To think these are typical meal times/bed times in the UK

[Verybritishtimings]

Breakfast - between 6 and 8 (weekday/weekend dependant). Accept will be later if you have a long lie in - I have small kids so it doesn't happen.
Lunch - between 12-1.30
Dinner - generally between 6-8 - could be as early as 5 for small children.

Bedtime - between 9.30-midnight for adults under normal circumstances, no special events. Between 7-8.30 for youngish children.

I have a friend who constantly gaslights me about this. I'm crazy that my kids go to bed at 7 (they are ready for bed then and always wake before 7 regardless). I invite her round at 2pm and she brings HER OWN LUNCH because 'i eat so early and she couldn't possibly'. Is she trying to be every so continental or something?!

This is light hearted, don't care when people eat on their own time but my timings align with the majority of the population and the work/school day do they not?!

I have lunch at 3 most days so yes, I wouldn't eat with you at 12-1.30 even for social brownie points because I am just not hungry. Generally, we eat when we are hungry and we don't check the clock when it happens. Dinner can be at any time between 5pm and 9pm. I may even skip lunch altogether and go straight to dinner, or have a late lunch at 4 and just a small snack later on.

Ok maybe it's not gaslighting but I do get the impression there's some kind of snobbery involved. Maybe I'm a bit old school in that my kids are on a pretty defined routine but that's how I grew up and I'm still on it! She probably thinks it's insufferably boring and uptight. (Then again, she's so rigid she brings a packed lunch to my house!)

People being different. Shocking!

Obviously I am well aware that people are different but this really blows my mind! Meal times are the structure of my day. (Not a criticism of you).

Or...and I know it is a wild idea, she brings her own lunch because she doesn't want you to mess up your very rigid schedule or inconvenience you by requesting a separate lunch at the time she is ready to eat.

Not for us or anyone I know. We never do lunch and my children have never ever been in bed at 7pm, much closer to 10/10.30, the same time as us. I'd hate my kids to be stuck in bed that early.

Have to assume you don't have children in school. If i put mine to bed at 10.30pm they would wake at 9.30am at best. The earliest I'd get them to school would be 10.15, 1 hour 40 minutes late. If youngest (reception) went to bed at 10.30 she could wake as late as approaching 11am, i'd struggle to have her at school before lunch!

It's at the very low end for the recommended sleep for my kids ages but accept not so much for slightly older children. When do you get adult only time?

Also if you didn't feed my 7 year old any lunch I'd wish you luck in the afternoon, he'd be starving, even after a big breakfast.

We have a very early waking toddler here so currently my normal is:
Breakfast 6-7am
Lunch 11-1 (depending on if it's before or after nap)
Dinner 5-5:30
DD bed 6:30-7pm
Me bed by 9pm most days

Ok fine but, to me, that's odd. I think the hours of 2-4 are generally accepted as a non meal time (which is why I generally invite people then 😂). If I were going to someone's house and knew I wouldn't be served lunch, I would tweak my schedule slightly to eat it before I went. No?

“How do they get up for school” keeps being asked on here - most countries don’t put kids to bed at 7-8pm. I grew up going to bed at 10pm (as early as primary) and we had to be out the door at 8:30am

Spain has a national issue with children being too tired at school:
https://www.theolivepress.es/spain-news/2012/10/18/spanish-children-tired-in-mornings-new-study-finds/#:~:text=A%20NOCTURNAL%20lifestyle%20is%20causing,going%20to%20bed%20too%20late.

In some countries where children go to bed late there is a culture of a long late nap in the afternoon which increases overall sleep.

My MIl was like this- absolutely horrified by standard British mealtimes. She used to eat lunch at 3 and dinner at 10 😂

I don’t eat breakfast so am always starving by lunch, so have it early (12.30?) which my husband thinks is hilarious, having eaten a massive breakfast at 9.30. We are really out of sync.

I lived in France for a while and THRIVED on how strict they were about mealtimes. 😂

My children sleep 7-7 which is ideal as they are up for nursery / school and at the weekend we can be out and about by 8,:30/9ish and enjoy being outside in the daylight. We aren't wasting the day waiting for them to wake up.

We eat 7:30/ 12:30/ 5:30

Adults go to bed 9:30 up at 6. We stick to routine every day including on holiday and it really helps my children regulate eating and moods.

I'd hate my kids to be stuck in bed that early.

You say this like sleep is a bad thing.

My kids don't object to going to bed, they like their beds ;)

I have breakfast between 10am & 11am, lunch 3:30 - 4:30 and tea can be anywhere between 8pm & 10pm - not trying to be anything, it's just the routine we fell into years ago

I go off my work times for lunch
They start at 11.30am and last lunch is 2pm

I've never eaten breakfast before 8am in my life, not even at an airport.

My hours are more like your friend's.
Ok work days I have breakfast at 7am, but lunch usually nearer 2, dinner anywhere between 6-8.30 pm, bed around midnight.
Non working days I walk the dog first so breakfast is about 9.30, skip lunch or have a late snack around 3-4pm, same dinner time... bed around 2am.

I'm a night owl, my kids were night owls and my 3 yr old grandson can get up at 6.30 am to come to me, have a brief nap around 1pm and still be on the go at 9pm. None of us have every needed large amounts of sleep (it absolutely amazes me that some of my work colleagues are in bed at 8.30 at night... I'd be up again by 2am!)

I think that 'Adult time' is a bit of a British thing, as if you go across Europe, you see families happily eating out together at 10pm, and their kids still go to school ok. Having different eating and sleeping patterns isn't a problem..or snobbish, it's jsut whatver works for you :).

My times are very different. I usually wake up at about 7.30-8, have breakfast at about 9, lunch between 1.30-2, and dinner at about 9. I generally start feeding the cat and washing up before going to bed at about 1 and aim to be asleep by 2. When my daughter was very young, I don't think she ever ate before 6 in the evening, and once she was at junior school we brought our dinner time forward to 7 so we could eat together, and then gradually moved it later again as she got older.

When I was getting up much earlier for the school run, I tried to be asleep by 1 but rarely managed it. We had breakfast at about 830 on school days when my daughter was at primary school but had to eat by about 7.30 once she was at secondary school because her journey was over an hour.

All the people who have breakfast at 2am, lunch at 4:30pm and dinner sometime after midnight can crack on: people can eat whenever they want to. However, the OP is asking if her suggested timings are socially normal for typical people in the UK and of course they are.

Exactly. The question was are her timings broadly the norm and they are. Just because others don't adhere to them doesn't mean that they are not standard timings in the UK.

Your timings sound more typical for the UK. Nothing wrong with your friend doing things differently but she shouldn't be trying to make you feel weird for following a more usual pattern.

Can't imagine a 2pm lunch, mine would be seriously hangry if I tried that.

It depends how much sleep they need. Mine (10 and 8) are asleep for 8.30 and wake up at 7-7.30. They’re be knackered after 9.5 hours sleep.
i grew up in Spain and wouldn’t have gone to bed that early, but we also had siestas so overall sleep wouldn’t have been dissimilar.
If you have kids who need a lot of sleep to function well it’s annoying when people imply you’re forcing them to bed too early. If they didn’t need that amount of sleep, they’d wake up earlier 🤷🏻‍♀️.
Interestingly mine have never really tantrummed, are exceptionally well behaved, exceeding academically etc and I think in part it’s down to getting plenty of sleep. Some of their friends are chronically overtired.

Dogs have the only set mealtimes in this house, but other people roughly fit in to your bands. DS has to be eating by 6:25am or he will miss the bus to school. Aside from that it fits around schedules so has to be flexible and we are rarely all eating at the same time.