To think most people *haven't* eaten dinner by 6pm??

[JumboShiitake]

According to DP "most people" have eaten dinner by 6pm.

Referring to adults, not children.

He's obsessed with eating at a time I consider pretty early.

I'm giving him the side eye

Dinner is at 5pm for us

To the people who eat late (8pm or later) are you not starving in between lunch and dinner? I eat lunch at 12/1 and am always desperate for my dinner by 5.30/6pm.... i am a greedy cow though.

I do all the cooking in our house so we eat when I'm hungry which can be anywhere between 5 and half 7. If dh doesn't like it he knows where the oven is!

It doesn't prove he's wrong. It proves theres many like him!!! Even if the mumsnet majority is much later.

The majority in my area would be 5.30/6ish too. With kids and after work.

We sit down with our DS when he has his dinner and eat together which is around 5:30. Before we had DS it was anytime between 7-8

@Pukkatea

If I ate before 6 I'd need another meal before I went to bed. I eat at 8. Early dinner does seem to be an odd English quirk though, one that I think is slowly dying out.

In the US dinner service tends to start around 3.30, in small towns it's almost impossible to get a decent meal after 8.30, we were often caught out by that, fast food places only.

I eat before 6pm but I do everything early. I get up at 5am, breakfast at 6am, lunch around 12pm and go to bed by 9pm. I don't work from home but I live a 10 minute walk from my workplace so no big commute.

It was not unheard of for us to previously have had dinner at 10pm but more usually around 8pm.
Now we eat around 6pm as we have a 10 month old and like to all eat together.

Now DC are older, I aim for 7-7.30pm. Saves too much snacking in the evening .

Until youngest DC was about 8, I used to do it for 6pm but DH (and DD before she started wfh) wouldn’t normally be home before 7.30 and I resent cooking a nice meal and then leaving it to go cold!

We eat 539-6 with kids

I'd say it's fairly normal to eat after 6pm.
We don't have a fixed routine and eat anywhere between 4 to 9pm now we're all at home.

Dinner 8:30-9:30 usually here, we are both often working until 7:30/8!

Oh gawd that’s very early sure I’m still working at 6!!

I’m eating earlier at the moment - super pregnant and eating late just isn’t working for me! But I tend to have something light for dinner now and leave my husband to get his own later 😂😂

I get home at 6pm, DH at 7.30. Adults eat at 8pm, children 5pm.

How early would you have to get home to have cooked and eaten before 6pm? How many jobs and commutes allow that? Not many (even now, especially not in normal times)

I think it depends doesn't it. There are still plenty of people where we live who walk to work (small city.) DH works in the civil service and has flexi so he starts really early as we're usually up with DS anyway, finishes around 4 and is home before half past usually.

Supper is around 7:00 - 7:30pm here.
Dinners would be marginally later, but we can’t have them at the moment.

It kind of depends where you live and basically, how provincial you are.

Always eat after kids in bed. Generally eat at 9. I like to eat and then sleep!!

We eat before 6. Cant eat after that as i feel it just sits there and i feel sick.

I dont nibble in the evening neither.

I hate early dinners and having a schedule. I think growing up in a home when eating times were regimented has put me off. My DC all ate at a reasonable time when younger and put to bed and then adults would eat. As we got older we would eat with the DC and still do. I hate eating early ......however both my DH pre lockdown worked until after 5 and therefore meals were late. I WFH and to prep food but no way I am eating before 7.

Because we eat with the kids we eat at 6-6.30pm. If I had the choice it would be 8.30pm

@LizFlowers It is definitely a class thing. Just like whether it’s dinner or tea. Working people eat early because they are too hungry to wait. Middle-class and upwards eat later because they are home from their commute. I have heard it said many times it’s common to eat early.

Plenty of jobs of jobs finish before 6.pm Manufacturing, retail. Cleaning. Office work.

Yes I know. I was replying to a pp who said that very few jobs finish would allow this.

And I said plenty of jobs finish early. I probably should have said by five or half five.

Also my point still stands plenty of people are home by that time and eaten by six!

I live in a town where I work as does dp..and many many people who live around us. No commute, shift work, part time, full time etc means.. shock.. home and eaten by 6

'Surely most people aren’t home by 6? '

Of course they are.
Mumsnet again. Thinking most people work in big cities or live in the southeast and have long commutes on the train or work long hours in finance

Sahm, shift workers, part time,even full time in manufacturing. My own cleaning job means I'm finished early. Council workers etc

I'm sure many of you work past 6 or 7 on mumsnet but thats not my experience in rl

6.30 suits me 😬

All the adults I know eat at 6 or later. Most eat around 7.

I've known a family in the past who eat at 5pm every day without fail.

I would say most people (at least the people I know) don't eat before 6. Of course there are many people who eat before then. None of you are wrong. I personally wouldn't want to eat before 7, it's just too early for me.