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?

My DH tries VERY hard to have dinner at 6pm. He likes breakfast (cereal) at 8am, morning tea (toast and coffee at 10am), lunch at 12:30 something with a coffee around 3.30 and dinner at 6. However this is because that's what his Granda and Dad did as farmers. I have pointed out that it doesn't suit as a) he's always late for lunch and things happen during the day and I do not have nothing else to do than cook and keep meals warm b) I cannot get anything done if I have to have dinner ready for 6 and the DC and I are losing out on time c) nobody is actually hungry at 6 including him. It turns out he just likes to eat by the clock so we have all dug the heels in and now eat around 7.30

We are childfree, I work from home, part time. No rushing about, no clubs.
We eat dinner between 4-6pm.
I'd be starving if I waited till after 6pm.

We sit down together for dinner at about 6pm.

Last two kids get in from school at 5.15 ish and I get home then too. I cook straight away and we're eating by 6pm ish.

One night a week one of the kids has a 7pm club with 15 mins travel time. I feel a bit pressured on that day because I have to hit the 6pm dinner deadline really for him to have time to eat (soooo sloooow).

This is possible for me now because I wfh some days, and have flexible start/end times. I generally start work by 7am (DH does most morning school runs) and so can finish in time to be home and done by 5.15pm

For years on end I got home with preschool kids at 6pm, so dinner was rarely before 7pm and it was hellish. Lasted about 5 years, but we got through it.

Flexible working times and wfh really help my family.

I would be chewing my arm off🤣

We don’t eat dinner until 7.30pm, but then I don’t tend to have lunch until 2ish so i’m not hungry any earlier.

And pre children we ate even later! We spent a couple of years living in Spain though so got used to eating at around 9-10pm.

We eat at 6. I'm home with DC by 4pm, DH gets home around 545 and dinner is usually ready when he gets in which sounds old fashioned but it works! DC have clubs one night a week that's it so that night we all eat at separate times but 6 out of 7 nights we all eat together

We've always had dinner at 6pm, even when our children were babies - they sat in a high chair with us when very young.

I really like the routine that everyone knows that on weekdays dinner is at 6pm. It's quite a nice family tradition.

At the weekend dinner is much more fluid as it'll depend on what we've been up to during the day.

At various points there have been clubs that have got in the way but dinner is at 6pm all
together for those at home and it's plated up for those home later.

Both DH and I work full time in roles which aren't super stressful and there is flexi time. We also deliberately work somewhere with a short 15 minute commute as we valued the family time more than the higher pay we'd get elsewhere. We are comfortable but could definitely have earned more money working a bit further afield.

I'm still shocked at how terrible my teen children's table manners are though, you'd think the routine of eating as a family would help but alas, that's not the case.

We eat together at 5.30, my DH misses a couple nights a week when he does a late shift at work but otherwise we’re all together. I can work flexibly so start 7 or 8 and finish between 3 and 5 depending on if I’m doing school run, if I’m in the office etc. DD is 6 and does one activity on the weekend, one at school (so we just pick her up later) and the other two at 4pm. DS is 1 so no activities, he goes to a childminder twice a week and I collect him at 4.30.

It did take me a while to get used to eating at that time as when DD was a toddler we used to eat at 8/9 once she was in bed. We started the family dinners when she started school and it’s mostly lovely but sometimes I do miss sitting with my dinner on my knee in front of the tv!