To think that it’s impossible to have a 6pm family dinner time?

[whatonearthishappenin]

Do people really sit down at 6 pm and eat dinner together as a family in the evening?

If so, how?

I’m not always home from work by then, my children have afterschool club and clubs… swimming, football, dance etc… how do people manage it?

We manage it some days. There the days where the kids do breakfast club rather then afterschool. So DH drops them I get in early then pick them up at 330. Home for some chill out time and dinner at 530 as DH gets in the door. But only manage that a couple days a week

Other days the slow cooker is handy so even if we get home at 5.30 / 6ish dinner is ready to go or may just need some rice or something cooked.

We only really eat together as a whole family at the weekends. I don’t get home from work until 7pm a couple of days a week. Tuesdays, DS has training at 6pm, Wednesday DD has swimming at 5.30 and Friday she has gymnastics 6-7.30. So we tend to fit in the kids meals around their activities and we eat later.

Me and DH work from home and live a 2 min walk from school, after school clubs end at 4.15pm.

DH finished work at 4pm, I finish at 5pm so it's pretty easy to have dinner cooked and be eating by 6pm.

We eat about 5.30. How…

office days see dH/I working 7.45-4.30 ish.
Someone is nearly always wfh/off and cooking by 5pm (often the returning home one picks up the kids from after school club on the way).

between meetings for voluntary stuff in the evening and various other commitments, one of rhe adults is out in the evening by 7pm most nights.

of course the other side of this is the mornings where we’re trying to get five people out the door by 7.30.

We eat together between 6.30 and 7.30pm each evening, the timing is dependent on what clubs are happening. My DC are now 11, 13 and 15 and I’m keen for us to continue having a family evening meal through their teens as a means of connecting now that they all spend more time in their rooms/out with friends. Our hours of work vary, so depending on whose home first, then they’re responsible for the meal. I meal plan as I hate thinking yo what to cook on the night. My next goal is to get the kids to take a bit of responsibility for cooking - maybe do one meal a week? Not sure if anyone else does this…?

We had a life like that, never sitting down, always here there and everywhere. Since COVID we sit down and eat together at 6pm 5 nights a week.

Our kids (8 and 10) have a full roster of activities. But the 10 year old plays 3 instruments so lessons are all here. The 8 year old plays a lot of sport (and DH coaches the team) so that night it's 6.30pm. Things like chess and coding are straight after school and finish at 5pm. DH picks the kids up from after school club on his way home and they are home 5.45pm and dinner is on the table.

I WFH and when I don't, I use the slow cooker. Otherwise it's the Air Fryer. One pot dishes prepped in the morning.

Just organised.

I LOVE eating together. We talk about the day and then we watch TV together, read or play games after dinner before bed.

I have two 6yr olds who eat with their nanny about 5pm. DH and I are home at 6:15, by which point they are bathed and in pyjamas, and we take them to bed at 7ish. DH and I then cook and eat dinner at 8:30ish.

I don’t love eating late but I do enjoy meals alone with DH as it’s nice to spend that time together. At the weekend we have a family meal at 6ish.

Well of course people do because not everyone works 9-5pm away from home with kids going to after school clubs!

We eat at 5pm ish everyday with two kids (one in school but no after school clubs). One a shift worker (so not always in for dinner but if on early or day off during week they are ) and one part time wfh with hours that suit school pick up.

My DS17 has dinner anywhere from 3-5pm. DS18 and GF 5-7pm and my husband 7-8pm.

We never have dinner together. And i dont eat dinner!

Im used to it now.

Edit - i make it all, unless its takeaway and yes i work full-time, but mostly from home

neither DH or I are hungry then.
when kids were little they’d eat at 5pm and then we’d eat at 8. (DH wasn’t back until 7.45 anyway)
Now we all eat at 7.30.

Not every day. Monday - Wednesday can be any time between 7 & 8.30pm. Thursday and Friday I wfh though, so can throw something in the slow cooker so that we can eat between kids music lessons & my music rehearsal /sons scouts. Then it's usually between 5.45 & 6.15pm.

YANBU - it's impossible for us so we eat at 4pm.

Dh is in the office three days a week and doesn't get home until 7ish, so we try to have a later dinner at least one of these days to eat with him. Mainly as I work really late twice a week (opposite days to dh), so we don't get to sit as a family on those evenings, so I feel it's important to try and have at least a few of evenings a week where we eat together. If we both wfh we would sit down for dinner at 6ish most evenings so I can see why families that work at home do this. Would love to!

Slow cooker meal days yes, anything else is 7 😂

It's nice to eat all together, earlier rather than later, but if lifestyles don't align, then don't worry about it.

Pre-DS, we used to get home any time from 6.30 onwards, so rarely sat down to eat before 7.30.

When DS was small I was a SAHP, and I tended to eat with him most of the time, around 5.00ish. He liked a play in the bath before bed and bed was generally 6.30 p.m.

Time evolves, now DH and I are WFH, DH usually finishes around 5.30, so dinner is aimed for about 6.00. DS now works nights, so he doesn't want his dinner at 6.00 as he is just getting up. Sometimes he joins us at the table, but with a bowl of cereal. He usually eats his dinner when he gets home in the morning - and I often join him at the table. So he is eating lasagne, or whatever, and I have my morning cuppa.

It's whatever suits your family 🙂

I was a SAHM, but DH never got home before 7pm and that was only if the trains were behaving. So when the DCs were small I gave them dinner at about 5.30 and DH and I ate together once they were in bed.
As they got older we did try to eat together, but they often were needing to be out for clubs before DH was home, so still didn't really work.
I was a child in the early 70s and we never ate an evening meal with parents until secondary school - again my dad was at the mercy of British Rail, and was never home in time.

I'm usually in my jammies at 6pm! No way do I want to be fannying around in the kitchen.

I'm an OU student part time and SAHM though so lucky to set the meal early. Supper any time between 6 and 9pm depending on ages of DC.

Why does it have to be 6? Just find a time that roughly works for everyone and be prepared to move it half an hour or so either way on some days. And plan what you eat so you don't waste time thinking about what you can throw together in the time available.

impossible for us and I feel bad about it. But H isn’t home until 7-8pm, when I work I get home at 6, after picking up kids from after school club. Kids eat together and we eat later. Sundays we eat together (H also works Saturdays)

My kids go to bed at 7! We get in at 6! So mostly I just give them some food and it’s straight into bedtime for us

I eat after they go to bed

We generally eat at 6 in the week, it's later on weekends oddly.
I work in a school so am home for 4.30 usually, there's the odd day where we have to work round something that the DC are doing, DH isn't always home but just gets his when he gets in -this is rare though.

Why does it have to be at 6pm? We all eat together, but not at 6pm.

I’d need another meal before bed! What time do you have lunch?

100% yes families these days are rushing about… but you don’t have to. We don’t do weekday after school activities. DH and I both have stuck with fully remote jobs so we don’t rush around for a commute. We have a from scratch meal every night at 5:30, unless we’ve chosen to go out for a meal. Pick DC up from school at 4.

Genuinely jealous. But it would not be possible to do my job remotely… it naturally involves travel. And my son would be devastated to give up football 😫