To ask those of you who have a later family dinner get young dc to bed on time?

[Newtothis2015]

My 2 and 6 year old normally eat dinner at 4.30pm with me, there dad gets home at 6pm and reheats his later. I have been doing a trial of us all eating dinner at 6pm and it is not working for the following:
1: dd is starving after school and is eating a dinner sizes snack after school (think toast, biscuits, cheese, sausage rolls, Apple, all at once!)
2: it takes youngest dd 45 minutes to eat dinner as she is slow and steady and has a pudding too which she also eats slow and steady
3: dh sometimes has a late lunch at work and doesn't always want to eat straight after work
4: I am tired by 6.45pm and am slow at cleaning the kitchen
5: the kids are not in bed until 7.30 with a 6 dinner and take an hour to fall asleep so are not asleep until 8.30 and do not want to wake in the mornings

Shall I put this down as not working? Or are there any of you who manage a 6pm dinner and kids asleep by 7pm? If so how do you do it??

I'm a childminder and most days have children age 1,2, 2.5, 5,6,7 & 9. Ive tried various routines over the years that will suit all ages and have found that decent snack after school around 3:45 (serving of fruit plus something like cheese & biscuits, fruit loaf, cheesy scones etc) then proper cooked tea at 5:30pm/6pm works best for everyone. My eldest DC (9) might then have cereal or a banana if he comes home late from a club but I know my parents are all happy as when I changed from no snack & 4:30 tea a couple commented on how great it was not to have kids wanting snacks before bedtime!

If you do shift to a later tea then I'd get bathtime done first and forego sugary treats as these definitely affect my DC in the evening.

ty for support forestdreams I do feel like I'm being a poor mum letting my girl eat at 3.30 by the replies I'm receiving, but the girl is starving. She has only been in school 1 week to this day so I'm not concerned today she managed to eat at 5, yesterday it was 4.00.

I'm not worried about her dinner time I'm very relaxed about it ive had 4 kids another on the way every child is different, and her routine will settle soon.

ive ordered her a food thermos ive had my eye on it for a while so she can be my guinea pig, shell be happy to get her fave spaghetti Bolognese she could eat that all week if I allowed it lol

We do what you do OP- I normally eat with 3yo and 6yo at 5, dh eats alone. Saturdays we all dine together, Sundays the kids have theirs together and dh and I eat together later. Works for us...I wouldn't change it. The kids get soo ratty if dinner is any later and dh has a late lunch so wouldn't eat as soon as he got in. The ideal family dinner just sometimes doesn't happen for years

We all eat at 6 and both kids in bed between 7 and 730. They both have a snack after dd1 has finished school. Dd2 takes a while to eat but then they dont have a bath every night.

My kids always needed pretty much what the nhs recommend in terms of sleep eg at 4 years they needed about 12 hours a night so i had to get them in bed by 7 as we leave the house by 750 on work days. Bath bed stories wind down always took an hour, so I needed to be finished by 6 not starting.i am happy to eat at 5.30pm too..i eat breakfast at 7, lunch at 12, so tea at 5 makes sense. Dh's tea in the oven or he sorts his own out.