When's dinner

[3and3]

I was just wondering what time is normal dinner at your house. We usually eat around 6 but I find it getting later and later. Since we are doing school now dinner keeps getting further and further behind and don't even get me started on clean up.

 

Does anyone have there dinner in afternoon instead of evening? If so how do you schedule it in your day?

 

I am thinking it might be better to change dinner to late afternoon so I am not still cleaning up at 11:30p. KWIM :glare:

Jenny

[JudoMom]

We usually eat between 7 & 8. We have an open floor plan, and I usually finish eating before the rest of my family, so I'll often clean up the kitchen while they're eating, so I'm done with cleanup by 8:45 or so.

[k2bdeutmeyer]

I'd LIKE dinner to be around 5:30 or 6:00, but most nights we usually end up eating between 7:00 and 8:00. I'm not a good meal planner and we're usually still discussing WHAT we're going to have for dinner at 5:30.

[bairnmama]

I'd LIKE dinner to be around 5:30 or 6:00, but most nights we usually end up eating between 7:00 and 8:00. I'm not a good meal planner and we're usually still discussing WHAT we're going to have for dinner at 5:30.

 

 

This is about what it's like at my house, too. I used to have my meals planned out for 2 weeks in advance, but I never seem to have/take the time to do that anymore.

[m0mmaBuck]

We eat around 5 p.m. Due to Scouts, we are at meetings by 6 p.m. 3 nights a week so we've just fallen into this pattern.

 

We try to be finished with school by 2 p.m. which gives me time to work, run errands, etc., before DS's public school friends are home (and at our front door) by 4 p.m. I generally start dinner by 4:30 at the lastest and it's on the table by 5 p.m.

[MamaT]

I have dinner ready by 6:30, but people trickle in from activities until 8:30 so we never eat together right now. I am hoping that our schedule for the fall will allow us all to eat at 6:30. I don't usually finish clean up until everyone finishes - 9:00 or so. Not the way I like it, but that's the way it is right now.

[flobee76]

We eat dinner at 5:30pm. My husband comes home around that time and it works for us. Our kids go to be relatively early, so this is what works.

 

I plan my meals out a month in advance, at the very least. If I am really on the ball, I can have 3 months of meals planned out.

[Celia]

We always eat between 5 and 5:30. I clean up while huibby bathes the kids. Bedtime for the little ones is 7, and the 6yr old goes to bed at 7:30, so I can't really have dinner much later than that!

[flobee76]

We always eat between 5 and 5:30. I clean up while huibby bathes the kids. Bedtime for the little ones is 7, and the 6yr old goes to bed at 7:30, so I can't really have dinner much later than that!

 

Looks like our kids' ages are the same! I clean up when hubby takes care of baths as well. :D

[dripdripsplat]

We, too, try to eat early in the evening (6ish), but as school starts to encompass our days, dinner gets later and later. So, what we started to do is, at 5:30, when I know hubby is on the road home, I rally the troops, and we clean the house (so it looks nice for Dad), then we migrate to the kitchen, where one of the kids will set the table while the other will help me prep dinner (we alternate who gets what duty), whether it's slicing vegetable or stirring something. When Dad gets home dinner is either on the table or about to hit the table. After dinner, both kids have "Dinner Cleanup", including wiping down the table and chairs, putting condiments away, washing dishes, drying dishes, putting dishes away, etc. (with me pitching in too). I call this our "Home Ec" class :) And, because it's fun, the kids enjoy helping, and I don't end up staying up all night cleaning up the kitchen, just to walk into the livingroom and see the mess from earlier in the day (we're usually done and out of the kitchen by 7:30, at the latest).

 

As a sidenote, I figure by doing it this way, I'm training my kids to 1) make the house pleasant for Dad, 2) plan a nutritious, delicious meal, 3) work together to prepare and clean up, and 4) be equipped to be a blessing to their future spouse. My husband really helps too, by telling the kids what a great job they did folding the napkins, arranging the table, washing the dishes, etc. It's hard work some nights, but there favorite time of the day is "making dinner for Daddy."

[JFSinIL]

6:35 is when hubby walks in the door if the commuter train hasn't been delayed, so that is when the food is ready. When the teens chose to eat it (if they eat it) is up to them.

 

I grew up with dinner at 7pm.

[flobee76]

We, too, try to eat early in the evening (6ish), but as school starts to encompass our days, dinner gets later and later. So, what we started to do is, at 5:30, when I know hubby is on the road home, I rally the troops, and we clean the house (so it looks nice for Dad), then we migrate to the kitchen, where one of the kids will set the table while the other will help me prep dinner (we alternate who gets what duty), whether it's slicing vegetable or stirring something. When Dad gets home dinner is either on the table or about to hit the table. After dinner, both kids have "Dinner Cleanup", including wiping down the table and chairs, putting condiments away, washing dishes, drying dishes, putting dishes away, etc. (with me pitching in too). I call this our "Home Ec" class :) And, because it's fun, the kids enjoy helping, and I don't end up staying up all night cleaning up the kitchen, just to walk into the livingroom and see the mess from earlier in the day (we're usually done and out of the kitchen by 7:30, at the latest).

 

As a sidenote, I figure by doing it this way, I'm training my kids to 1) make the house pleasant for Dad, 2) plan a nutritious, delicious meal, 3) work together to prepare and clean up, and 4) be equipped to be a blessing to their future spouse. My husband really helps too, by telling the kids what a great job they did folding the napkins, arranging the table, washing the dishes, etc. It's hard work some nights, but there favorite time of the day is "making dinner for Daddy."

 

I ♥ this... thank you for sharing.

[runamuk]

Dinner is at 6:30, when my husband gets home from work. The kids would like to eat earlier, but we love having everyone around the table at dinnertime, so we wait (with appropriate/healthy snacks provided, of course). :)

[Rich with Kids]

I usually have it ready between 6:30 and 7:00. The kids stay at the pool until @ 8 during the summer, so they eat whenever they get home.

[Desert Rat]

Between 4:30-5:00. We have evening sports so I like to have the boys fed before rather than after 7:30.

[AngieW in Texas]

We all eat breakfast at different times that range anywhere from 6am to 11am.

 

We all do lunch around 12:30pm.

 

We have dinner around 8:30pm.

 

We have smoothies around 11pm.

[Gooblink]

Lately it seems I'm starting dinner about an hour after everyone is hungry and by the time dinner's done everyone has foraged themselves out of appetite. :glare: We don't have a regular schedule...between 6:00 and 7:00 would be ideal.

 

Hey, look at the time! :)

[Mothersweets]

I have dinner ready by 6:30, but people trickle in from activities until 8:30 so we never eat together right now. I am hoping that our schedule for the fall will allow us all to eat at 6:30. I don't usually finish clean up until everyone finishes - 9:00 or so. Not the way I like it, but that's the way it is right now.

 

That is how it is at our house,too. The tricklers really bug me!! It's worse because the main trickler-in is my dh. sigh. I want to get dinner over with (dinner is my bane) and I resent having to keep it going for so long each night. Yes, I know, I have to work on how I feel about it. :glare:

[3and3]

It's worse because the main trickler-in is my dh. sigh. I want to get dinner over with (dinner is my bane) and I resent having to keep it going for so long each night. Yes, I know, I have to work on how I feel about it.

:iagree:

 

This is the same way I feel my dh never eats with us. :glare:Either he has to work late or likes to clean up before he eats. So, it's just the kids and me anyway. He doesn't care if he has to reheat his meal. He only cares if it is not done by the time he gets home. :001_huh:

 

Jenny

[Jean in Newcastle]

5:30 - usually when dh comes home from work. If he's a bit late we wait for him unless he calls to say that he'll be really late and to just go ahead.

[mcconnellboys]

I generally only eat at lunchtime and my son and I generally go out. Sometimes, if my husband is off work, he also eats with us.

 

My husband does not get home from work until 7 and I usually put dinner on the table as soon as he walks in. That may not happen some evenings if my son has evening sports events, but it has been a general practice for us since moving here about 13 years ago....

[KellyinPA]

Lately, dinner is around 6ish. We all eat together (usually) and clean up doesn't take long. Dh typically starts while I finish eating and then I'll finish what isn't done yet. The kids have after dinner jobs too.

 

In the winter, we eat earlier. I guess since it gets dark so early it feels like it MUST be dinnertime:)

[Baseball mom]

Here lately (baseball season) we have eaten whenever we can grab something.

 

Normally we like to eat between 5-6.

[sonsmama]

We generally eat between 4:30 and 5:30 (if I cook:D). My husband comes home has 4:00 so he will either snack and not want to eat until late, or I am ready with dinner.

[Ellie]

I like to have dinner on the table 45 minutes to an hour after Mr. Ellie gets home from work, less if possible. I never know for sure what time, exactly, he'll be home :glare: which is why I plan meals that are easy to put together. We are usually finished, including having cleaned the kitchen, by 6. For many years Mr. Ellie walked in the front door at 4:30 every single day, and dinner was on the table. We were finished by 5. His subsequent jobs have been such that I haven't known for sure when he'd be home.

 

When dds were at home but working, I cooked dinner for Mr. Ellie and me and cleaned the kitchen. Dd ate left-overs or cooked something else (and cleaned the kitchen). I don't tolerate tricklers very well. :glare:

[sagira]

7 is our regular dinner time, but me being so sick and hubby cooking and preparing food, it has been closer to 8-8:30.

[Dawn in OH]

Our dinnertime has shifted over the last few years. When my husband was working days we were having dinner about 5.

 

Then he was doing 12 hour night shifts and we pushed dinner back to 5:30. Then he needed more sleep so dinner was at 6.

 

Since I've had the baby, who likes to be awake and held when I should be cooking dinner, dinner seems to be happening at 7ish, maybe a little later. Tonight it was earlier.

 

Hopefully we can get back to having dinner around 5:30-6 o'clock soon. These late dinners are rough on the kids and myself.

[creekland]

We eat at whatever time it takes for all of us to eat together. If my boys have an activity where they need to leave at 6:15 or so, then we eat at 5. If hubby has a township meeting at 7 - 8, then we'll eat an hour earlier than he needs to leave. If that's not the case, we often eat closer to 8pm when we are finished with all of our activities. We have no set time. I don't want a set time. Being too scheduled bugs me.