What time do you and your family sit down for your evening meal?

aliasojo

Spendless wrote: »

Personally I found babies/children change their habits anyway as they get older. I have only known of a couple of examples of kids who are still needing an afternoon nap when they get to school nursery age.

What about parents.

My youngest is in secondary and I'd be quite happy to have a wee nap mid afternoon. Or is that more to do with my age?

@Mildred, I suspect you are one of those lucky parents who has been blessed with a baby who doesn't treat sleep like a gift from Satan.

One thing though, about your comment about changing times not being difficult...just remember that the longer a pattern has to form, the longer it takes to change it. So by the time your LO is ready for school it may well be harder to change his routines by then. Of course going by your sleep hours as a baby, your lad could just be a sleeper no matter what (or when). In which case, those of us who had problematic sleepers.....hate you. :rotfl:(Just kidding!)

onlyroz

make_me_wise wrote: »

Sounds like it works well for your lifestyle right now, which is fair enough. My only concern is how you will adjust all this for when he starts school and has to be up early to be there for 8.45-9.00. I realise he is only 1 now but changing a set routine with kids isn't easy. Especially if they have been doing the same thing for years.

The child is one and is presumably still having daytime naps. I doubt very much whether they're still following the same sleeping pattern when they're 3/4.

Plans_all_plans

My husband gets in from work at approx 5.30pm. I start cooking just before 5pm and tea is ready to eat when he gets in. We all sit at the table together.

ILoveEoin

Well as hubby to be works until 10pm, we have dinner at 10.10pm:)

mildred1978

onlyroz wrote: »

The child is one and is presumably still having daytime naps. I doubt very much whether they're still following the same sleeping pattern when they're 3/4.

He's only just 1 and has 2, sometimes 3 naps per day

Mrs_Arcanum

7 to 7:30pm depending on DH working or not (does 7am to 7pm 4 on 4 off). We all eat together around the dining table not in front of TV (always have done). Children are 12 & 15. When DH was on nights (better when the children were small) we used to eat around 5-5:30pm.

Lunar_Eclipse

I'm pleasantly surprised by all the families at home and able to eat together at 5/6pm. I thought very few people enjoyed life like that thesedays; I know my dad was never home by that time when I lived at home and still has 12hour+ days when you take travelling into account.

DH gets home between 7.30 & 8 most evenings (& that's super early amongst our peers), so the children have usually already eaten. I fluctuate between eating with them, DH or skipping dinner, depending on when I've eaten during the day.

I suspect that by the time they're both in secondary school we could probably all eat together.

At weekends we all eat together, at around 6pm.

shellsuit

mildred1978 wrote: »

He's only just 1 and has 2, sometimes 3 naps per day

No wonder he's still awake late into the evening, having 2-3 naps.


My son is such a good sleeper. He's 2 but since around 9 months has only ever had one nap a day.

Now I have to keep him awake all day which sometimes is a battle, so I can get him bathed and in bed by 7. If he does have a nap, he won't go down at 7 and instead, between 8 and 9.

I could leave him up but I need me time and my husband and I need us time which we don't get a lot of as he works a full week and most weeks he's out on call every evening too.

Don't you ever need some you time? I think if I was with my son fro 10am - 10pm or later, every day, it'd drive me mad.

Guinea_2

I'll echo Lunar Eclipse's comments. I am also surprised & happy that families still sit down together for their evening meal no matter what the time. I'm a teacher & I once asked children whether they sat down as a family for their evening meal. The response was only four out of twenty eight children. It made me so upset but this thread has made me happy that this one family time has not died out.....yet! Lol

mildred1978

shellsuit wrote: »

No wonder he's still awake late into the evening, having 2-3 naps.


My son is such a good sleeper. He's 2 but since around 9 months has only ever had one nap a day.

Now I have to keep him awake all day which sometimes is a battle, so I can get him bathed and in bed by 7. If he does have a nap, he won't go down at 7 and instead, between 8 and 9.

I could leave him up but I need me time and my husband and I need us time which we don't get a lot of as he works a full week and most weeks he's out on call every evening too.

Don't you ever need some you time? I think if I was with my son fro 10am - 10pm or later, every day, it'd drive me mad.

My husband is away 5 days and nights per week. He is on call 24/7 one week in 3 including weekends. We get very little time together, but I'm not worried about that. I do want him to spend as much time as possible with my son when he is home.

I get some me time. Once LO is in bed I can soak in the bath or watch telly, or just get an early night if I need to. I can even go round to friend's houses for the evening, letting LO fall asleep in the car on the way home.

I don't understand this obsession with getting children into bed at 7pm. I know (most nights) that once asleep LO will stay asleep for at least 10 hours, usually 12. Does it matter what hours those are? My son is happy and healthy, and I don't think 2 20-30 minute naps per day are a problem. 1 year olds can easily sleep up to 15 hours per day.

How exactly would I have been able to drive 20 miles to pick my husband up at 9pm last night if my son had been tucked up in bed since 7pm?