do you eat all together in the evening?

[SuperAmoo]

Do your DCs eat separately from you ealier in the evening or do you eat together. I have a 4 yr old and 8 month old and at the moment we eat dinner together at 6. But 8 month old is struggling to make it and crying for half an hour before. But I really like eating altogether with DP who's home from work by then. What do you do? Do you put food away from you dinner and give it to DC's the next day for early dinner? I guess I also don't want to cook two meals from scratch! How do I avoid doing that?! Any suggestions?

We don't eat together in the week

DP is rarely back before 6 and the dds (6 and 3) are in bed at 7

I sometimes cook a big pot of something for all of us, sometimes DP will cook us something (he likes to do the cooking) or I will cook something quick and easy for the dds (something and mash, pasta, an egg dish)

I do try and freeze leftovers as that's handy for heating up for the DC dinner

Yes, we eat together, but they're older.

When they were little, they had their meal time and I ate with dh.

You adapt it to their age and needs.

And there's nothing wrong with reheating leftovers for their dinner the next day. Sounds sensible. Keep it rolling over like that.

A child crying for 30 minutes for food - not good. not necessary. Why make the little one 'suffer' (not suffer suffer you know what I mean ) over something little like this? change their dinner time, and you could always even eat a nice quiet dinner with your husband after they're in bed. Time to chat, catch up on the day etc.

We try to with our DD who is 4 but our 1yr old DS goes to bed early so can't really make it (he;'s usually asleep in bed by 6pm, we eat around 7 with DD and that is classed as her supper as she has tea around 4pm with DS)

Lunch times we all eat together at weekends.

Yes I do save food from various meals to be recycled the next day (chilli, spag bol, shepherds pie and roasts all good for that).

I think as long as you have as many meals together as possible during the week then you don;t need to worry. 8mth old will be able to stay awake soon enough and wont even begin to remember this period.

Is 8 mo tired or hungry? If hungry, I'd let the baby have something - a milk feed, or a snack, and just have a bit when you're all together, so that you get the nice meal experience.

Should read 'lunch times we all eat together and at the weekends'

DD and I eat together for breakfast and at around 5pm and H comes home 6.30 ish so his is in the oven keeping warm :p

At the weekends we all eat together at lunch and dinner. Cant convince H to get up on Saturday/Sunday mornings for brekkie!!!

DH was coming home at 6 for a while (usually 7 so he would eat alone and I would eat with the kids at 5). When he was getting home at 6 I would give them a snack at about 4 of something like apple/breadsticks/cheese and that would carry them through til tea at 6.

I think with little ones they don't necessarily need a big evening meal if you can spread their food out through the day. So rather than thinking of the 4 o'clock as a snack (which always makes me think of biscuits!!) they could have a fishcake or a hash brown or cheese/ham, fruit, crackers, breadstick type platter. Then a smaller portion of the main dinner at 6.

DH is home later again now, so it's back to tea at 5 with the kids and he eats when he gets back

Totally agree with heQet. Make it easy on all of you.

Sometimes I eat with the kids if I'm hungry. Sometimes I eat with DH who is in around 7 and sometimes gets caught up in bedtime so doesn't eat til 8.

He normally eats what I do for the kids but adds a chilli/worcester sauce.

We make an effort to have all our meals together at the weekend.

about half the week we eat together at about 5:30pm, and the other half (probably a little less) we eat seperately, with DH and I eating later in the evening but i will then have a snack with DD while she eats her tea. Once a week maybe, we let her eat as a 'picnic' while watching tv.

Current;y i am on maternity leave and DH is out of work. When we are both working, when DD is at nursery. she has her main tea there and a snack, on the days she is not, the person at home will cook tea for 6pm and we eat together some nights, and sometimes seperately, not scientific as to when.

Not sure how it will work now we have DS, when he is weaned.

Yes, we do eat together in the evenings, at 7, which is early for Italian standards. I wouldn't have coped with 2 different meal times.

As often as possible we eat together, but as 7yo DD has got older and is busier herself with activity clubs it is much harder. It used to be every night, now much less.

So, at present - unless there is a play date - we eat together Monday and Thursday and for all meals at weekends.

Tuesday and Thursday DD has activity clubs so has to eat before them. Friday we are normally with Katz and DD eats wth her DDs before us.

On the days we eat separatly normally DD has a variation (or same) as us but I try and do things that can be easily reheated, such as chilli, spag bol, etc. Sometimes it might be completely different - I like to have stuff in he freezer that I have made previously, that I get out for these times.

some days we do, others we don't, it depends when DH and I get in, what the DTs are doing after school etc. DH adn I both have good lunches at work (schools) and often only want soup or a sandwich in the evening. DTs have school lunches too, but are still starving even after a snack!

Thanks all. I may try moving dinner to 5.30 and DP will have to eat as soon as he walks in the door or he'll just have to eat on his tod later!

We all eat together 5 nights a week (DP works late the other two nights). DC are 2.2 and 8 months, we eat at about 6:30.

On the nights DP works late I usually make something like a lasagne, fish pie or pasta bake and use two dishes, one for the DC and one for later. I make enough salad for all of us before the DCs meal and dress their portions on the plate.

I try to get DS to have a late afternoon nap (ideally waking sometime between 4:30 and 5:15) and BF him when he wakes. If he wakes at the later end of the scale I make sure he's good and active before dinner. I did the same with DD when she was younger too and it usually works a treat.

DD has 'quiet time' between 5 & 6, otherwise she would be overtired by dinner time. She snuggles up in the corner of the sofa with a little snack and a blanket and looks at books or threads some beads (or some such) for half and hour or so. tis' TV/DVD time after that I'm afraid.

that'll be lasagna then...

Good point Francagoestohollywood - I lived in Italy for a year - and I do remember children being awake very late at night eating with everyone else and they seemed to cope fine!

almost always (me, ds1 - 7y, ds2 - 4y).
We usually eat at about 5.30pm.
But then we don't have to wait for another adult to come home.

No, they both have a cooked lunch at nursery and then we do fish fingers, soup, sandwiches, etc at about 5. We sit at the table with them though. DS goes to bed at 6.30 so by the time he has had a bath, food any later does not work.

Hmmm late nap - good call - because she may be crying because she's tired too.

Yes, always, at around 7.30pm.

When each DC was very small (under 18 months) I sometimes fed that one earlier if DH was going to be home late, but only until they could happily wait. Eating together is a Big Thing for us, but then DH is French and we do live in France, where it would be v odd to do it any other way.

DH dosen't get home until midnightish, so often the DC & I will eat together, although since becoming PG again, I need to sleep after eating, and find bedtime & clearing up really hard when I'm tired, so I'll eat later.

If I'm working, and not getting in at 9, and DH is off, we love to eat together.

We have 2 dc aged 4.4 and 20 months

During the week we try to al eat together at about 5.45-6pm. DH usually just gets home in time, otherwise his is keeping warm in the oven.

I don't get home from work until about 5.30 so I batch cook and freeze, get out whatever's for tea that night before I leave for work that morning, then reheat it and do rice, pasta, veg etc as soon as we get home.

We eat lunch together at the weekends too, breakfast will be either with me or DH as we take it in turns for a lie in! We often have friends round on Saturday nights and get take aways on a Sunday, so the boys eat earlier and go to bed before we sort out what we're doing.

I feel we have got a good balance and it suits us well though it was harder when dc2 was a bit younger.

SuperAmoo, I tried to compromise between Italian times (very late bedtimes) and English times (too early bedtimes... 7 is really still afternoon for us italians ).

Yes Castille - having posted this thread it's made me realise that it is BIG thing for me too. I don't like my children eating separately - I love to all eat together and chat and laugh - it's nice. I really look forward to it. Once 8 month old DD2 is at table and eating she's happy as larry! I know I'm really lucky that DP gets home at 5.30 which means we CAN all eat together reasonably early.

Teehee Franca - I NEVER got used to eating huge bowls of pasta at midnight and then going for a gelato at 1 in the morning!