9.30 and we’ve not yet had dinner

What time do they go to sleep? And get up? What time is lunch? You should suggest intermittent fasting to them!! Don't eat between 7pm and 12pm. 2 meals at 12.30 and 6.30. Perfect.

6pm tea time - which can take a while to get cooked and dished up etc.

Eaten by 7pm or so

Then it's time for Emmerdale, Brookside, Corrie, EastEnders...

That's how it always was growing up, so I've kinda just always had those times as "Normal"

People do things different, things change with society... I know I know .. but damn it, 6pm is, was and forever will be, Tea Time .. 😁
(It's also the time that Neighbours finished and Buffy is on BBC2 .. so turn it over quick..🤪)

What do they do all evening?

Guess can understand if drinking and it's Christmas.

I am in bed by 8pm normally, asleep by 10.

We only had our dinner at about 9:30 this evening. Pretty normal for us.

Has OP died of starvation? 😱

dinnertime is subjective depending on your life. But surely we can all agree that 9.45 with no dinner is late!

Hopefully the OP has some food now, unless she gets the double whammy of a late "dinner" that turns out to be "oh we dont eat much, one potato and spoonful of peas is plenty"

I lay awake freezing cold and starving and fuming 😆

@CurlyhairedAssassin urgh, that would be me. 5pm is basically a late afternoon snack. I'd be ready for another dinner by 9pm!

Threads like this make me thankful for my family. My side we're all close enough we'd be helping ourself to the fridge and my on laws are from Malaysia so basically feed you constantly.

This.

I'd have been poking around in the kitchen by 6pm, asking what I could help get ready for the meal.

There's no way you can be close enough to people that you are staying with them for several days at Christmas time, but not close enough to let them know you are starving.

My daughter always eats her meal at around 21.00/22.00!

I used to eat at this time, then I had kids, and if I have not had my tea by 6 I am most definitely hangry

6pm is still ridiculously early if you ask me. Most people haven't even got home from work by then! Maybe ok for kids!

I would say a reasonable dinner time is about 7:30 or 8pm

Have you eaten yet? 😬
Kind of intrigued what you had now and whether it was worth the wait.. better have been something more laborious than toasties or an oven pizza... 🍴

6pm to 6.30pm is a perfectly normal time. That's the time me and DH have dinner.

normal time for YOU. Even my kids don't eat that early! They are rarely back home so early for a start. They have clubs and after-school activities.

Plus the food is not instantly ready the minute we walk home, even something quick takes a few minutes! No one is hungry at 6 pm here. It's too early.

Yeah tomorrow, Tesco and get a snack bag 🎒 just nipping upstairs for some rest nom nom nom...

Omg we need an update please 😂

Are you still waiting?

Are your family Spanish/Southern European?

If you’ve eaten- what did you have?

(If I was waiting while 9:30 I would have just taken myself off to the nearest Maccies drive through).

I think OP's passed out due to hunger. @Ticktockk please tell us you are OK?

I used to have part French family and in the end I would just make my own (veggie) food for when I wanted to eat. After years of similar. I don't do well with big gaps between meals. Usually results in a migraine so it was self protection really. 😎You gotta put your own oxygen mask on before you can help others.

Let's just remember that over the Christmas period.

6pm is not possible for most people who work full time. Unless you've got a short commute and you stick something in the microwave.

Have they fed you yet? Are you alive? 🧀

I’d skip dinner and go to bed 🤣 We do eat reasonably early (6.30ish) as I need at least 3 hours to let food go down before I can sleep. I didn’t eat till 10pm on holiday and it took me until 2am to get to sleep! I was a corpse the next day…

That's batshit. Who has dinner at 11pm? Most people are in bed by then.

6pm to 6.30pm is a perfectly normal time. That's the time me and DH have dinner. (Then a light supper around 9.30pm.)

I would have left if I was sitting there starving hungry at almost 10 at night. SO glad it's just me and DH over Christmas. All our visiting and gift giving done by 22nd December, and the rest of the holiday to ourselves til 2nd Jan when work starts again..... Lazing around doing fuck all for anyone, watching cheezy Christmas TV, munching on Christmas food, knocking back port and Irish coffees, going for lovely walks, and days out mooching around the shops.

All this sitting around in-laws houses. Nah! I'm not saying I'm glad my in parents in law are gone, (they died 2 decades ago,) but I don't miss having to go there every fucking Boxing Day for 5-7 hours. (My parents died not long after.) DH's mother was always desperate for us to sleep over too. We only lived 10 miles away FFS.

Occasionally we will see our adult DC for an hour on Christmas day, we go to see them (they live close to each other,) but this year we've already seen them, (22nd December) and are having the whole Christmas break to ourselves! They are too, and are pleased with that too! Saw a few other extended family members over the past 3-4 days.

.

6pm is tea time

Wtf is this madness eating so late?
Can't be good for waist lines. 🤣

I used to hate that when we had to stay with the inlaws. She liked to start dishing up at 5 ish. I think the earliest was 4.50pm. Then at 9.00 she'd go out in the kitchen again and start making plates of ham sandwiches. Nightly. Just really odd.

I remember going out clubbing while staying in theirs having eaten very early. By the time we got in at nearly 3am I was so hungry and DH just went to bed and fell asleep immediately. I lay awake freezing cold and starving and fuming 😆

O god no, I keep snacks in my handbag for this reason, especially for my DCs. I had friends like this, they would invite you over early, 6-6.30pm several beers and bottles of wine later ( start with beer, then white wine then red) food would be served by 10.30pm if we were lucky.

Excuse yourself. Say you are going to the bathroom. Instead sneak into the kitchen. Open a few doors. They've got to have a stash of hobnobs. Stuff face and pockets (for later) with hobnobs. Return with features organised into an innocent expression.