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 I eat with DS in the evening, but it's not a rule and it is flexible. If he needs to eat early for some reason or I am having a friend over for supper later we don't.

A baby shouldn't have to cry for 30 minutes in order to 'eat with the fmily'. What you could do is give him a small meal about 5pm to keep him going ND THEN nother smll portion of aupper ith the rest of you at 6pm?

I don't get home till 6.30 so dinner isn't on the table till close to 7.30 usually (we aim for 7, but sometimes our daughter - 14 mo - is too fussy that time of evening to let her Dad cook, so he waits till I get home to start).

She eats with us. Whoever's home with her gives her something around 5pm, and then she has a second dinner at 7.30 with us. Then bath, bottle, story, bed, and she's down around 8.30pm. I realise this is pretty late by UK standards.

It's also got the advantage that her Dad doesn't really believe she gets enough food via BLW, so he spoonfeeds her something around 5 and then if she just plays with her food at 7.30 he's not bothered cause there's something in her tummy. Me, I'm not bothered either way, I think she self-regulates enough.

Actually, as she's transitioning to one nap now, I'm finding that if I skip the second nap she needs to be in bed by 7.30, so we're going to have to change things around. But we really like eating all together, so whatever we change, it won't be that.

We now eat with the DCs every night except the night that DS goes to Beavers (as it clashes with supper time). But they're now 5 and 7. When they were small, I used to feed them first and put them to bed by 7 - then start cooking the 'grown up' meal. It was rather tedious, though: I don't like cooking anyway, and doing two 'shifts' was not much fun. It's easier now they're older and can go to bed later.

Generally, we always eat all meals together (DH works from home, which makes this easier).

I'm surprised that adults eat at 5pm! When we lived in Italy everyone thought I was weird for feeding my kids at 6pm not at 8pm. There's no way dh and I would eat that early, though I realise our habit of pasta at 10pm wouldn't be for everyone.

We eat together every night except fridays and always have done.

When DD was little she was in a day nursery so by the time I picked her up after uni, got home and cooked then DH was home anyway.

DD and DS are 4y (almost 5) and 7y now and can easily wait till 6:30/7pm for dinner with DH and then straight to bath/bed. They do have a snack after school.

I feel its really important to eat together - they both eat a wide range of food and I'm sure it helps them seeing us eat the same. Also otherwise DH wouldn't see them in the week and dinner is a good time to chat about the day and hear what everyone has been doing.

The only exception is fridays - when DD and DS cook their own dinner (they can manage grilling fish fingers and waffles etc or simple pasta etc) and eat earlier then DH and I eat once they are in bed. We can't easily get a baby sitter so this is our "date" night and we try to make an effort with dressing up and wine and candles etc. By friday we can normally get them in bed a bit earlier as they are tired after a week of school.

Our kids are 9, 7 and 5 and we eat together every night, usually around 5pm as DH works from home. We love our family mealtimes as it's a great chance to hear all the daily stories and plan what to do at the weekend etc.

Eating together would be a monkeys teaparty as personalities clash, especially with 6 kids. Nowadays, the kids 1f, 2m, 3f & 4f are living with various boy/girlfriends but 5m & 6f, twins of 4yrs, arent bad to eat at a table without killing eachother. 5m is a real personality, he'll be a really memorable schoolkid when he's old enough, but has the presence to realise that table means food. 6f, his twin, is a real pleasure. A barbie doll that likes everything exact & tidy. Her brother always manages to upset her applecarts even though he is wary of her nails.

Anyhows

Dinner table story from the older 4 when they were younger. Hope this doesnt disgust too much.

4f wanted a dog & after much looking & all the injections, got one. 3f didn't want anything to do with it ever & said so from day 1, she was a cat girl.

1f & 2m said they'd help as long as they could also go take dogi to park on their own at weekends.

They all agreed to take in turns to clean the garden every day of the "leftovers". Of course when it came to 1f&2m's turn they suddenly found that their rooms needed tidying or there was important homework to be done. 3f always stated that she would neither share the good OR the bad of the dog and even she reluctantly took a go. Anyway, it came to 4f's turn (she was about 5 then), after all it was "her" dog.

As the table was being laid for dinner, she volunteered to go do her duty in the garden & I thought "wow" & off she went with rubber gloves & trowel. Just as dinner was being carried to the table, she banged on the patio window to get attention & held up a particularly large "deposit" and squished it in her gloved fingers feigning that it was delicious. 3f SCREAMED and started sulking. The other 2 just giggled. Anyway, she washed her hands in dettol stuff in the outside privy & came indoors saying "MUM-THE GLOVES BROKE & IT'S ALL ON MY HANDS" then wiped her (clean but wet) hands all over 3f's face. 3f SCREAMED and a fight ensued whilst the other 2 nearly wet themselves laughing.

Oh the wonders of family meals. Great on TV but a riot in reality.

:>)

Lunatic that's a brilliant story - best laugh I've had in ages partic when knackered as DD has winter vomiting bug. Definitely a guffive!

we all eat together as a rule.. i work on mon and tues so i always prepare a dinner on sunday (usually a bolognaise sauce/shepards pie/lasagne/stew) something that can be bunged in the oven to heat up and the other day is a quickie meal... cheese on toast/boiled egg etc... as all dc's would have had a very good meal at school (their dinners are very yummy!) or nursery.... dh is home usually between 5:30-6pm or he takes his chances if he's not home in time for family dinner

sometimes on a friday i feed kids earlyish and then me and dh get a curry and sit in front of the telly and eat it when the kids are in bed...! we so live the high life!!!

Me, DP and DD all eat together every night in the week at around 7.30 - 8.

Saturday is a bit more fluid - generally no cooking gets done by anyone so we sort ourselves out or eat out/order in.

Sunday we all eat together as well.

When dd was a bit younger we ate earlier - no earlier than half 6 though.

If I ate my dinner at 5pm I would be trashing the kitchen looking for more food by 9pm.

Would really love to be able to sit down to dinner as a family but as DH does not get home until 8.00 or later it just isn't practical. Do try to sit down with DCs some days but really have to admit I prefer to eat with DH knowing that most of the things I need to do for that day have been taken care of - or at least put off until tomorrow

Ging Ninj - Winter vomiting bug.
Eew that sounds like a whole house experience.
Poor little sausage.

Another dinnertime story

the twins were 4yo on valentines day & some relative decided to get 5m a battery powered machine gun that makes irritating noises. Luckily the batteries wore out after a few hours & the gun was forgotten.

Nanny1 was preparing dinner yesterday whilst 6f was playing nicely with her dollies. 5m sneaked off & took the batteries out of the tv/dvd/sat bleepers & opened the battery hatch of his machine gun & got them fitted the right way round. Hid under the tablecloth & waited for Nanny1 to come in with a big steaming bowl of Dolma (rice/mince wrapped in vine leaves). He jumps out as she comes in firing his (now 2ce as loud for some reason) machine gun at her & shouting loudly.

Dolma makes an interesting addition to the patterns on the carpet.

Naughty corner for a good while when mummy got home

Breakfast DC's (3 & 5) eat together. Dinner time the DC's, me, grandmother and great grand mother all eat at 5pm during the week and DH eats when he gets home, between 6pm and 8pm.

At the weekend it's the other way round when i go to work and DH cooks and they eat at 5pm and I eat when I get home.

They both will eat pretty much anything and with a knife & fork.

We've always tried to eat with them at least one person out of the family so they can learn how to copy an adult eating and learn the correct manners. It also means it's easier to stop them getting down from the table before everyone has finished.

Mine, especially 5m who is a terror, know the score for eating. Peace & tidy eating. They sit like angels, wait for everyone to be seated before eating & wait to be told to leave the table at the end. Shame they (especially he) is not like that the rest of the time. Mind you, he's the best to go to bed. Sleep before his head hits the pillow. 6f however needs a story & wakes mummy up if she dozes halfway through the 5th recital of the same story or gets upset if something is added to the tale to make it more tellable.

We sit down for dinner as a family every night (bar Wednesdays when dd doesn't come home from activities until 8.30) between 7pm and 8pm.

I did this from when the children were babies. 2 strong advantages, they have always been very good at using their cutlery and feeding themselves - they'd get fed up of waiting for the next mouthful to come from me when I was eating myself so it encouraged them to feed themselves

2 they can both happily come out for a meal to a restauarant in the evening, and sit and wait for the food to come at 8pm and not find this too late, and again are used to having to sit around letting adults chat etc.

I would love it if we could all eat together.

DH gets home about 7.
Kids eat at 5-5.30 and then go to bed at about 7.30 which is when we start cooking ours. DH and I eate at about 8-8.30.

Weekends we all eat together.

We all eat together at 7 or 7:30ish now. High chair babies (when I had one) usually just had a bedtimeish snack at that time, in the high chair, at the table with everyone else, having had something more substantial earlier. We like spicy meals and babies didn't always take too kindly to this fare, so I had plainer food for them in the kitchen while I cooked the main meal.

Rarely eat evening meal as a family as DH gets in too late (and unpredictable) for little ones (3 and 1 yr) to last. However, I always sit with them at the table and usually have a cup of tea and snack. I eat with DH after they are in bed and we both really value the time together to catch up on our days.

I eat lunch with DCs and we all eat breakfast together in the morning.

Hope to get the family meal going when DCs are older. Though I'll miss the adult time with DH (but not the feeling of being in the kitchen from 5 - 8 PM every evening!)

DD1 is 3 and dd2 is 9 months. We always eat dinner together at about 5.30 - 6pm when dh comes home from work. One meal is made and everyone has it for dinner.

Dinner is a really sociable time in our house and I know it's probably early in the evening to eat but we have gotten used to it.

We all eat together around 6ish, my dd's are 8,4,2 and 15mo. They have always sat up the table with us even before they were old enough to eat solids, so they have been used to it from day one.

I've made quite a point of including dd1 (now 2 1/2) in our meals at 6pm from when she was quite young. (When she was tiny she had her meal early and we ate at 7 when she was in bed). It's the only time she can have time with her daddy in the day during the week (he's usually out of the house by the time she gets up). If he gets home later than 6 I keep his dinner warm and we start without him.. She's also usually 'helping' to prepare our meal and gets to snack on bits of cheese etc if necessary.
Planning to do the same with dd2 - she's with us at dinner time but at not quite two weeks old a little too young to take part

we have always eaten together, now im lucky if we are all around at the same time once a week.

i think its a v. important thing - a meal at a table - ir eally do - but i wouldn't make a child under school age stick to a rigid routine

usually eat between 8-8.30
being a nanny i work 12+ hours so by the time i finish at 7pm, this is the earliest i get around to eating.
I always sit with my charges for both their lunch and dinner times, and sometimes eat with them at lunch, as i feel this is an important time of the day.
often a childs schedule is full with school/nursery, clubs, activities, playdates, homework etc.. and this gives them half an hour to relax and chat about their day too