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

I don’t know anyone who eats an evening meal after 6:30pm. Between 5:30 to 6:30 round here.

I go to bed at 10. I’d be uncomfortable if l ate at 9 or 8:30.

And what do late eaters do between midday and late eating? So midday meal about 12:30 to 1? Then 7 or 8 hours until next meal? Don’t you get hungry?

Dinner is at 12ish, tea is at 7.00 ish......

i feel if i ate too early i would eat again!

We have dinner at 5:30 with our toddler! Quite like having that time to digest before bed.

We eat ice cream or chocolate around 8pm though.

Anywhere between 7.15 and 8.00 here. Later perhaps on holiday... IIRC.

I come from a farming family so up at 5 am. That means early bed and therefore early dinner.
I always ate with the kids at 5.30pm and still do. I’d be starving if I left it until 7pm.

I think eating late is a middle class thing but I don’t think eating early is common necessarily.

I get up for work at 5.45am and usually go to bed before 10.
Dinner at 9 would make me ill.
6pm at the latest here.

And what do late eaters do between midday and late eating? So midday meal about 12:30 to 1? Then 7 or 8 hours until next meal? Don’t you get hungry?

Nah most mumsnetters exist on fresh air and a single lettuce leaf for dinner 😱

Pre-pandemic I got home at 6:15 ish, kids ate at 7, me and DH often closer to 9 (long hours and big commute). That was too late for me and cooking twice was a bit much. At the moment with working from home we all eat together around 7:30/8 depending how busy I have been and what I am cooking and it’s perfect - kids are teens so we have time after dinner to all chill together.

We eat at 5.30/6 with our 3 year old maybe 5 times a week, then twice a week me and dh will feed DS earlier and eat our dinner together at 8 (mainly so we can eat something that DS doesn’t like)
I think eating dinner before 6 if you don’t have small children is unusual.

Those of you who eat at 8/9pm... What time do you get up. eat breakfast and lunch?

Dinner all finished and cleared up by 6pm!! Don't like eating late unless l am on holiday or going out for dinner which isn't a thing at the moment!

I'm a hospital doctor. The working day starts around 8 so up at 6. Lunch is eaten in about 10 minutes flat (if I get to sit down) and will be something light and always done by 1:30 . My "short" days finish between 4:30 and 5:30. I am starving by 6 as are all the doctors I know. It's not all about class.

We eat about 5,30. It’s a hangover from when our daughter was young as you’d not make kids wait for dinner till after six if you didn’t need to.

So not a sign of the elderly, more a sigh of those with young kids or not yet old enough to have grown out of the habit,

@DicklessWonder

I’m about to work out. Dinner will be at about 10:30pm.

(I had lunch at 5pm.)

Are you my DS 🤔

If he eats dinner with us it's usually his lunch.

I normally have lunch at 2 and dinner around 8.

Dinner by 6 would mean I was hungry by 8.30!

We eat dinner at 5:30ish. Primary-aged children, so it's nice to eat as a family. Before this whole Covid thing DH's food was usually kept warm in the oven till he got home a bit later.

I'm a SAHM so can start cooking in the afternoon. As the children get older we'll make it a bit later - maybe 6:30pm - but I don't like eating meals after 7pm really.

Some days I'm hungry in the evenings, most days not. But always, weirdly, if we have rice as the carb component. Why does rice make me hungry?

I don’t like eating late either. I wouldn’t be able to get to sleep.

7 - 8pm here. I've never eaten dinner before 6.30pm.

Usually about 7 here, later on the weekends. I have a friend who always has dinner at 5.30, despite having adult children, not little ones - she is the “poshest” person I know. I would be hamming into cheese and biscuits at 10 if I ate that early.

When not working from home I wouldn't usually be home till 6.30pm.

I always have dinner ready by 5 unless I'm caught up with something. It's right for us, the children eat, I usually eat and my husband usually eats with us unless he's at work. If I know he'll be late home I'll do something that beats up well.

Otherwise clearing up takes all night.

3pm seems an odd time to finish work, have you effectively shifted your day earlier?

We had a stage when dh was leaving for work around 6:30am, so he'd had breakfast at 6am. He was then hungry for lunch around 11am and when he got in at just after 5pm and I was doing dinner for toddler dc1, dh was ready to eat again, so we fell into eating early. However now he starts his day at a more normal hour (and the dcs are a little older), we eat as a family around 6pm or if its just me and dh eating separately we tend to eat around 7pm.

When you say before 6 is early, are you eating breakfast and lunch at "normal" times or for work are you having those early too?

I guess it depends how hungry you are! People with young kids generally eat dinner by 5:30pm. Before I had kids, I used to be starving by the end of work and make dinner the second I got home which, at it's earliest, would have been about 6pm.

Before children we used to eat about 6.30/7.