9.30 and we’ve not yet had dinner

[Ticktockk]

Staying with family for Christmas and oh my, am I hungry?!
I tend to eat with the kids at home and this is now my bedtime 😅
What madness are you currently experiencing over Christmas?

Yeah tomorrow, Tesco and get a snack bag 🎒 just nipping upstairs for some rest nom nom nom...

6pm to 6.30pm is a perfectly normal time. That's the time me and DH have dinner.

normal time for YOU. Even my kids don't eat that early! They are rarely back home so early for a start. They have clubs and after-school activities.

Plus the food is not instantly ready the minute we walk home, even something quick takes a few minutes! No one is hungry at 6 pm here. It's too early.

Have you eaten yet? 😬
Kind of intrigued what you had now and whether it was worth the wait.. better have been something more laborious than toasties or an oven pizza... 🍴

6pm is still ridiculously early if you ask me. Most people haven't even got home from work by then! Maybe ok for kids!

I would say a reasonable dinner time is about 7:30 or 8pm

I used to eat at this time, then I had kids, and if I have not had my tea by 6 I am most definitely hangry

My daughter always eats her meal at around 21.00/22.00!

This.

I'd have been poking around in the kitchen by 6pm, asking what I could help get ready for the meal.

There's no way you can be close enough to people that you are staying with them for several days at Christmas time, but not close enough to let them know you are starving.

Threads like this make me thankful for my family. My side we're all close enough we'd be helping ourself to the fridge and my on laws are from Malaysia so basically feed you constantly.

I lay awake freezing cold and starving and fuming 😆

@CurlyhairedAssassin urgh, that would be me. 5pm is basically a late afternoon snack. I'd be ready for another dinner by 9pm!

dinnertime is subjective depending on your life. But surely we can all agree that 9.45 with no dinner is late!

Hopefully the OP has some food now, unless she gets the double whammy of a late "dinner" that turns out to be "oh we dont eat much, one potato and spoonful of peas is plenty"

Has OP died of starvation? 😱

We only had our dinner at about 9:30 this evening. Pretty normal for us.

What do they do all evening?

Guess can understand if drinking and it's Christmas.

I am in bed by 8pm normally, asleep by 10.

6pm tea time - which can take a while to get cooked and dished up etc.

Eaten by 7pm or so

Then it's time for Emmerdale, Brookside, Corrie, EastEnders...

That's how it always was growing up, so I've kinda just always had those times as "Normal"

People do things different, things change with society... I know I know .. but damn it, 6pm is, was and forever will be, Tea Time .. 😁
(It's also the time that Neighbours finished and Buffy is on BBC2 .. so turn it over quick..🤪)

What time do they go to sleep? And get up? What time is lunch? You should suggest intermittent fasting to them!! Don't eat between 7pm and 12pm. 2 meals at 12.30 and 6.30. Perfect.

Serious question, why are people saying French people eat at 11pm? Is that even true?

DH and I (and our DC) have travelled to a number of European countries in the past 2 decades. France, Spain, Germany, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Belgium, Italy. Austria, and Portugal. Not ONE of these countries has started serving dinner at 11pm. Or 10pm. I don't think 9pm either. Luxembourg was the latest. (all inclusive hotel.) Used to bring the starter at 7.30pm-7.45pm. Main around 8.15pm. Dessert at 9pm. Germany and Austria and Netherlands were about half our earlier.

All the other hotels started dishing out the food - some were pick your own buffet types - at around 6pm-6.15pm. They'd keep pushing the food out (when the the pots and tins emptied) til around 8pm.

USA and Canada both started serving dinner at around 7pm. My DC have travelled even more than me, and to more countries, and sometimes stayed with their friends family(s.) Dinner with these families was usually served 7-8pm. Lots of different countries they went to.. 5 or 6 other European countries, and also Australia, Mexico, South Africa, Japan, Chile.

Never STARTED dinner at 11pm .. NEVER. Nor, as I said 10pm. Not even 9pm actually.

It's ludicrous. Nearly 10pm and still no food/no dinner? WTAF?! 😆

Are you staying at my mum's?!

She has form for this.

I was! Enthusiastically!!! I sincerely hope this isn’t a festive theme.

I hope OP has gone quiet because s/he is eating and not fainted with weakness

Glad you’ve a full content belly now to start the festivities. Long may it last!

Lol that's late

I always remember SIL put a full side of pork chops (must have been about 15lbs of meat) in at 6pm for a 7pm sit down

Not a chance

I always, always, always take snacks when staying at people's houses

Always

They are not Mediterranean. We are in Surrey. But it was a pasta dish, so maybe just getting into the spirit of the culture?

I am in bed between 9-10 so far to late for me