To ask whether your DCs have supper?

[Readytomakechanges]

When my DCs were younger the schedule was always:
7am - breakfast
10am - small snack
Midday - lunch
3:30pm - tea
6pm - supper (which consists of cereal or toast).
6:30pm - bedtime routine starts
7pm - lights off
This was how I ate as a child and I remember having supper throughout primary school.
Now DC1 is at school (DC1 is 5, DC2 is 2), tea is getting a little later - around 4:30pm. I'm finding that sometimes they've only just finished eating tea and it's time to eat again. Other times they'll refuse the healthy tea (we have a take it or leave it, but you get nothing else until the next scheduled meal approach to eating) as they'll put up with the hunger for a short while as they'd prefer cereal.
I think I'd like to knock supper on the head, but not sure how to go about this as the kids love it.
How do other people organise their meals? Is it normal for primary aged children to eat supper?
Ultimately I want them to eat healthily and have a healthy attitude to eating.

I love chickpeas, I often have a little bowl as a snack.

DS is still a baby but when DBro and I were primary school age we'd have often have a mug of warm milk and a couple of biscuits or some toast if we were hungry before bedtime. We'd have a snack after school and then dinner with our parents at 7, bedtime would have been 9ish. That sounds like loads of food but it was the olden days where if we weren't at a club we would have been outside playing on our bikes/in the fields/in the local playground.

Our 5DC breakfast between 7 and 7.30,3DC are still at school and 2 at work.
If it's a weekend,an inset day or the school holidays then breakast can be any time between 7 and 9.

Lunch and pudding at school/work between 12 and 1,at home between 12 and 2.

Dinner and pudding between 6 and 6.30.

Supper the 3 youngest usually have before 8.30 and the oldest 2 DS18 and DS20 whenever they want to.

Nope. Three meals a day and rarely have snacks. They seemed to need them when they were smaller but now never ask so I don't offer. They eat well at meals. Ages 6, 9 and 10.

My DS is 16 now but as a small child:
Breakfast at 6.30am (or 7:30am at the childminder's)
Lunch between 12pm and 1pm (at childminder's)
Tea at 7pm

Fruit or crackers and cheese/pate for occasional snacks but I didn't finish work till 5pm then by the time I was home it was knocking on for half six so tea was as soon as it could be made. Not much has changed except tea is usually between 7pm and 8pm these days and DS doesn't bother with breakfast.

No, seems odd having full meal at 12 then again at 3.30pm. How are they hungry enough within 3hrs? Then surely they are waiting until morning for another main meal?

Children age 5 and 6 here, meal times roughly the same since tiny.

Breakfast -8am
Lunch -1pm
Snack -4pm ( not every day, just if they want)
Dinner- 7pm

Times alter by an hour roughly if we are busy, weekends etc.

I just operate on three "adult" meals a day for all family including primary school age children - breakfast before work/school, lunch (hot meal in school, something simpler like sandwiches when at home) just after midday and dinner at 7 pm (hot meal, the largest meal of the day). Small snacks between meals are allowed, as long as not too much sugar is consumed. It would drive me bonkers if I had to feed the children at different times than myself. I'd feel chained to the kitchen.

And yes we all eat at 7/7.30pm dinner together. 3.30-4.30pm is the middle of the afternoon and everyone still at school and work

Is supper a common thing then? Who knew!

Sometimes DS will ask for something to eat after dinner, if he has it early/stays up later than normal and if so it will be fruit or toast, but is there supposed to be another meal in the normal day that I wasn't aware of??

Christ. Your schedule seems awfully rigid.

Breakfast, lunch and dinner here and crisps a snack at a non-prescribed time if he asks for one.

DS will sometimes have a bowl of cereal before bed, esp on a Monday and a Wednesday when we have an early dinner due to activities, and when I say early I mean 4.45-5pm... not 3.30, that seems very early to me. I'd be snacking all night if I ate that early.

My kids are 7, 4 and 2 and have:

7am breakfast
9ish fruit
11.30/12 lunch
Afternoon snack of yoghurt/fruit/crackers
5pm dinner
And if they're hungry after dinner, fruit again.

This would be a non school day but school day similar enough. Never had supper and neither do my kids. We're lucky in that DH is home by 5 so we all eat together. DH and I would usually have a snack, fruit or a yoghurt (or chocolate!) after the kids are in bed.

My DS is 6, and has a fairly small appetite.He is a bit fussy though, and quite small fpr his age. Smallest in the class. We have;

6.30 am - breakfast - today was fairly usual, boiled egg, 1 slice toast with butter, hot milk.

10 am - snack at school provided by me - cucumber sticks, babybel and apple - He would eat most of it

12 pm - school lunch - cooked lunch with pudding and bread and butter

4.00 - hot chocolate and maybe a fairy cake

6 pm - dinner, whatever we have.

Oh and bed at 7.15.

Dinner at 5, then supper at 7.30, cereal. Then what he calls secondaries at 8. Apple and a biscuit

Bed at 8.45

3.30 is very early for an evening meal. DD has never eaten that early, although she is hungry when she gets home from school, so she has a snack. We usually eat our main meal between 6 and 7 pm, mainly because I am not prepared to cook twice. Also OH and I are not hungry before then.

So we don't do supper because we don't need it.

Mine are secondary so a later tea is a necessity, about 6-7pm if we're lucky depending on homework/clubs so supper for them is a glass of milk and a biscuit/square of chocolate. They really look forward to it though as it's part of the bedtime wind down.

Breakfast 7am
Lunch midday
Snack 3
Tea 5:30ish
For a three year old

We have basically always had the same schedule since they were weaned!

Breakfast 7.30
Lunch 12.30
After school at 4.30 - snack (toast or fruit)
Dinner 7.30 (was 7 when they were toddlers)

I'd have thought that supper was a meat and two veg meal, whereas tea was something lighter.

isitjust- Mine are secondary so a later tea is a necessity, about 6-7pm

I find just the opposite. My teenagers are busy in the evening. DD has to be out of the house again at 5pm 4 nights a week and isn't back until after 9pm.so she has to eat her main meal at 4.30pm.

I don't know how old your DD is Mindtrope, but at 16 my DD has far too much homework to do after school activities 4 nights a week.

We do breakfast 7ish, lunch 12/1 or kids have it at school if term time, dinner between 6/7.30. Dc's might have a snack before dinner but very rarely anything after, maybe a biscuit with a cup of tea. I always thought you had tea or supper or dinner and that they were essentially the same thing! Maybe I'm "common"?!

nickname my DD is 16,

Breakfast
Snack at school break
Lunch
Small snack after school club
Dinner

Bed.

That's what our primary school age DS does