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?

yes well fair enough
But DH does not get home until 7.30 most nights, often later - and if the trains out of London are bad ( which is not exactly unheard of) it can be 8.30.

It is hard enough for us to eat that late. I wouldn't inflict it on the children, as much as I would love it to be non negotiable.
Butthe children eat together and i sit down with them. We eat most meals together atthe weelend - although increasingly offer the option to sit out to 16 year old DS as he is either sleepy, or rushing off to sport.

We generally eat together most evenings - I try for 6:30pm but it's too often more like 7pm - I do attempt to get DC to bed quickly afterwards. DH ends up snacking at 10:30pm, but that is his problem, not mine!

TBH, it was a lot easier before DS started school - he finished nursery at 6pm, and it was no big deal if he was late in the morning (assuming DH or I were working @ home) so he could stay up as late as he liked. Nowadays every evening is a rush to get DC into bed in time to get their 12 hours sleep as needed to prevent them turning into complete monsters.

On the Italian children eat later thing - don't Italian children tend to have a late afternoon nap until much older than UK children?

I remember my nephew having to lie down at nursery with all the other pre-6 year olds at around 2pm for a nap. Dn just wasn't tired as he had a longer sleep at night (his mother having a strong UK influence put dns to bed at 8pm). Most of the other children would sleep though.

Also young Italian children eat something called merenda at around 4pm (sopmething to keep them going until the later mealtime)

In answer to the OP I would definitly let the little one eat erlier and let them sleep when they need to. Or encorage a later nap but then that will have the knock on effect of a later bedtime which may or may not be desirable!

Almost every day. But that is the benefit of dh arriving home at 5.05pm, due to the fact that he works 1/2 a mile away.
We put the children to bed and had a curry on our own the other day. Normally both ds's (aged 1 and 6) scoff curry aswell, so it was nice for us to be on our own.

We have always eaten together. I don't do separate meals, and didn't make special children's meals when they were little. They get what's given to them.

We eat together at the table, no TV and everyone has the same.

DD is 11 and DS is six months and its nice to all be together at meal times, were lucky though that DH gets home at 5:30 so we eat then.

Saturday nights this all goes out the window though and we all eat pizza in front of the telly - baby has something else then, although he does eye up the pizza...

We don't generally eat together during the week, no. I do actually think it's really important to eat together, but the only time that it could happen is around 7pm, which is too late for my 2yr old, who is upstairs getting ready for bed by that time.

Sometimes I make a big load of something that won't suffer from being reheated later. Sometimes I make separate (but quick) stuff.

I also think it's quite important to make children eat the same things as adults, too (I have relatives who put out beans or pasta for their children whilst serving up something 'adult' to the adults, at the same table, and I disapprove a bit).

I do, however, as aforesaid, sometimes make something different for the adults, if the children are eating earlier. I don't think it would be especially fair to dish up an extremely spicy curry to the children, and equally not fair to deprive the adults...

Sorry SuperAmoo, just realised I didnt actually answer your questions! If I was you I would give the baby some finger foods earlier and that should keep them going until dinner at 6.

Only at the weekends and not always then.

In the week, DS is at nursery 3 days and gets tea there so he just needs a snack when he gets home with me at 5pm. DP doesn't get home until 6.30 when DS is having is bath before bed - there's just no time to fit in a family meal and no real need either.

I freeze a lot of our leftovers in DS-sized portions.

We often have lunch together and DS and I have breakfast together every day.

On the days that we do all eat dinner together it's at 5-5.30 so DP and I always end up snacking in the evening after DS has gone to bed.

We eat together at 6pm. Like others have said DD sometimes gets a snack to tide her over til dinner and then a smaller portion of dinner.

No. Kids eat at 6pm or thereabouts. DH and I at 9.30pm or even 10pm, whenever he gets home from work really. I would prefer earlier, but that's life. The only option for me is to eat with kids and not dh, but that would be . We usually eat altogether at the weekends for all meals, and sit down together for brekkie even if only for 5 mins every day.

I sometimes make something we can all have (like lasagne, NB not lasagna! Pasta al forno if you want to be authentic...) , sometimes something simple for the kids and more fancy for the grown ups.

We eat breakfast and lunch together (at least on days when ds1 doesn't have lunch at pre-school) but not dinner.

Dcs eat at 5pm, I eat at 8/8.30 with dh. Important to us to have some proper adult time and sensible conversation (plus we eat very different sorts of food).

We are lucky that we can adjust to DS's nap times and eat depending on his bedtime. I used to just let him nap late to allow us all to eat together (normally around 6.30) but now he's not always napping, we eat earlier if he hasn't slept.

We do eat together most days and I think it is important that, as much as possible, your DCs eat the same thing as you. There are a few things DS refuses (pizza, oddly) and so we serve him up a suitable alternative while we eat pizza.

There are the odd days when it doesn't work out like that, and I just don't have anything ready for an early dinner if we've been out and DS has unexpectedly not slept, and in that case we might serve him up some quick beans on toast before bed and have a takeaway ourselves later, but I don't want to get into the habit of serving DS only his favourite foods without 'challenging' his eating habits at all. If we all eat together, he often surprises us by eating something he had previously refused. I just make sure that there are at least a few things on his place that he will eat. Sometimes I make concessions to his tastes by serving things seperately that I would normally mix up for DH and I, but he still gets the same stuff.

DH is considering not being self-employed any longer, and in that case we might have to make changes, but I will eat with DS if at all possible. I can chat to DH while he eats, and I don't think he needs to learn anything from watching other people at the table (well, not cutting with the side of his fork might be a good one, but he hasn't learnt that in 31 years so I have given up!)

Eating together is good and we generally have all evening meals together. At anytime between 5pm and 6.30pm depending on how hungry everyone is or whether we have all stopped working.

I like the children to eat with us; it means that it is always worth cooking proper food and trying things out because - if they don't eat it, we will.

We tend to cook things that have something in it for everyone. Like Paella; the girls love rice and prawns. I don't like prawns but like the vege that goes in. So we make a big dish and pick out what we like.

If I think they've eaten lots of vege, we get out youghurt for pudding but if they haven't, we'll have an apple.

However, our youngest is over 2.

When mine were younger, they ate earlier because DH worked till late in the evening.

As soon as they were older and their bedtime became later - we started eating together and still do. They are 17 & 15 now and they look forward to family time round the table and its a great way to catch up on everybody's lives. My youngest was always a very faddy eater and had a limited diet until we all started eating together and then this improved greatly as he started trying things off our plates.

My advice is not to get stressed about it - go with the flow but aim to eat together whenever possible.

We have always sat and ate together since DD was 6mths and started BLW.

DD is now 18mths and we eat around 6 when DH comes in. I try to make sure dinner is almost ready to go for when he comes in.
DH will soon be commuting to and from London so wont be in till about 6.30. We still intend to eat together most night but may need to give DD a snack about 4 ish to see her through till tea. She usually has a bath about 7.15 and in bed by 7.45/8 pm.

Quite how this will change in may when DC2 comes along is anyones guess!! (recalls soothing a newborn with one hand and trying to eat with the other )

DD1 and dd2 eat at nursery during the week, except Mondays when they're home with me, when they eat on their own and I eat with dh when he comes in. At weekends though we all eat together. It will be problematic when dd1 starts school as she'll need feeding when she gets back from after school club then I'll have to cook again for me and dh as he doesn't get in until 7:30/8.

During the week dp doesn't get in til 7.30/8pm which is way too late for dd (2.9) to eat so she has hers at 5.30pm. Sometimes I'll eat with her but usually I eat with dp. dd and I always eat breakfast and lunch together though.

Might eat lunch as a family on a saturday depending on what we're doing.

On sunday we try and eat all our meals together.

Good to read that everyone is different. I feel very strongly that we should eat as a family but DP and I work FT and often don't walk through the door until 5.30pm (sometimes later). DD (16m) is a fab sleeper (12 hrs a night) but needs routine, so is hungry when she gets home and wants her bath by 6.30 and bed by 6.50ish, and we physically cannot get a meal ready in 5 mins and all of us sit down together.

Our compromise is to give DD what we eat but the next night. So we make our tea after she's in bed and put one portion aside for her. Even when we batch cook and so defrost a portion of spag bol, she would have to rush it as even cooking pasta and heating the bol up would take time and she really likes to eat early and get to bed (honestly she has an internal clock - if she is late for her bath, she'll stand up after a few mins and start putting her bath toys away and demand to get out).

So she gets her tea the minute she gets in from nursery and can take her time over it. One of us always sits with her and has a cuppa and a chat though.

At weekends we eat together on a Sunday (Saturday is takeaway night) and we also eat out alot at lunchtimes so DD is very used to quite fancy restaurants.

Once she is older and can stay up a bit later, we'll push tea back a bit so we can eat together. At her age I think it's important she eats what we eat but it's not vital that we all eat together every night until she's school age.

Well 3 days a week the children have lunch and tea at Nursery, with just s snack when they get home. The two days I am at home with them they tend to have their main meal at lunchtime, which is either something that I've batch cooked and taken out the freezer, or I make on the day, or is leftovers from our meal the night before. Then they have tea any time between 5.00 - 6.00, which is usually something a bit lighter. I eat with DH when he gets home and is usually not until 8.00 at the earliest. We all eat lunch together at the weekends.

I couldn't eat my main meal any earlier than 7.00 and I don't think it's fair on the kids to make them wait till then (they are nearly 4 and 20 months). Nor do I think it's fair for DH to come home from a 12 hour day and eat his dinner on his own. So for the moment the kids eat together and the grown-ups eat together later on. I am sure once they are older it will change.

I have to say I am quite surprised how many of you do all eat together. I kind of assumed that what we did was the norm.

Its just DS and I most days unless my boyfriend comes over. On the days hes at nursery we do a snacky tea as he has had a good cooked dinner and afternoon snack at nursery.

On days we are all eating together I normally do something in the slow cooker. Then if DS cant wait for BF he can eat when hungry.

We all eat together at 6-6.30.
The DC have a snack after school and then I cook for when DH gets home and we all sit down together, every night.
It's a part of the day I really look forward to

It depends on DH's shift, if he's on days he doesn't get in until 7.30 ish, so I eat with DD around 6pm and his dinner is saved in the oven. If DH is on nights or off duty we all eat together around 6pm.

Evening meals together here, around 5:30-6 (when DH arrives home from work). DH and I then sneak a late night snack together around 10. This was the best advice I was given when DS was a newborn, we really look forward to it each evening.

Should be making tea now so haven't read whole thread. Only have meals together at weekend and holidays. We have our Weekend Big meals around 6pm. So we can run around all day and not get sleepy in the afternoon.
Week days Ds eats his main meal at 5.30-6pm and an adult will have a cuppa with him so he isn't alone!