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

People are just much busier nowadays

Compared to when? What rot. And no, your norms are not the norms, people live in London suburbs and leave work before 6.30 pm. Not everyone does your work pattern.

We never eat at 6pm and I don’t know anyone else who does either. I might feed the DC then but DH is never home from work before 7.30pm. That’s the norm if you live in a London suburb and work in town - the earliest you might leave work is 6/6.30pm and then an hour+ commute home - assuming the tubes/trains are behaving! (as a poster earlier commented).

I do know a couple of families who don’t need to work long hours for various reasons but even they don’t eat together at 6pm due to hobbies & kids’ after school clubs/sports.

People are just much busier nowadays.

We have dinner every night around 5.45. I either wfh or am home by 4ish. Dh home by 5.30 and dc has sports later in the evening so needs to eat at that time to let it settle.

how do people manage it?

because not everyone has the same lifestyle as you.

We sit down for dinner event evening, before 6 actually, husband WFH, I finish at 4.30 and clubs are at the weekend.

Do what works for your family and your lifestyle as it is.

We do but it just depends on your family set up I guess. There’s me (home full time), dh who works 10 mins walk down the road 9-5 weekdays and Ds aged 13 who has autism and doesn’t do any clubs etc (doesn’t want to) so we’re always ready to eat around 6. When I was younger my mum and dad both worked and Mum and I always ate around 7.30/8, Dad was hardly ever around for dinner.

It really depends on what time you walk through the door if not WFH and whether there's time then to cook for 6.

Dh comes home just before 6 3x a week ( at home the other days), I WFH so the latest I stop is 5 but I'm only PT.

We have clubs every night but Friday and they are over by 5 except brownies which is after dinner.

It's doable but you have to plan ahead.

Yes we did and still do but it’s a moveable feast in that it was between 6.30 to 7.30 . DH and I had a deal. He was home for dinner but after dinner and bedtime for children he could work in his office. Also there was none of this putting small children to bed at 6pm or an earlier dinner for children which a couple of my friends did and I didn’t even realise was a thing till then. DS had football twice a week so there was one training evening where he and I would eat without DH.

Culturally food is massively significant, you come to my house I’m offering you food. It is supposed to promote harmony and a sense of belonging so family meal time is a huge deal.DS is an adult but still at home. If anyone has something on we move the dinnertime around to attempt to accommodate all three of us. No TV and no devices.

Have never even tried. 6pm is way too early, I would just be eating again before bedtime.

My parents didn't eat before about 9 or 10 and I grew up with that as my normal. I try to eat between 7 and 8 if we are all eating together. My kids are older now and mostly sort their own meals when they are hungry, but even as littlies, they were rarely fed until 7.

We didn't even attempt this for years. Only Sunday lunch was doable for everyone at the same time.
Batch cooking was the only way and everyone got their portion when they had time to eat it. Less stressful all round.

We do. I finish at 4pm and wfh. Everyone else finishes fairly early too and no clubs.

I manage it with DD about thre times a week. Otherwise she's out with her mates, seeing her dad or pursuing her interests. I don't even manage it at the weekend sometimes because I'm doing shiftwork or DD is with someone else. Such is life.

I only work during school hours. 4 days a week my husband works from home. We eat dinner together at 5:30, unless there's a club. In which case the children eat slightly early and DH and I eat together after the club. But that's only once a week

We have pretty much always eaten together, but DH works mostly from home, and I work a ten minute drive away. Have three kids who have all done different activities over the years, so we don't have a consistent meal time - it will depend on who's doing what and how tricky the meal is to prepare. Eldest DD now cooks if she's home from uni. Dinner time ranges from 5:30 to 7:30.

It's one of the reasons I have always chosen to work close to home. Family meal times are very important to me. I'm lucky in that I'm a teacher, so can pretty much work anywhere.

We eat together every day for dinner, and I adjust the timings to suit club timings.

Meal prep.
Working day finishes at 15:30 and we like to eat early so that we fast after for at least 12 hours…

6pm has never worked for us. DH has never routinely finished work so early.
When I worked I'd leave my desk at 5:35 and do the nursery/ ASC club pick-ups by 5:55 so we weren't in the house by 6. One day a week we'd go straight from there to my youth group and be home at 8 after 12 hours out of the house. Pizza night!

When I did stop work, Beavers & Swimming were around 6pm.

It would be pretty shit for DH to finish a long day and come home to congealed reheated slop to eat on his own so we've always eaten around 8pm, getting towards 9pm as we're at secondary years.

My DCs are ND and tired after school so a good chunk of wind down time helps them before activities/ family time. They can't handle conversation before 5pm. They've never been inclined to early evenings.

It makes more sense to have a snack early evening to keep going before a later meal than to load the stomach before doing things like swimming.

We manage it - but only because I wfh full time I think! husband works full time with a commute

Pick up kids from after school club at 4.45, start dinner at 5.15-5.30 - dinner on table for 5.45-6.00 - while one of us cooks the other does reading/maths app (theyre still young so doesn’t take too long) and then after dinner they play/read/bath -

we do an activity 7.00 - 8.30 pm one day (after dinner) and two other activists through after school: football is 3.30 - 4.30 - the other activity is 3.00 - 4.00 and we do a sat morning swim class.

I really like to have them in bed by 7.30 as we have an a early start/I like to enjoy some quiet evening

My DD has volleyball practice 3 days a week so we don't usually sit down together on those days unless I do dinner for 7 when she's home but other evenings we eat together.

But why is there something wrong with it? If someone’s routine allows them to eat at 6 and they want to, then why shouldn’t they? I’m starving at that time and my work schedule and kids schedule allows us to normally eat around then. Sometimes we do eat later but whatever works…..

We do. Four kids. My husband gets home at 4 and picks the youngest up from nursery, meets next youngest off school bus and cooks dinner. I usually get home just before six and set the table etc. We’re not always all together at the table depending on clubs etc but 4/7 nights we all eat at the same time and the other nights one person will eat earlier or later because of activities. We always had family dinner at 6 when I was growing up.

6pm is early if you’re in full time work unless you working in an industry
that finishes the day at 4ish
or you wfh and finish at 5ish
or you don’t have to commute far to work

In our industry we really don’t have a finish time so one of us just had to make sure we could pick the kids up or be home to cook at least ( when they were older and made their own way home ). We’d be doing very very well if that was 6pm.

This ts really tricky.
When im working i do long days so DH feeds the kids and puts them to bed.
When im on days off, we really try to all eat together but on the nights we have various clubs (Tues, Weds, Thurs) its something quick and easy like jacket potato or beans and egg on toast. My boys are still quite young so on the nights they have activities it's dinner then bed! It's not often at 6 because of all the stuff going on!

We've always eaten around 6.30 but we're retired so it's easy for us. At the moment the kids' extra curricular stuff like music lessons doesn't interfere with mealtimes but it has done in the past - we just ate earlier, or later.

Our dinner time is 5:30; 6 latest. Clubs finish 4:45 latest for my kid and home by 5

I think commute is a factor too, which makes it difficult for us. DH just isn't around in the week due to long hours/travel time, but the children have never known any different. There are four of them in any event, so mealtimes tend to be quite lively even if we're not eating!