Supper? What do you do

[IVFthenPERI]

4 year old twins have their dinner at 4pm. They’ve been at my parents today so they’ve had pizza & veg sticks

they’re now drinking a cup or milk - 1 with a slice of bread & butter and 1 with a tea cake.

do you children have supper if they have an early dinner and if so what do they have?

I simply asked if your children had supper then what did they have? I’m happy with our routines

I just never knew this was a thing. I have never eaten anything after my evening meal.

Crikey. I know I don't live in the uk but surely they are just finishing lunch then ?

I live in Hampshire and my kids eat dinner at 4.30pm (when I’m organised). Breakfast at 7, lunch around 11.30/12 and dinner 4.30/5.

4yo has a piece of toast/hot cross bun/yoghurt/banana/bowl of cereal before bed, depending on how hungry he is.

It was always a thing in my family growing up, tea around 5ish and supper before bed.

@Goldencup "I just never knew this was a thing. I have never eaten anything after my evening meal."

Not even if you have your evening meal at 4.00 in the afternoon?

When I was growing up (Not the UK either) a typical day would be;

7 am- breakfast
12 pm- lunch at work or school
4 pm- small snack after school- celery with peanut butter used to be my usual
6.30- dinner
9.pm- cup of coffee and maybe a biscuit or crumpet. Usually called 'supper'.

Why are people ignoring the Ops question and being difficult asking "but whyyyyy have dinner at 4pm, I don't understaaaaaand"

🙄🙄🙄

Growing up in the north in the 1960/70s supper was a glass of milk and a biscuit shortly before bed time. I continued this with my daughters in the 90s when I would cook dinner for them separately and earlier than dh and I ate.
The idea of supper as the name of the evening meal didn’t come onto my radar until I went to university, I still can’t use it in that context. It feels very southern/sometimes pretentious depending on who is saying it. Regional differences, long may they continue.

and yes not sure why people are focusing so hard on the OP's schedule.You tend to do what works for the family... we now eat at 5.30 and my children are just teens, but that's when we all get home and we are hungry. Then they often have muffins / toast / jam and hot chocolate an hour before bed.

I hate to be that person but I’d be permanently hungry if I was constantly eating ultra processed carbs like toast/cereal/fruit yoghurt for snacks.

Why are people ignoring the Ops question

because it seems unusual to eat a meal at a time when a lot of people are still at work.

OP - to expand on what we tend to eat as supper.

-Omelette with toast
-finger sandwiches
-scones - I like to do a courgette and cheese scone which we have warm with butter (I just use a regular scone mix and add grated courgette and cheese)
-soup with cheesy croutons

Mine always had supper. They had small appetites so needed supper to get enough calories in.

I'd usually do something like wholemeal toast with butter or cream cheese or crackers and cheese cubes, a glass of milk and chunks of banana, apple or pear. Sometimes they'd have cereal and carrot sticks, sometimes tinned spaghetti with grated cheese.

Why dont you suggest some alternatives then? Just a thought.

When 4 yr old DD is in nursery they have tea at 3.30 ish so on those days she has supper. Nursery tea is a smaller meal as they have their cooked meal at lunchtime but suppers over the years have varied.

If she's having a growth spurt she'll happily eat a bowl of pasta or something at 6.30 but more realistically suppers have been:

Cheese/cream cheese and crackers (with or without some veg sticks)
Scrambled egg on/with toast
"Snack plate" - fruit and veg sticks, breadsticks, cubes of cheese
Scrambled egg and beans
Soup (popular on cold winter days!)
Weetabix
Cheese on toast
Cheesy mash (sometimes with a bit of veg or beans)

Often she'll have a little bit of whatever we're having or a small portion of some leftovers from the day before (bit of pasta, rice and stuff etc.).

If she liked hummus then some breadsticks and/or carrot sticks with hummus would be great but she's never been a fan!

Our eating regime changes depending on the day of the week, because we have home days, childminder data, and a preschool day.
Home days- light snack at 2.30 ish, dinner and yoghurt/ fruit/ occasional ice cream at 5.30-6.30.
Childminder days- pasta type full dinner, but probably not a massive portion at 4.30-5.15 pm, small pudding after. Needs something like a slice of quiche or crumpet before bed.
Preschool day- 'teatime' at 4.30, veg crackers and dip, crumpets or finger sandwiches size. Needs a small portion of dinner at 6pm.

So our smaller options for later are crumpets and cheese spread, slice of quiche, bowl of Weetabix, sausage roll, plate of ham/ cheese/ whatever. Picky type stuff that we don't need to cook.

Supper threads on here always interest my as I've never heard anyone in real life where I live refer to having supper. We just have breakfast, lunch and dinner (although most here seem to call lunch dinner...but that's another debate altogether!).

I think eating a full meal at 4pm is a but unusual especially calling it dinner. I night do it in a Sunday or Christmas day but then I wouldn't eat again

Because if they weren't eating dinner in the middle of the afternoon, she wouldn't need to start a thread asking what people do about supper 😂

OP can't they have a snack at 4 and then dinner at a more sensible time?

It's intersting because eating earlier is supposedly correlated with better health outcomes but most of these " Supper choices" are very processed:
slice of quiche, bowl of Weetabix, sausage roll, plate of ham/ cheese/ whatever. Picky type stuff that we don't need to cook.

I suppose our equivalent is the 4pm snack, which was something like: Homemade tray bake ( flapjack/ lemon drizzle/ chocolate brownie) or home made cheese scones or oatcakes with cheese or peanut butter and a piece of fruit. This was usually " on the go" as we would often go to the park/ libary/woods or swimming after school. Nursery fed them @ 4:30 but they called it tea.

TBH Dd had a bottle (200mls) of milk at bedtime until she was nearly 4.DS ( now 19) still makes himself Greek Yoghurt,banna and honey.

When they were very little on very tired nights I made eggy bread or French toast serve with hm jam always devoured.

jesus i'm sick of hearing about this ultra processed rubbish. been eating toast for 100s of years for god sake. another silly fad to scare people to death

Lol is this a round about way of asking if I work 😂

yes I do work 2 days a week, and the days that I am at work they go to my mums after school, who also sticks to the same schedule.

my husband often works late so me & my girls will all eat together between 4-5pm and I plate up a dinner for my DH. He does work from home a lot so sometimes he’ll come downstairs, eat dinner with us and then go back to work.

this gives me time to get tidied up, bath them, and then give a little bit of supper whilst they wind down ready for bed

The chorley wood process for making bread has only been around since WW2. Do you think it is normal for bread products to not go off for days and weeks. I am sure people said the same of smoking in the '50's. It's up to you, but for me the evidence is there.