What time do your kids have dinner (evening meal)?

[EmM1189]

If you have kids 2-10yrs old, what time do you feed them in the evening?

Someone i follow on Instagram had posted a photo of her child eating dinner at 4:30pm… to me that seems really early?

Trying to figure out if i’m the odd one out here!

5/5.30pm most times, but I would love to get it back to 4.30pm and the kids to bed earlier. It's creeped forwards. Saves them snacking so much after school if you do it earlier. They eat at 4.30pm on after school club/ nursery days so makes sense to do it then, just gets a bit hectic so end up doing it later (and having to come up with more substantial snacks in the interim) but do what works for you

630 usually. 730 once a week. Twice a week DD(10) eats half her meal, goes out, we eat and she eats at 830 when she's home again.

6-6:30, even when they are little. They can have a snack after school and dinner later so we all eat at the same time. I can’t be arsed with cooking multiple meals (plus that’s more expensive) and 4:30 is in the middle of my working day!

Kids eat dinner 6pm (before adults home from work. DH and I get home, do bath time, stories, bedtime for kids, then make our dinner and eat dinner 8:30pm. Will love it when kids are old enough we can all eat dinner together at 7:30pm, which is what I'd think of a "normal" dinner time.

From birth (well weaning) - 6.30pm to 7pm

When she was around 9-10 - anything from 7pm onwards.

She was always in childcare and we weren't home before 5.30/6pm. She had a snack at nursery/childminder in the afternoon, enough to keep her going until dinner.

I personally find it pointless cooking twice each day. When she had early dinner at a playdate, she still needed food when home.

Have an 8 and 10 year old. Aim to dish up around 5.45 - 6pm in the week. More like 5 on a Tuesday due to Cubs after teatime. Weekends can be a bit more slack. And if DH is cooking all bets are off as he faffs forever!

DD 4 and we eat at 5pm

When they were all really little we would often eat at 4.30-5. Same as PP have said, I’d rather they had a proper meal after nursery and then get bedtime routine started early so plenty of time for stories, a long bath etc.

Nowadays we are lucky to ever eat before 6pm, sometimes it’s more like 7pm. They’re 4, 6 and 9.

DD is 4. She has tea between 5-6pm depending what we're doing/where we are/when she had lunch etc.

My 2 primary age kids are usually asking what's for tea as soon as we get home. They eat early around 4.30. Older kids eat a bit later between 6-7. They all have tea & toast before bed.

We all eat together at 6pm. Snack after school at 3.30.

5ish but it’s irrelevant as I’m feeding them all fucking day

Pate I hope.

😂 but of course!

430/5 dd is 5. Bed 630

6.30 with us from tots, families should eat together

I agree that families should eat together and am surprised how many of you 'feed' your children separately?!

This wouldn't happen in many southern European countries from my experience

Well UK isn't a Southern European country. Long working hours, commutes, high cost of living here all mean the big famiglia meal is just a fantasy for most.

We do it at weekends

I wasn't brought up that structured and I'm not either. She has a snack when she gets home from school and dinner about 6pm, which is usually tomato pasta or spaghetti hoops and waffles. The pasta is healthy but the other meal isn't as much and I give her a plate of fruit and veg to eat beforehand if she has that.

These are really the only two dinners she will eat. She stopped eating the meals I cook, which are varied, about a year ago and became "picky".

She always has weetabix for breakfast and she has a cheese sandwich, crisps, and biscuits for lunch at school.

She eats pasta on the weekends too. She can't get enough of it. I blend it with lots of veggies so it's healthy.

We eat our tea at about 5:15pm each night, one seven year old and a one year old. Any later and it would be too close to our oldests bedtime.

5-5.30 for 2 yo. 10 yo tends to eat with us around 7.30 which is too late really but he’s not hungry as early as 5 generally.

I think it has more to do with the view that children go to bed very early to "have the evening back" compared to other countries. I don't think it's a Southern European issue, I never heard of this from my friends back in Germay who have children and none of us had dinner extra and the parents ate later when we grew up.

None of the childcare settings we looked at did a proper dinner, most had snacks or food so early that DD needed a second meal before bed anyway.

Between 5 and 6.

6.30 normally.
7.30 on a Tuesday after Cubs
Friday... DD1 eats around 5 before Scouts. DD2 has a substantial snack at 4.30, then Rugby Practice, then dinner at 8pmish after sges home and devoid of mud. Not helped by it taking 45mins on a Friday to get to Rugby due to traffic.

Over the years we've adjusted times around clubs and bedtimes. It was 4.30 when bed was 6pm, and 5.30 when bed was 7pm

We eat together. Just at 5ish.