Boring but nosy q: what time you you eat dinner?

[JensonsAcolyte]

Or have your tea

We have our main meal at around 5.30- 6pm, always have done.

I know from on here that some people like to eat much later, I’m fascinated by that as I’d be super hangry by 8pm but I appreciate people with long commutes might not get home until then.

Anyway, in the interests of my nosiness, what time do you eat and why?

Ours is that time because it’s the way we were both brought up and it always fitted around the kids and evening activities. Even though the kids are older and I work several evenings a week we’ve stuck to it.

Ooh and do you all eat together as a family or do you feed the kids early and yourselves late?

DC's eat between 5.30-6. always eat together on a weekend (around 6) and sometimes during the week (since the pandemic and we are all at home), otherwise DH and I eat later about 7.30-8.

Do you cook twice or do you reheat what you’ve made for the kids?

DC's and I used to eat at 5.30/6ish and I had a glass of wine with DH at 9.30ish which is when he got home. He had the same as us reheated.

Nowadays DH and I tend to eat at 8/8.30ish - full on jobs. If DC are home they eat with us. They aren26 and 22.

Weekends we eat at 7ish.

Honestly, left to my own devices I think I'd have breakfast at 9.30/10 and my main meal at 4.30ish and lose weight

We eat between 8 and 9 because we don't get in from work until gone 6.

Don’t get in from work until 6:30. So, cook, and eat around 7:30.

Between 6 and 6.30 usually. That's just the time we both usually hungry for dinner and DD as well. Her bedtime routine begins between 7 and 7.30 some couldn't eat later. We usually eat after she's in bed at 8/8.30 about one night a week or so if we are disorganised and get a takeaway or whatever but we are both starving by that time and often have to have a snack about 6ish anyway.

It varies massively. Weekends around 6.30.

Most weekdays around 6. But when ds has athletics we eat something light around 5.15.

And we had a taste of pre-covid on Friday when DH went into the office and wasn't home until after 7, so we didn't eat until around 7.45.

I'm definitely in the minority of eating my tea at around 4.45. I work 12 shifts though so on my work days I eat my tea at 3.45 then have a snack when I get home. Dinner is at 11.45 when at home or 10.45 when at work.

We used to eat anywhere between 7.30 and 9 PM because of commutes and working hours.

Now we are both at home and we’ve moved to having dinner ready somewhere between 6 and 7 because recently my DH tends to find it difficult to sleep if we eat too late.

When my children were little I used to eat with them at 6.

Toddlers 7pm, from Primary 7:30 to 8pm

Adults 8 or 9 - sometimes 10. We are not very strict on our diner time ,depends what time we are home really. Mainly 8pm.

Kids have their afternoon snack around 4, so don't need any more food until 7ish. By they time they have been to various clubs, done homework, we are lucky if they are sitted by 7:30!

DC: 6pm
Us: 9.30/10pm

Usually about 5/5.30

Because ds is a swimmer. So quite often he's been up at 4 and swimming at 5 and so is starving by then or he's swimming at 7 and needs to eat beforehand.

Except sundays when we have dinner at 3.30pm as he swims early evening!

6ish. Before we had DC, DH and I would eat at about 7. 6 fits in better with putting DC to bed as I wanted us to all eat together. A couple of days each week I am at work until 9pm so we don't all eat together all the time, and at the moment DH is on some kind of diet that means he doesn't eat until much later.

Depends on evening clubs. But usually 5.30-6.30ish. We're quite flexible. All together usually (DDs are 8&9). Exception is when they have Cubs which starts at 5.30. I make them an earlier dinner. DH gets home around 7pm on that day, we eat after he is home.

Depends a bit on each day's schedule, but on a normal day:

Lunch 2-2:30pm
Dinner 9pm

Why? I'm Spanish and those are the normal times for meals, if a little on the early side. Children and adults alike, we all eat at the same time. I also get in from work quite late normally, so 9pm is when food is ready to eat.

Lunch is the main meal though, and I'll normally have a snack in between lunch and dinner.

When DC were younger always around 5.30-6. I hate late dinner too, OP. But these days it has slid back to around 6.30-7pm which is fine. Eating at 8pm would make me hangry as you said. And by 9pm I'd just not bother. I'd rather wait until breakfast by then!

Around 7.30. Dates back to the many years when dh would never be home before 7.

I’d be hungry again before bedtime and prowling the kitchen looking for something to pick at, if we ate at 5.30-6.

Growing up we always ate together at 5, so we’ve just stuck to that and all sit up the table together for tea at 5ish.

Also being nosey and boring here, but those who eat later do you cook something different for yourselves or have same as kids earlier? And how late do you then go to bed after eating tea if you have it later in the evening? Sorry

Between 7.30-8pm on nursery/work days (aim for 7.30 but some things take a bit longer to cook). Weekend/day off is sometimes 5/5.30pm with DD and sometimes 7.30/8pm after she's gone to bed.

On nursery days toddler DD just has a light supper because she's had tea at nursery so we cook for ourselves after she's gone to bed. We both have snack mid afternoon if we eat at this time because we tend to have lunch early because breakfast was early.

On non-nursery days we try to eat with her when we can and then it'll be more like 5-5.30pm.

When she's older and at school I hope we will eat together more in the week but at the moment this works for us.

To answer someone else's question - we generally go to bed between 9.30 and 10pm (sometimes later at weekends or if we have something on). On the earlier end at the moment because DD and I have colds and our sleep is more disrupted than usual. We're up as a family around 6am-ish (6.30 if we're lucky!) so tend to go to bed on the earlier end. I get migraines if I don't get enough sleep.

@savanahnana

Growing up we always ate together at 5, so we’ve just stuck to that and all sit up the table together for tea at 5ish.

Also being nosey and boring here, but those who eat later do you cook something different for yourselves or have same as kids earlier? And how late do you then go to bed after eating tea if you have it later in the evening? Sorry

Everyone eats the same meal. Children in bed around 9.30pm, adults an hour later or so? So max 2h between dinner and bed. It can vary a bit. Weekends bedtime is much, much later.

Dinner around 12.30
Tea 5-5.30

DC age 4 and 8 eat at 6pm. We might have a s ack with them at the same time. We cook for us after the after DC are in bed (8 year old allowed to read to himself until 8:15 after we read him stories) and so eat adult dinner at about 8:15-8:30pm. Partly because we aren't finished work at 6pm, partly because we don't want to eat what they eat, partly because we like our adult time together relaxing over di net after they are in bed.

On Sundays I make a roast and we all eat that together at 6pm.

7.30-8pm. Used to be a bit later when we lived in Spain though not nearly as late as our neighbours.

5.30pm. We usually eat the same thing as DD (3). Before DD it was more like 6-6.30pm.