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?

@samarrange yes 10 pm is perfectly normal in Spain. Remember that lunch is the main meal of the day and eaten at 2 pm.
I was in Spain with a Spanish friend this summer and booking a restaurant the options were 8:30 and 10:30. I thought 8:30 sounded perfect. "Oh 10:30 sounds perfect" said friend. 10:30 it was then.

You asked are you a tween? What adult goes to bed at 8pm ffs and I answered you. How short sighted not to realise that a lot of adults for many reasons go to bed early, my situation isn't unusual at all. I think it’s a bit of a reach to assume what time 99% of people on MN go to bed at or eat at, how very odd.

I would have lost my shit then been mortified about it the next day 😂

If you go to Finland, most restaurants (outside of Helsinki city centre) close at 10pm. No-one there wants to eat at that hour. Drinking is another matter though…

@SabreIsMyFave but you’re talking about international hotels not local restaurants and homes.

no, the typical family in France, Spain, Italy doesn’t start dinner at 11pm but if you head to a restaurant before 9pm it’ll be empty. Or shut

That’s not always true either. We were once in a rural part of Umbria and the local restaurant was heaving of families at 7pm. We were lucky to get a table as we had not reserved one.

And this summer were in the Alps and the local restaurants were all busy at 7pm. And no, it wasn’t all Brits, majority were french and belgians.

Oh god, that reminds me of when my partner and I went to stay with his aunt (I was meeting for the first time) and at the end of a long day she went into the kitchen to cook dinner at about 6 and it wasn't served till half 9. We were so hungry and I thought I was going to faint! We laugh about it now but it wasn't funny at the time!

THINGS HAVE ESCALATED. I thought maybe they were the sort of people who traditionally put up the decs on Christmas Eve, but friends, there are NO CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS. An early dinner has been promised, however.

I would have gone to bed and cried myself to sleep with hunger.

God how joyless, not a place I'd want to spend my Christmas 😩

So wherever you go for Christmas next year, it won't be there?

Who are these people? 🤔

@Shimmyshimmyshimmy I don't have lambs to tend and am generally retired to my bedroom by 8pm. I usually fall asleep between 9 and 10pm.

Some people are tired, have poor health, get up very early like PP, have insomnia so struggle to stay asleep for more than a few hours at a time with hours awake in the night (me), have young children who need tending in the night, etc.

I imagine this accounts for more than 1% of MN.

We usually eat between 6 and 6:45, depending on the children's activities. After 9pm would have been a real struggle for me.

This. ^

This 'what are you, a tween, going to bed that early?' sort of pathetic, sarcy comment is just one of many on this thread that is littered with shitty jibes. Like 'I am laughing at you right now saying you have dinner at 6.30pm, whilst eating my dinner at nearly midnight.' And 'who the fuck eats dinner at 6pm, I don't even get home til 7.30pm.'

Well MANY fucking people have dinner at 6pm to 6.30pm, (some even earlier.) Clearly the people who eat dinner at 6-6.30pm don't have big important jobs with big commutes, like all you special and clever 'I eat dinner at 10pm to midnight' type people. 🙄

Seriously you're not some kind of superior being because you don't dine til 8-9pm! (Or 10pm!) And I still maintain 6-6.30pm is a normal time to have dinner, because me and DH and many people I know have it at that time. My adult DC have theirs around 7.30pm, so yeah a bit later, but not fucking 10pm! Basically, there is no such thing as a normal time, but 6pm to 7pm is a fairly typical time for many to have dinner.

Fine, claim you have dinner at 9 or 10pm if you want to, and that everyone you know does, but the sneering and snide comments, and superior attitude from some of the supposed 'late dinner' eaters is rather ugly. The earlier dinner eaters aren't looking down their nose at you and laughing and mocking, so get off your high horse!!!

It's also a load of bollocks that 'Europeans all have dinner at 8pm (or later.') Know every single person who lives in Europe do you?! No, I thought not!

Well MANY fucking people have dinner at 6pm to 6.30pm. Clearly the people who eat dinner at 6-6.30pm don't have big important jobs with big commutes, like all you special and clever 'I eat dinner at 10pm to midnight' type people. Seriously you're not some kind of superior being because you don't dine til 8-9pm!

my, something got to you! It’s just dinner mate.

It's also a load of bollocks that 'Europeans all have dinner at 8pm (or later.') Know every single person who lives in Europe do you?! No, I thought not!

Do you understand social norms as a concept here? Saying mainland Europeans tend to eat later means on average they do, not that every single person has been consulted about it and confirmed they do. Bizarre.

Excellent post by @SabreIsMyFave .
Very well said.

Thanks for posting @Ticktockk . Glad to hear you will be fed at a more normal time today.

Excellent post by @SabreIsMyFave* *
Very well said.

I’m not sure swearing at strangers on the internet and calling them names. On Xmas eve. On a post about dinner time, is something to be applauded is it? Seems mean to me

How very joyless. I hope there are no children with you?

Agreed 💯!!!! The late eaters are always so bloody sneery about it. I grew up in scandinavia where our dinner time was always early and as I don’t have to commute I can luckily keep it to 6-6:30pm. If Spanish want to eat at 10:30pm, it’s really nothing to do with me or my lifestyle.

On a side note, I read article a while ago about a big sleep problem in Spain. Something about children being perpetually sleep deprived because of the very late nights but parents still needing to get up to work very early the next morning.

Saying mainland Europeans tend to eat later means on average they do, not that every single person has been consulted about it and confirmed they do.

This is Mumsnet. We don't do distributions. It's OK to generalise about any group of people(*) as long as no identifiable representative of that group is present in the thread. At that point, however, any generalisation, including true ones, will be met with "How dare you, I'm not like that" and a report to the mods.

(*) Except people who generalise, of course. It's not OK to generalise about them. #NotAllGeneralisers 🤪

Phone for a takeaway !

Well usually one of us did the club and the other cooked so we could eat as early as feasible. Now with teans we eat at about 6.30. Maybe 7, but usually earlier. Short commute.

At 6.30 I would ask when dinner is- they would probably say something like 8.00, I would then say I experience serious indigestion if I eat after 7.00 and ask for a bacon sandwich or cheese on toast because I won't be able to join you.
Either A/ they will speed things up or B/ you will get your snack or C/ they admit their oven is malfunctioning and is far too cool (this happened to me one year) and make snacks (on the cooker top) for everyone.

Are your family operating on the Atlantic standard time zone?

I'm at my in-laws. We only sat down to eat last night at 10.50. This is standard for them and not just the Christmas rush.

We had chocolate biscuits for breakfast (1.45pm).

It's madness.