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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To expect us to eat as a family???

38 replies

santasinmywaistband · 17/12/2008 13:05

We have been eating together as a family 5 nights out of 7
DC are 2 &3 and we eat at about 5.30-6pm
DH comes in from work at 5.15.
The other days we eat much later as a couple when the DC are in bed.

DH has now announced that he doesn't want to eat at this time and prefers to eat later in the evening.
I think it is important for the children to sit down and eat with their parents regularly.

on recent occasions when I have gone along with the eating later thing I have gone to start cooking for us and DH has announced he doesn't really want much so not to bother.

I then end up cooking just for me as by that time I am starving.

So do I
1.cook for us all and ignore him

  1. cook for us all and heat ours up later(which i hate as don't like reheatd food)
3.Eat with the children and let him sort himself out later( not sure if this would work as I don't think he would eat.)
OP posts:
PuppyMonkeyNuts · 17/12/2008 13:08

Get him to cook for himself the cheeky swine!

FarmerChristmas · 17/12/2008 13:09

YANBU but then don't think your DH is BU either if he isn't hungry at that time.

Can you do 4 evenings of family meals/3 children on their own and you and DP together later and he cooks/do it together?

MerryMadMarg · 17/12/2008 13:11

Why not just a light snack for adults when the children eat? A salad or starter with a drink would be nice. Then a gap and then a smaller main, as you've already had a little bit to eat.

Wispabarsareback · 17/12/2008 13:13

I wouldn't want to have dinner at 5.30-6pm either - seems really weird - so I can see where your DH is coming from.

But I agree that family meals are important. We always have breakfast together, then family lunches at the weekend. DD1, who is 5, occasionally gets to stay up late and join us for 'grown-up dinner' as a special treat, which she loves.

PestoHoHoHoMonster · 17/12/2008 13:13

Compromise. Do the dc's meal early on weekdays and eat as a couple later. (You can then also have stuff that your dcs won't like). Then at weekends, you all eat together at about 6.00pm, having meals that you will all eat.

This is what we tend to do, and it seems to work OK.

santasinmywaistband · 17/12/2008 13:14

I have tried to compromise, but I just don't thinks he wants to eat with the DC, I have said I can give them a snack mid pm and move dinner til 6pm.
I have suggested reducing the number of times a week we do it.
TBH I am being a bit selfish as I really just don't want to cook an extrs meal every day

OP posts:
Wispabarsareback · 17/12/2008 13:16

Why don't you share the cooking so you're not always the one making dinner for you and DH?

GooseyLoosey · 17/12/2008 13:16

We all sit down as a family but dh and I do not eat until later as I just don't want to eat at 5.30. We usually cook twice - partly as there are things (such as curries) which we really like and I know that the dcs won't eat.

laweaselmys · 17/12/2008 13:16

I can't think of anything more annoying that cooking two lots of dinner every day. YANBU! If he's really not hungry when you cook, he can reheat it later or cook something himself.

I agree with you about eating together, btw, but since that's a fairly personal choice if he doesn't want to/see it that way you can't really make him I'm afraid.

WorzselMincepieYummage · 17/12/2008 13:18

Eat with the children and let him sort himself out, that means either him cooking for himself or reheating something you've left.

Really, i you can eat as a family then i think you should.

herbietea · 17/12/2008 13:18

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

santasinmywaistband · 17/12/2008 13:20

If I leave DH to cook for us later he inevitably says he is not really hungry and isn't going to bother and I end up doing myself something anyway

OP posts:
PestoHoHoHoMonster · 17/12/2008 13:21

If you don't want to cook twice, do what I do. Let them have hot school dinners, and then they can have sandwiches or suchlike for weekday teas. You will then be able to just cook the once, a bit later, for you and your DH.

santasinmywaistband · 17/12/2008 13:23

I am very lucky in that DC eat most of what we have or I adapt their meals ie when we have chilli, they have a less spicy version, curry they have chicken and rice with a mango dip, there is very little that we don't all eat, which is why I think it makes sense to eat as a family.
As well as the fact the DC eat better if we do and I think It is a healthy thing to do

OP posts:
santasinmywaistband · 17/12/2008 13:24

BTW I think it stems from his childhood as we have beeen together since his siblings were early teens and I don't think they ever ate a meal together

OP posts:
santasinmywaistband · 17/12/2008 13:25

pesto DC are 2& 3 and I think I need to resolve this before they get to school

OP posts:
bigTillyMint · 17/12/2008 13:26

I cook for whoever's there at 5.30ish and then whoever's not heats theirs up later.

That's whot microwaves are for, isn't it?

brightonlad · 17/12/2008 13:28

Get him to eat lunch earlier.
Meal times are all relative to each other anyway so if he's got flexibility over when he takes it then he can eat lunch at half twelve and be ready for fish fingers and beans at half five/six.
IMO eating together is so important for families that it's worth everyone making an effort to meet halfway where possible. But then I might not be someone to listen to since my DW describes dinner as my other woman.

santasinmywaistband · 17/12/2008 13:29

He doesn't eat breakfast and eats a sandwich at about 12.30 so I would think he would at least be hungry by six.

OP posts:
sunnygirl1412 · 17/12/2008 13:31

Firstly I think you need to talk to your dh again, and ask him directly why it is that he doesn't want to eat with the children. Then you can look at the specific issue and try to find a workable solution.

For what it's worth, I fed the children seperately for years and years - partly because they needed their tea at 5pm-ish if they were going to be ready to go to bed at 7.30pm, and partly because I liked to have that quiet time with dh and to be able to eat my meal in peace. Also dh used to commute to work in London, so he was not usually home until 7.30pm or later, which was far too late for the children to eat.

I did consider eating with them, and leaving him a plateful of food to heat up, but felt that this would not be terribly fair to him.

It did mean that, for a long time, I've been cooking two meals each evening, but as the children have got older, I've been able to plan our menu mainly around meals that we all like and that can be prepared in advance - like casserole, bolognese, curry, shepherds pie, sausages and mash, sausages and roasted veg, lasagne, risotto etc etc - so that I just did one lot of cooking, but then had a bit of extra cooking to do for our tea - ie, heating up the curry or bolognese and cooking some pasta or rice, or bunging a second shepherds pie or lasagne in the oven. Sometimes the boys and we had different things because they like the occasional pizza or burger and I don't - and partly, I have to admit, because I sometimes do them something from the freezer and chips because I'm sooo tired.

Now we've moved, however, dh is coming home at a far more reasonable time and the boys are going to bed later, so can eat later, and so we eat together as a family far more of the time - it's just evolved that way.

bigTillyMint · 17/12/2008 13:32

It sounds like he's not eating enough if he only has a sandwich for lunch and then only wants a snack at night

santasinmywaistband · 17/12/2008 14:05

I agree hes not eating enough. I have spoken to him about it but he just says he doesn't want to eat to much as he will pig out over Christmas.

TBH he normally has a big appetite but has only ever really eaten in the evening and snacked during the day.

Yesterday he had soup and bread for lunch and a small plate of pasta( same size the 3 year old had ) in the evening

OP posts:
cory · 17/12/2008 14:51

We have stuck to family meal times. Dh comes home between 5.30 and 6.00, and even when they were quite small I found they could wait until 6 for their supper. Dh felt that eating with us was part of his job as a parent- tbh I don't always feel like it either, but the family rule is that unless you are ill you eat at the table at mealtimes, not at other times.

ilovetochatupsanta · 17/12/2008 14:56

i do 1 family meal at 5.30 and if dp isn't there he has to heat it up. family meals are very important to me as i never had them as a child.

IwishIwasmoreorganised · 17/12/2008 15:04

We're making more of an effort recently to eat meals together in the evening (during the week at least) and it's having a really psitive effect on ds1's eating.

He's 3 now and seems to really enjoy the sociable aspect of us all sat dow talking and eating together rather than just him eating with me just sat there keeping tabs.

I think it's a good habit for families to get into if it's at all possible

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