If you eat dinner at 6 pm or later...

For those of you who eat dinner around 6 or later, I'm curious to see what your schedule is like during the day for other meals and snacks, and I guess how old your kids are matters too. I would love to eat dinner as a family, but my dh doesn't get home until 6:15, and the girls are usually beyond starving by then.

As the girls are getting a little bit older, I'm thinking it might be time to adjust their schedules a little bit and see if we could eat dinner later. Right now I eat with them around 5 or 5:15, and keep a plate warm for my dh, and he eats when he gets home. It works out okay, but it would be nice to eat together like we do on his days off or the weekends.

We usually eat lunch around 12, and the girls go down for a nap around 12:30. They usually have a snack when they wake up around 2:30. Maybe I should give them a snack later, maybe around 3:30, to help get them until 6? Or give them something more substantial? I usually give them some juice and crackers.

Thanks for your input!

 

We usually eat right at 6 or slightly earlier. I don't know if this would work for you, since you are probably looking at 6:15 or 6:30.

(ETA: You could try delaying the snack right after nap, unless they wake up starving. Mine usually are not interested in eating when they wake up -- we have to almost force it on them, because we want to go do something before dinner, but we know that if they don't snack, they won't make it till dinner.)

The schedule on weekdays (when they're at daycare) is:
Breakfast 7:00
Snack 9:00
Lunch 11:30
Nap 12:30-2ish
Snack 3:30
Dinner 6:00

On weekends, it's similar, but snacks are a bit later and nap is longer:
Breakfast 7:00
Snack 9:30 or 10
Lunch 12:00
Nap 1-3:30
Snack 4:00
Dinner 6:00

They are usually starving when we get home from daycare, so I always cook the night before. DH usually gets home a bit before me, which helps because he can microwave and get the food on the table.

My girls are 26 months, but this has been the schedule since 14 months or so (whenever we gave up bottles).

 

We are in the same boat as you right now as DH doesn't get home until about 6:30. My guys are 19 months old and as of now, I try my best to hold them off, but we don't always make it.

We follow pretty much the same schedule as you also, lunch at 12 and naps at 12:30 or so and when they get up they have their snack. Sometimes I do find another light snack around 4 or 4:30 will tide them over and that is usually juice and crackers.

I guess I wasn't much help, but I just wanted to let you know you are not alone!

 

I would suggest trying to delay snack also. It will probably take a while for the to acclimate to the new schedule. I would recommend setting up a really fun activity for them for right when they wake up to distract them from the idea that they are usually fed at that time. Another fun activity (color wonder, backyard, etc) at their usual dinnertime during the transition may help too.

 

19 months old here and this is what our schedule looks like:


7:30 8oz milk
8:30 breakfast
11:45/12 lunch
12:30-3:30 nap
3:30 8oz milk
6:00 dinner
then off to bath/teeth/bed!

 

I am pretty sure my schedule was about the same as it is now when my girls were the same age as your girls are now. Since the beginning we have always had a late schedule and that was so that DH would get to see the girls after he got home from work and that just progressed into them eating dinner with us every night.

So here is my regular schedule for them.

8-8:30 wake up and then have breakfast
11am Snack (usually while out running errands)
12:30-1 Lunch
1:30 - 4 Naptime
4-dinner Some milk or juice
6-6:30 Dinner
7:45 Snack
8:30 Bedtime

On Tuesday and Thursday my girls are up at 7am for toddler school but they always seem to fall back into their schedule. If they seem over tired we will put them to bed earlier on school days but that is the only change. I am also starting to make their nap shorter so that they fall asleep better at night.

 

You could maybe push nap back a bit, which would in turn push the snack back. We also have lunch at 12:00., but they go down for nap more like 1:00. For one thing, my children tend to draw out their meals, so they are actually eating for like 30 min. I also like to give them adequate time to digest and poop before nap so I don't get called back in for a diaper change. We usually do snack at 3:30, and dinner is at 6:00ish, sometimes a little later. It really depends on if they napped or not. If they did not nap, dinner is more like 5:45 so we can get them to bed at 7:00. On days they napped, bedtime is closer to 8:00.