll take a few bites then refuse to eat anything else until she can have something different and then DH has to coax her to eat a bit more of her actual dinner,

I would like to have a dinner in peace at some point where I only have to worry about myself.

Some of the suggestions people roll out on here, honestly 🙄

Solidarity OP, I hate it too (although mine are each a year older than yours and it has got a bit better!)

Yup! I agree. DP and I always says it’s the worst time of day. It’s getting easier though… we only cook once and eat together at about 6pm, then bed at 7. So between 5:30 and 7 it’s carnage. I also only have a 2 YO.

If you have outside space just take dinner outside, it doesn't have to be picnic food but it reduces the mess and clean up time.

I found having the food ready early in the slow cooker etc a life saver and it can be kept warm for those eating later. It means the children can eat earlier before they are over tired. And then have supper before bed - something lite and not messy.

Mum of toddler twins here to make you feel better 😁

1. Make sure they are hungry. If they’ve been grazing earlier they won’t be. Push dinner later if need be.
2. Remember what size their stomachs are.

Kids change all the time. As I said it can be dinner just in a picnic teddy bear fun way. I would be amazed if any kid would t want to take part tbh put music on and make it fun. Just try it. Saying they won't like it isn't being willing to try and make things better on your part.

We eat together, I make normal food just with no chilli or salt. I have a 3 year old and 1 year old. I'm not a huge fan either. They're exhaused and therefore incredibly annoying. I'm exhausted and quick to irritate.

Glass of wine for you, saved my.life when twins were small (now adults) and serve things like mini sausage, cucumber sticks, carrot sticks, olives dairylea cheese and ritz crackers etc maybe buy some mixed dips from Aldi. Kids love a snacky/picnic tea, don't over think it.
You've.got this, but wine or gin.does help 😂

When I am fed up beyond all bearing it (and you're right, it's the worst time of the day), we do 'movie night' tea and I plonk a random selection of stuff on a picnic rug on the floor of the living-room and we watch a movie together. Things like carrot/cucumber sticks, cream cheese on toast, fish fingers, fries, pizza, sweetcorn, popcorn for after. I pick up the worst of the debris afterwards and then the rug gets shaken in the garden and the birds deal with the rest.

Solidarity. It's a hideous time. Tired children loudly rejecting/wasting/throwing lovingly prepared food at a time when you are just DONE with the day and want to sit with a glass of wine in front of the telly.

My son is only 8 months old, but crawls around like a lunatic smearing food everywhere.

All the other babies I know are non-crawling and sit in chairs to eat. Whilst mine has spent the past six weeks finding a new place to jam food that I hadn't guessed each day.

Solidarity too. It's impossible to get them to sit at a table and eat - even when I sit and eat too. They eat while walking/ running though the house. I've given up. Deal with the mess when they've gone to bed. Accept the walls and doors will be covered in their food finger prints. A lot of parenting requires letting go of anxiety

When mine were this age we had a little kitchen with no space for a table, and a separate dining room. Dinnertime drove me bananas, I seemed to spend the whole time darting from one room to the other like some sort of crazed whackamole. I swear this is the main reason we moved.

Solidarity.

Stick an iPad in front of them 🤷‍♀️

Just eat together? Mine ate as a family from 6 months.

Ditto!

I found sitting down with them with food of my own was the only way to get that period to run a bit smoother. Not painless but a bit easier

It’s not called the witching hour for nothing!

Not U to hate it - I don't miss it but I am now completely over it when it comes to cooking and serving food for the family so probably not the best person to answer! Just do whatever is needed - prep in advance / mix it up / bribery / TV or promise of TV / a game / audio book. Perhaps feed baby first - give a toy or pudding they can do by themself while you pay more attention to three year old - divide and conquer?

When it comes to sitting at the table I'm old fashioned and didn't like DC running about during mealtimes. But not so old fashioned I wouldn't do whatever was needed to get them to sit for ten mins to eat including TV / music / word games like guess who / I spy / reward charts etc. Would a reward chart work for the three year old? I seem to remember I had one specifically for meal times / table manners.

Getting food everywhere is par for the course. Kids are messy while they are learning. Then they are teenagers and still messy in a different way.

Mix it up a bit. Have a teddy bears picnic In the garden. Make it fun. Doesn't have to be picnic type food. Serve dinner in a little bowl each Relax.