Does anyone else's toddler eat with them at around 6.30ish?

[Gateau]

My DH doesn't get in until this time, so it has just evolved that this is the time we all eat tea. (my DS is 20 months).
And I must admit, we like it like this, although it does mean DS doesn't go to bed until 8-8.30 or even later.
But we seem to be the only ones who do this. Most people I know feed their kids at 5-5.30pm and then eat their meal afterwards when they are in bed. But this just doesn't seem to work for us. That said, I am thinking of changing the routine as lately DS is just not going to bed until about 10.30! I am worried he is not getting a proper wind-down before bed-time.
Does anyone do similiar to me?

meandeva- that's a myth. It was recently disproved (again) in a recent study.

That thing about toddlers/babies having to eat special food is just a myth. Heinz started it just before they released their jars of mush. Its to make you spend more money

I tried all that with dd1. My sister did it with her first two aswell. All organic jars and home made anabel karmel recipes frozen in little platic cups for later.

My dd1 is extremely fussy and a very poor eater. By the time dd2 came along I had too much to do to stand cooking special baby foods and had enough to spend my momey on without buying into all the heinz hype. dd2 got given what we were having right from the start. Just whizzed up in the food processor. dd2 will eat anything. Apart from jarred food or mush. The blender got chucked when she was about 7.5 months. I don't even cut her food up for her now. She does it herself.

Eating late does not cause obesity either, that is another myth started by slimfast I believe . The cure of obesity can be found in simple mathetics. Its calories in vs calories out over a period of time. If you regularly consume more calories than you burn you will gain weight, it doesn't matter what time you eat these calories.

I thought eating late at night was very bad for as well, is that really a myth?

yep, utter nonsense. you may get heartburn at the worst!

Wow! That really is a revaltion to me. I work in the evenings and I have to have dinner early, because I thought it would be unhealthy. Then I finish work and want something to eat and cant have it.

Now me and dh can eat later which would suit us both.

yes we all have dinner at 6-6.30. Well my 8mo dd starts hers at 5 but will still be in the highchair having different courses til we all get up. Dp gets in at 6 and so we all eat together - mostly nursery food I suppose (sausage and roasted veg, spag bol, stir frys etc) but then my 5 yo ds does eat most things so its not a problem.

And tbh we do it out of laziness - theres no way I am cooking twice of an evening.

One my ds had stopped bf he didnt have cows milk to go to bed with so just had dinner, then bath, book and bed.

The eating late thing is a myth. Some diets tell you not to eat after a certain time in the evening because that's when you're more likely to eat junk (crisps, biscuits etc while watching the telly). It's nothing to do with when you go to bed .

And yes, we're both night-owls, and the DDs are turning out that way (especially DD3, who likes to stay up till 10pm then sleep in my bed - but then she's only 24 weeks).

we only eat togther at the weekends
This is because ds has school dinners, dd has her main meal at lunchtime and dh takes a packed lunch and doesn't get home until 6.45pm. Our dcs need 12 hours sleep so bedtime starts when dh comes home, then me and dh eat later at about 8pm

at the weekends we eat at about 5pm altogether

Our DC have always eaten with us at that sort of time (or later).

Not a problem as long as they are small enough to (or willing to) have a sleep during the day - when DS started school we had to get a lot more focussed on the speed of supper-bath-bed, or occasionally bath-supper-bed, but there is no way we would be home for them to eat before then.

we eat together at 630/7 and ds (16 months) is in bed by 830/9. he sleeps till 830 though. we are def night owls and we don't go to bed before midnight however hard we try. so ds hasn't got a hope in hell of being a lark. it works for us - as we have lovely evenings together (dh not home from work till 630 or 7) and i appreciate the lie in.

i do feel like a bit of a freak amongst friends though as everyone i know puts their toddlers/babies to bed at 7 (a la GF). in fact recetnly we went away with some friends and brought ds's bedtime forward to 745 in an effort to feel somewhat normal. personally i don't buy this all kids must be in bed by 7 thing -its almost like they are packed away out of sight, but understand that different strokes are for different folks. i am also the only person i know still feeding hey ho, must be a weirdo!

in terms of bedtime routine

dinner usually finsihed by 7, then we play downstairs for a bit. at about 745 upstairs for bath (dh does it). he has a weetabix in the bath - def helps him get through the night. then feed about 815, story,cuddle bed all in bedroom, v calm - asleep by about 845.
we love it.

Blimey, I'm surprised there are loads more people doing the later tea than I thought there would be. Will stick with what suits us then, with a calmer post-tea routine.
I personally don't like the 'feed the kids early' way. It just seems so cold, rushed and like a chore, rather than a pleasure. Pkus I'm rerely in at 5 anyway - we're always out in the afternoon.
I can't help feeling, though, that the 'get the kids to bed by 7' people look down their noses at the 'later to beds' as if we just let our children run wild. Does anyone else get this feeling?

well i feed mine earlier because they're ready for bed at the time you say (because that's when they want to get ready, not because i make them) I certainly don't look down my nose at anyone, but nor will i apologise for wanting to spend some decent, peaceful time with my husband.

Yes but that is probably because my children are quite feral!

They are feral and happy and I like them that way. They are both confident and independant and as bright as buttons.

I don't really care about what other people think it is what suits us, but I have noticed that dh occasionally sort of adds a qualifying statement when talking to his parents about such things, I expect it is seen a quirk of the foreign wife

I don't care what they think either. I'm merely sayingbthat's the feeling I get. A lot of what we do is not in synch with other parents - not because we try to be different, but because that's just the way it is.
There'a lot of smug parenting around, sadly.

my kids eat late and still go to bed by 8 - I dont think the two things are mutually exclusive...

I agree with you gateaux about the earlier tea - I find it a bit weird serving kids stuff and then watching them eat it without joining in...I for one would rather eat with them than my dp as well - if hes not in on time then we eat without him - thats his look out ahem...

Nobody's asking you to apologise, goodgrrrl.
I still get the decent, peaceful time with my DH because we don't go to bed early.

yes I see what you mean but in my 'circle' of mum friends there is wide variation and to be honest I can't say I have felt looked down upon

I understand what people say about grown up time too but we are usually busy studying or working in the evening and have late bedtimes as well

That said, these past few nights our unsettled DS has been up with us until 10.30, even midnight on Friday.
It doesn't bother me, TBH, as he's part of us- as long as he gets back to his normal routine eventually.

We are lucky, because dh comes home from work around 4.30ish, so we all have tea about 5/5.30. We do have a couple of evenings a week when dd's (2.9 and 19 months) eat tea on there own (we sit and have cup of tea with them), and then we will have something like pizza or something we know dd's don't like. The only thing I find is that eating this early means I really want to eat crap at about 9.

The thing that most people i know seem to think is wierd is that we all have breakfast together at 6.30, before dh goes to work.

I do feel the pressure on the odd occasions that DS has playdates - if they are being picked up at 6, there is an expectation that they will have been fed by then - which takes serious effort on my part - but other than that we just go with what works for us - and our DC are both owls rather than larks, so late(r) meals is what does work.

steathsquiggle am exactly the same - if we have someone over on a playdate then we need to feed them some proper food at 5pm then cook again at 6.30 or wait until everyone in bed meaning no crashing out til 9 grr.

I think breakfast together is lovely and not weird at all. I think many people would do it if they could, but I don;t think many can. I can't remember ever doing it with my parents apart from when we were on holiday, but I'm sure there was a time way back.. Starting the day off positively is ideal. You are lucky.

We do breakfast together at weekends - but then it is more like brunch . The flip side of being a family of definitely-not-morning-people is that there is no way we could do friendly sociable breakfast!

Gateux- we have no choice but to go to bed early. We're sleep deprived enough already!

Hello Hazeyjane!!

I much prefer eating together at breakfast / lunch on the weekends to evening times tbh- it's more relaxed.