Fitting tea round kids activities

[Sprogonthetyne]

Dc don't get home from school until 4pm, and have an activity 4.30-6.30 one night and one 5-7 another night. Last year they only did one of them and were having cooked school meals, so I felt OK giving them beans on toast or a bagel, then cereal just before bed (7-7.30) if they were hungry when they came in.

This year, eldest has asked to move to packed lunch, and have just started the second activity (just before summer), but I'm not sure about them not having a "proper" meal two days a week.

How do you fit decent meals between school, activities and bedtime?

Packed lunch dinner in the car/on arrival just before club starts 2 days a week. Healthy sandwich, some fruit etc.

If they want a packed lunch at school as well, they could take a flask with something hot in on those days. Soup, sausage and beans, leftover bolognese etc.

If they don't want that, a packed lunch dinner in the car twice a week won't kill them.

I had this problem and I ended up getting those heated food flasks and making the kids eat tea in the car, I made something easy like spaghetti and sauce and they ate it at 4pm then when I picked them up from dancing I gave them a pudding to eat in the car something big and filling like a donut and strawberries.

i love the fact you said ‘tea’ and not supper or dinner ! A true northerner!

We eat more like 7-8pm. My youngest is 6 and it’s been like this as long as I can remember. They get a sandwich or frozen pizza or something similar with fruit, etc when they come home from school and then one of us cooks dinner while they other takes them to their activity, then we eat like 7-8pm ish.

One night a week eldest has Scouts, which can be as late as 7-8:30pm and on that had I tend to do a simpler meal (jackets, quesadillas, etc) that I can cook for her before or have waiting for her after, depending on when she wants to eat and give her the choice of when she wants it.

Slow cooker.

Back when our days looked like this, I'd bung everything for a casserole in the slow cooker in the morning and it would be ready whenever we were. Great for if people need to eat at different times.

Or stuff like home cooked chilli which can be reheated in a couple of minutes, served with microwave rice.