Any other early dinner eaters out there?

[HorrorFan81]

I grew up always eating dinner around 5.30/6 so I guess got used to eating fairly early

I now WFH and finish at 4 and it's not unheard of for me to eat dinner around 4.30. 6 would be late for me. I quite like intermittent fasting but always need breakfast (eat around 9am) so this gives me a decent non eating window

If I eat later than 6 I would need a snack after work, which is extra calories. If I eat early I don't snack before bed - that would be me done for the day and won't eat again till breakfast

I read on here about people eating at 9pm, I would honestly be gnawing my arm off 🤣

Obviously not everyone can facilitate eating so early with work / clubs etc but anyone else prefer an early dinner?

Last meal at 430pm. Mumsnet is hilarious.

We eat at 5 every day as a family.

I remember growing up it was the same, but at one point my mum made dinner for like 4 or something ridiculous and that was way too early. But generally it was 5!

That's not 'normal' though for most families. 9pm dinner, with children, is really late! It's late even without children for the vast majority of people. Of course 'some' will eat late but I'd say they were in the minority. Send your daughter with a shit tonne of snacks next time 😆

Lots of people where I live (NW England) eat tea at 5:30. I'm from the SE though and a normal dinner time for me is 7 or 7:30. Dh and I don't get home from work until 6 anyway

I see this divide
If you call it tea no then it's eaten early
If you call it dinner then it's later.
Another pp mentioned that a 5pm meal is seen as childish, tbh the word " tea" out of a grown man just makes me cringe, as does eating at 5pm -implies you can't wait
As small children we had " nursery tea" or adults " afternoon tea"
Both were small sandwiches, something on toast, scones or a crumpet , a little cake etc

We've always had dinner at 5 since we've had the kids. DH and DC will have some dessert and fruit later on. I like having the 14 hour fast overnight.

When I work in office I am home shattered at 6.15pm and need a break before cooking. When I wfh I love having a break, reading, doing some admin, sorting out washing before cooking.

DH works normally until 6pm as most of his clients are in the US.

DD isn't home twice a week before 7pm.

So dinner is 7-7.30pm.

I can't stomach the idea of cooking in the afternoon.

I grew up in Germany with breakfast at 7am, a hot lunch after school (1/2 days), coffee and cake/biscuts at 4pm and a cold dinner at 7pm.
I swapped it to cold lunch and hot dinner and the cake is often a yoghurt but the timing still stands.

Pre-child it was normally around 9pm, sometimes as late as 10pm in the summer if we had lots of garden jobs to get done after work or went to the beach for a few hours.
Now we have a DD who is in after school club until 5pm so we eat together between 6-7pm.

That grown man traditionally may have been doing manual work all day and be starting work at 6am so why should he wait if he doesn't have to?

My dad called the food he took to eat at work his snap, I bet you think thats cringe too?

Funny how people from the SE who consider themselves so sophisticated are so ignorant about the cultural heritage of the country they live in.

Same here - that's why I sup later on in the evening after dinner🤪

@Berlinlover excuse my stupid post. I wasn't reading it properly what you had posted 🙈😬🫣🤣

Definitely we are all up at the crack if Dawn, and growing up I had dinner 4.30pm. It's just always been that way.

DH found it odd eating that early but soon acclimatised to the mealtimes early on in our relationship. I like dinner done and dusted.

Ha, DH calls me “early bird special” because I won’t eat after 7pm and that, in his eyes, is the absolute earliest one should book a table/eat dinner 🤣
Basically I have to have at least 3 hours between finishing a meal and going to sleep, the one time last year I tried a late meal (friend booked a table at 9pm!) I barely ate anything and was up until 2am with indigestion

I eat a piece of fruit like an apple to stave of hunger if going out for an evening meal (rare these days though as I'm rarely out in the evenings to eat food).

My inlaws eat at 4-4.30! It would awful for me that! I eat at 8pm! But I have a very odd relationship with food anyway and I don't eat anything else.

So no breakfast, no dinner and tea at 8pm earliest would be 7.30pm! I might have a bag of quavers if I feel faint!

What if I eat past 7pm but call it dinner?

Are you not hungry by bed time? If was going to bed 6hrs after eating my stomach would keep me awake! Unless you go to bed early too?

I fast but don't eat breakfast, so eat at 12-1 and 7-8.

A little bit but not enough to bother me

I guess in the opposite way, I couldn't not eat till 12 - I would be way too hungry all morning, even if i do eat later in the evening

Guess it's just the way our bodies work (or what we are used to 🤷‍♀️)

Why is that hilarious??

Where did I mention SE? , you are assuming
I'm not even from the UK

I was talking about the time the pp quoted
early-tea
late-dinner
tea is either a drink or a children's tea in my country not a main meal so it sounds twee from a grown man.

With regards to the dinner/tea discussion

I grew up in the NW and called it breakfast, dinner and tea. Supper was some toast or cereal before bed

When I went to Uni everyone was very confused when I called 'lunch' dinner and 'dinner' tea so I adapted what i called it but it's definitely a regional thing (for those who seem to be scoffing at people calling it tea)

I just posted about this but calling dinner 'tea' is very normal in the NW England. Don't know about other areas

We eat between 5 and 5.30. it does seem early to so many but my daughter is always so hungry from school, but really it started years ago when I used to start work at 7am, all meals shifted earlier and just kind of stayed that way.

Growing up I ate dinner around 7.30 and my mum was quite snobby about people who ate early. I started eating earlier when I had young children who needed to be in bed early so needed dinner earlier, no chance I was doing two dinner times or cooking twice. I prefer it now! I love that all the clear up is done by 7 pm and my body seems to prefer it too. If I have to eat late I have toast or cereal or a sandwich at around 4pm to keep me going so basically add another meal in 😳. After dinner I don’t eat until morning so generally go 14 hours or so without eating but I can’t not eat in the morning, it makes me feel really ill.