What time is everyone having dinner?

[ApparentlyIsMyCircusAndMyMonkeys]

By dinner I mean evening meal.

1DC, partner mainly WFH. Kid hungry by 5pm, partner doesn’t finish work until 6 usually, so normally kid eats alone (feel bad about that, though one of us is in the kitchen with them) and then we eat together around 8ish after bedtime routine, but that feels so late for me and in the meantime I’ve inhaled a load of snacks I really shouldn’t have eaten.

Interested to hear how others organise their mealtimes to have more together?

I used to eat with the DC at 5. DH had his warmed up when he got in.

I give my daughter fruit if she’s hungry at 5pm. Most week nights we eat batch cooked food from the freezer, so it’s quick to prepare and we all eat a meal together about 6:30. When she’s had “tea” on nursery days at about 4pm she often just picks at dinner but I’m ok with that.

We eat as a family, at 5.30pm, when DH gets home. He finishes work at 5.20pm and has a 10 min cycle to get home. Pre-dcs we used to eat much later but we've adjusted to the earlier time and it's nice to chat about our days, and enjoy our meal together.

We always ate at 6.30pm I prefer everyone eats together

When my kids were small, we usually ate around 5.30/6.00. DH worked away in the week so I ate with the kids. On the odd occasion he was home in the week, he didn't get home till 7ish and would warm his up and eat while I did bedtime. I couldn't wait til 8 to eat dinner!

Kid eat at 5, we eat at 8/830 after they’re in bed. They’re small atm but I’m so sick of double meals! But 5 seems early and 830 feels late…

We all eat around 4.30 before evening activities begin.
Then a piece of fruit before bed.

More often than not between 5 and 5.30, all together.

DH usually works from home, I always do, and we both try to finish around 4.30 (we may have to do a bit more in the evening after DD’s bedtime) so it’s easy enough for us to eat at this time.

Sometimes someone is working later, so we’ll be a bit flexible and do substantial healthy snacks after school, then a smaller dinner for DD. One day a week DH isn’t here and it’s a rush with clubs so DD will have something really quickly and I’ll eat later once she’s in bed.

Generally I don’t mind eating earlier though - I did years of intermittent fasting so got into the habit of eating early then nothing after 6pm.

DC are 7 and 3, we generally all eat together at about 6:30, after their hobbies (or slightly earlier on the evenings DD has stuff going on late). Kids have a reasonably substantial snack after school, then they are good to go until dinner time. We've never done different mealtimes.

Between 5.30-6 depending on activities for the kids. I like sitting down together and hearing about their days

7.30/8pm depending on season and always together as a family at the table. Daughter has a snack at about 5pm. Never cooked separate meals and we all eat the same food.

How old is DC? 6pm is a perfectly normal dinner time but if they are very little I can see why you want to feed them earlier

As they get bigger they should be able to wait until 6pm which is still quite an early dinner. Are they not out at clubs or activities any nights?

Dinner at 6pm with a snack after school around 4pm if they needed it.
As they got older we would eat separately if an activity clashed with that. I would eat with the kids at 5pm and dh would sort himself when he got home, or vice versa if it was his day at home.

I could not be doing with two separate meals regularly. That’s the entire evening gone on cooking and cleaning, no thanks.

We always ate together around 7.

The DCs had a snack after school to tide them over.

They had homework every evening and some evenings they had activities too. 7pm made the most sense for us.

I never cooked separate meals for children and adults.

Thanks everyone, really helpful food for thought there and solidarity with you @Leopardspota- it’s so late isn’t it!
Going to start my campaign for family dinners at 6 next week

We all try to eat at 6pm and up for baths at 6:30pm. If DD is hungry earlier she has a snack. I have no patience for bedtime if I haven’t eaten and 8:30pm would be way too late for me.

We eat as a family at 6 unless it’s a swim night then we eat al 5:15. We eat at the table as a family, two adults and two children.

I eat with my kids at 5ish. DH doesn’t get home until after 7 so eating together isn’t really an option. We eat slightly later together at the weekend.

Around 6.30/7. Kids are 5 and 8. Sod cooking 2 meals and still be going with clean up at 8.30. They have an afternoon snack and can wait!