To think that it’s impossible to have a 6pm family dinner time?

We eat together at 5.30, my DH misses a couple nights a week when he does a late shift at work but otherwise we’re all together. I can work flexibly so start 7 or 8 and finish between 3 and 5 depending on if I’m doing school run, if I’m in the office etc. DD is 6 and does one activity on the weekend, one at school (so we just pick her up later) and the other two at 4pm. DS is 1 so no activities, he goes to a childminder twice a week and I collect him at 4.30.

It did take me a while to get used to eating at that time as when DD was a toddler we used to eat at 8/9 once she was in bed. We started the family dinners when she started school and it’s mostly lovely but sometimes I do miss sitting with my dinner on my knee in front of the tv!

We've always had dinner at 6pm, even when our children were babies - they sat in a high chair with us when very young.

I really like the routine that everyone knows that on weekdays dinner is at 6pm. It's quite a nice family tradition.

At the weekend dinner is much more fluid as it'll depend on what we've been up to during the day.

At various points there have been clubs that have got in the way but dinner is at 6pm all
together for those at home and it's plated up for those home later.

Both DH and I work full time in roles which aren't super stressful and there is flexi time. We also deliberately work somewhere with a short 15 minute commute as we valued the family time more than the higher pay we'd get elsewhere. We are comfortable but could definitely have earned more money working a bit further afield.

I'm still shocked at how terrible my teen children's table manners are though, you'd think the routine of eating as a family would help but alas, that's not the case.

We eat at 6. I'm home with DC by 4pm, DH gets home around 545 and dinner is usually ready when he gets in which sounds old fashioned but it works! DC have clubs one night a week that's it so that night we all eat at separate times but 6 out of 7 nights we all eat together

And pre children we ate even later! We spent a couple of years living in Spain though so got used to eating at around 9-10pm.

We don’t eat dinner until 7.30pm, but then I don’t tend to have lunch until 2ish so i’m not hungry any earlier.

I would be chewing my arm off🤣

We sit down together for dinner at about 6pm.

Last two kids get in from school at 5.15 ish and I get home then too. I cook straight away and we're eating by 6pm ish.

One night a week one of the kids has a 7pm club with 15 mins travel time. I feel a bit pressured on that day because I have to hit the 6pm dinner deadline really for him to have time to eat (soooo sloooow).

This is possible for me now because I wfh some days, and have flexible start/end times. I generally start work by 7am (DH does most morning school runs) and so can finish in time to be home and done by 5.15pm

For years on end I got home with preschool kids at 6pm, so dinner was rarely before 7pm and it was hellish. Lasted about 5 years, but we got through it.

Flexible working times and wfh really help my family.

We are childfree, I work from home, part time. No rushing about, no clubs.
We eat dinner between 4-6pm.
I'd be starving if I waited till after 6pm.

My DH tries VERY hard to have dinner at 6pm. He likes breakfast (cereal) at 8am, morning tea (toast and coffee at 10am), lunch at 12:30 something with a coffee around 3.30 and dinner at 6. However this is because that's what his Granda and Dad did as farmers. I have pointed out that it doesn't suit as a) he's always late for lunch and things happen during the day and I do not have nothing else to do than cook and keep meals warm b) I cannot get anything done if I have to have dinner ready for 6 and the DC and I are losing out on time c) nobody is actually hungry at 6 including him. It turns out he just likes to eat by the clock so we have all dug the heels in and now eat around 7.30

We all eat at different times during the week. The only day we sit down together for dinner is on Sunday evenings. My DH works shifts so he is either finished at 7pm or starts work at 7pm. Kids have sports 4 nights a week so we leave the house at 5pm and get home at 8.30pm so the kids (teens now) have dinner straight after school at 4pm and then something when we get home from training.

Growing up, we had a 5pm dinner every single day.

Mum stayed at home, and dad worked as a college lecturer a 5 minute walk from our house, with, like school teachers, no set finish time.

Even after dad was long since retired and us kids had left home, they maintained a 5pm dinnertime.

Dad is sadly no longer with us, but mum still keeps it up! She heads off to bed at exactly 10pm as well. Not a second before, or after. And I think she finds it a bit weird that I'd rather just head up when I'm tired, and not sit there clock-watching. Whether that's 8:30pm, or 11pm!

@user2848502016
not to say that the eating together part was boring! Just there was nothing to do afterwards - e.g. we had only 2 TV channels and lived quite far from any of my friends (obviously an issue when you’re a teenager and can’t drive yet. I used to cycle everywhere which was interesting on dark Irish country roads!). I don’t think I’d want to go back to that!

@user2848502016

Yes I think that you just decide to prioritise it - by choosing jobs that finish early or are flexible enough to be home in time and also pay enough to provide a house/lifestyle you’re happy with in a part of the country you want to live in. And also being strict on after-school stuff.
A lot of kids’ sport especially at high levels is very time consuming. A good friend has 2 teenage DC in football academies and it’s 4 evenings a week travelling across London for training. But that’s a priority for them.

When I was growing up (rural Ireland) most people finished work pretty early (especially farming in the winter) and there just wasn’t the same range of after-school activities on offer so we always did eat together in the evenings. It was pretty boring though - much prefer life now 😂

We eat together everyday between 4.30pm and 7pm depending what everyone's doing. But. We do eat together every day.

I'm 40 and as a child we never ate at 6pm all together - we have horses so was still at the stables then, yes, even when i was a baby. My life has been a rush around forever 😂

We do yes, DDs are a bit older now so it's more like 6.30pm.
When they were younger I worked part time 8.30-4.30 so was home 5.30 at the latest (or DH did if home before me) and would make something quick and we would all eat by 6pm.
After school activities have either been straight after school so before dinner or starting at 6pm so early dinner before going.
Occasionally it doesn't work out and we eat separately but on average 5 nights a week we eat together.
I guess we chose to prioritise that, maybe other families prioritise other things.

Yes we try to. 2 young ones (4&2), tend to pick them up from child minder about 5,pre-plan and sometimes pre-prepare meals. Aim to sit 5:45-6pm.

About 75% of the week DH is home just in time for tea, if he's not we will start and he has to have cold later.

Meals that take longer to cook I save for a day off in the week or the weekend.

Mid-week meals tend to be things like chilli or ratatouille or stews that I will have put in the slow cook in the morning, or things like sausages, eggs & beans or stir fry that take about 20 mins to make.

It's manic but do-able.

No after school clubs yet though.

We don’t eat until about 9:30! It’s just too early otherwise and we end up needing another meal:

dc eat at 6 as they are in bed for 7:30 (two youngest) but I sit at the table with them when they eat and I have a snack normally. it’s still a nice family time and we have no phones/ipads

When I was working I didn't finish work until 6, later if we had a staff meeting. So we got in the habbit of eating around 7:30 (DS had tea at nursery). DD2 often isn't home before 6:30, DH also can be about this time so no way would 6 work for us.
Growing up me, my mum and sister used to have tea at 6 and mum would plate up for my dad and brothers so they could heat it when they got home. Mind you my mum didn't have a lot of choice big age gap between siblings and often dad and brothers weren't home until 9:00, so too late for me and sister.

Yes we do...but we both start work at 8 and finish at 4 (me - a teacher) and 5 (dh and he has a very short commute so home before 5.30).

It was just the way it had to be. I had a toddler and 2 almost teenagers. I worked 7 till 4, dh worked from 9 till 7. Dh did breakfast/ childminder. Older 2 sorted themselves out. I did childminder pick up, and when necessary the football/ scouts/ swimming runs. DH got home around 7.30 - 8pm. Would do late pick ups of older 2 if required en route. There was really no time point on a week night that we could all have sat down together. Older 2 were really good about using public transport but sometimes it wasn't possible.

@StrawberrySquash
Yes it’s definitely complicated. My work allowed me to leave at 5pm to get back for nursery pick-up with the expectation I’d log in again later that evening but with unreliable trains etc it was just easier to get a nanny in the end especially with more than one child.
When my DC were young I never ate with my kids on days I was in the office but rather with DH when he got in at about 8pm.
My DC are teenagers now so we do actually eat together quite often in the evenings - but they still need a (large!) snack as soon as they get in from school to keep them going.

I find batch cooking and the nights when everyone is eating at different times infinitely more stressful. It feels like the kitchen is never closed.
So much easier to cook once, everyone eats, cleans up and be done for the day.

@BrokenHipster
Not in my part of SW London they don’t. Yes I suppose I should have caveated that I can really only talk about where I live and people I know - apologies!
Rents/house prices are so expensive here that you need to be in a very highly paid job and/or work very long hours (unless you’re lucky enough to have family money). A small 3-bed house here can cost more than £1.5 million and there aren’t many jobs that can finance that sort of mortgage and allow you to leave work at 5pm for the day.

I'm childless and probably past the point of having them, but this always bothered me when I tried to imagine how life would actually work with kids. Work finishes 5.30 if you're lucky, then an hour home. Only you need to pick them up from nursery by 6 and small children do need to eat earlier. I simply don't see how it works. Or rather I watched other people scrabbling to make it work or never eating with their kids etc.

It's one of the contributory factors to why I don't have them.