Do you or did you eat dinner with your children?

[RedRobyn2021]

DD is 3 and we always have eaten breakfast lunch and dinner at the table together (unless she's at preschool then she has lunch there). This does mean dinner for her has been quite late so she could eat with her dad when he's home for 5:45/6

I've noticed a lot of parents don't do this, that their kids eat early and then the parents eat later

Just wondering what other people's set up is and why you've chosen that way

Eat with the children at 5. DH often works from home or comes home earlier and does a bit more work later. Except swimming lesson night and I skip lunch so I can eat dinner with the kids at 4.15

We always eat as a family and we all eat the same meal. Only one option. Watch Joe Wicks if you are looking for inspiration. He's very big on this and was speaking about it today.

I eat with ds at 5. Dh eats at 6. Weekends we all eat together

We eat as a family at 6:30 , always did this even when the kids were small. I think eating together is important, especially when both parents work and you don’t see eachother during the day.

Always eaten as a family even with babies around, usually around 6:30-7pm. We’re in France though where eating dinner at 5pm would be considered pretty out there: how do children learn to eat / sit / behave correctly at table unless adults are there to model it?

children here tend to have a nap until they are 3-5 yrs old, so bedtime is also later than in the UK.

Eat as a family or if Dh can’t do it because of work schedule we eat together and he eats later. We felt it was really important to have dinner as a family. Usually at 5:30 to 6. Breakfast Dd eats in the kitchen while I make her packed lunch. DH and DD have an early start so he tends to be in the shower at this point and doesn’t have time for breakfast unless he got up at 5 something.

Have always eaten dinner as a family except occasionally when one of us is out, or we decide to have something different for the adults. But eating together is the standard.

Dh gets home early so dinner could be early enough but always a family dinner sitting at the dining table with the tv off. From day dot.

Rarely.

On weekdays both DC want to eat dinner as soon as they get home from school...dh and I eat dinner together at about 8.30pm.

Usually eat with the kids about 6:30 but one night a week me and husband have a date night and eat something when they have both gone to bed.

When our children were very young, we usually ate dinner together at the table. As they have got older, we/they sometimes have things on, but I'd say we eat dinner together at least 4 times a week. We often eat breakfast and lunch together when we're all around too.

I think it's nice to eat together, when they were younger it was more about setting up good habits, now they're older it's a good time to catch up on what's going on with everyone.

We ate together at the weekends and the children had an early tea at 5pm in the week. When they were in year 4 and above we would mostly eat together at 7.

We eat as a family but only started when DD was in reception. Before that she tended to have her main meals at nursery, then some toast/weetabix before bed and we’d eat about 8pm once she was asleep. Took me a while to get used to eating at 5.30!

We now eat with the kids at 7.30 (they’re 18,16 and 13) have done this for about 2 years.
Before that DH didn’t get back from work until 8, obviously too late for the kids. So they’d eat at 6 and we’d eat 8.15.

Yes we always do. It means we eat quite early (we wfh so no commute to deal with, just picking DDs up), but I really prefer it.

DSs eat with childminder during the week. We all eat together at the weekend. Once in secondary they’ll eat in the evening with us.

We all used to eat together. Dinner was at 6:30.

Always eat together at 6 since children. 3 now in 20s still do unless working late or going out.

DS normally eats around 6.30. From time to time we will eat with him at the weekend but rarely during the week. One of me or DH is usually still working until 8 or so and we eat after that.

Eat together at around 6 Sunday-Thursday. Fridays and Saturdays they eat first and we eat food they don’t like, mostly spicy stuff, and maybe share a bottle of wine later on! I find that a good balance.

I used to but I had to stop as its too triggering. I'm autistic and sitting close to people who are eating is awful for me. The noise of eating plus the smells etc.

It's a shame really as its a nice family thing to do.

Always ate together. Think it's important if you can but depends on what works for your family. If somebody gets in late from work, obviously you can't expect the kids to wait.

No, it’s too stressful, as much as I like the idea of it the reality isn’t enjoyable at all.

When kids were smaller we always ate together with a high chair at the end. Kids are now older. Only the 17yo lives with us now. OH loves cooking. We had all kids and partners round for a chilli night last week and 6 of us around the table. Youngest didn't want chilli so went to boyfriends. We just got a new dining table. I love sitting down and eating together. That is my stipulation and they all comply lol

Always used to apart from Saturday when we used to have a more grown up dinner once they were in bed.

I've eaten on my own though tonight because they're older now and both out!