My Dd is 16months old and I'd really like us to eat our evening meal together. At the moment we eat breakfast and lunch together whenever we all around and I have just started trying get us all to eat an evening meal together on a Saturday. Dd usually eats at 5pm (4pm for 2 days in nursery) but that is a bit early for DH and me to eat on a regular basis. This Saturday I tried to compromise and get tea ready for 5.30pm but unfortunately as the rugby over ran it was 5.45pm by the time we sat down to eat and DD had been shouting for 45mins while I tried to cook.
From your experience is it realistic that I will be able to keep Dd waiting for her tea until 6pm (our preferred time to eat) so that we can eat together on a regular basis or should I just stick to us eating at 5pm on a Saturday and accept that every other day we will eat separately.
I remember tea time being at 6pm when I was little but as I remember it I was obviously a lot older than 16months!! At what age does 6pm become a reasonable time to eat?
Also I have tried giving DD a snack (even a substantial one) but still from 5pm onwards she shouts for food - especially if she sees me cooking - and it makes the whole experience unnecessarily stressful.