When do you eat dinner?
 

Starkizzer and I were talking about when we ate dinner this evening in chat. I'd just finished getting my dinner on the stove.

So when do you eat dinner? What determines the timing of when dinner is served in your house?

We eat sometime between 5 and 7 pm. Dinner was always between 5-6pm when I was growing up, and so normally when I'm off earlier I try to shoot for that timing, but my usual shift at work ends at 5:30, so I'm sometimes not able to start cooking until 6. It also depends on what we're cooking. Sometimes we cook something that's really fast to get on the table, especially if we're getting a late start on dinner. I say "we" because my husband shares in the cooking duties.

Your turn!

Normally, I'd eat dinner at about 6-7 pm. Sometimes earlier, if my mother decides to cook (she has an early bedtime, since she wakes up for work around 4 am). Lately, though, I cannot eat until later - my work schedule often dictates that I am at work until at least 7:30-8:30pm, and I have a 40 minute drive home after my shift. Tonight, I stopped to get items to cook on my way home, too, so I ended up eating after 8:30. If I'm working a really late evening, I just eat a big lunch and snack through the evening shift, so hopefully I'm not hungry enough to need a real dinner when I get home. :/

We aim for dinner on the table at 6pm. The earlier it happens, the earlier the boys can be in bed :)

At work I take the walk to get my dinner box at 1700. I'm done eating after the walk back at 1730. This works out well for me because I go run at 1900 and that's enough time to digest the tuna sandwich. When I'm at home I eat dinner around 6:30 or 7. My current partner doesn't get home until around 6 anyway so I'm usually starting to cook dinner at 5 so it's done by the time she gets home so we can eat and enjoy a lazy evening of DVDs or whatever.

My I've-got-a-parasite eating habits are still going strong here. I eat breakfast at 0730. Morning 300 calorie snack at 1000. Eat lunch at 1200, have another 300 cal at 1430, eat dinner at 1700, have another 300 cal before bed at 2130. I think have a tapeworm. I shall love him and call him George.

Our work schedule is varied, so we are just as likely to eat dinner at 4pm as we are to eat at midnight.

I don't usually have dinner. The problem is this: my work day doesn't officially end until 6pm (which means that I don't usually get out of the office until 7) and by the time I get home, it is anywhere from 7:30 to 8:30. My family doesn't wait for me to get home to eat. When I finally get home, I either grab a little of what they ate or have a small snack -- sometimes I don't have anything.

In Canada, I would be home by 6, make dinner and be eating before 7.

It's around 5-6 PM usually, boys are home from school by 4 PM (sometimes earlier), hubby at 16:30.

When I'm at work in the evenings, I have a half an hour break between 6-7 PM.

Digesting takes up my full processing power, during which time the most I can do is lose consciousness while a film is playing on the computer.

So I eat at about 10:00 when there's nothing else I'll want or need to do.

I always worked a typical 8-5ish schedule where we'd generally dine between 6 - 7 pm. Every six months my schedule's been changing at this job. On my current run, dinner's generally sometime between 3 and 5 pm, as I should be in bed by 8 pm.

It just depends on whenever I get off work, which is typically around 430, but lately it's been closer to 6 or 7.

We try to get food into our bellies and done prior to 8pm at the very latest. We usually start discussion around 6 - 6:30 and I go get the take out by 6:30 - 7:00. If I'm cooking dinner, I usually try to have it ready between 6 and 7. Problem being that if we eat too early, S had a tendency to snack late at night.

On weekdays we usually have dinner as soon as my husband comes home from work, between 6:15 and 7 pm. It's always a victory when I have the meal ready as he walks in the door. That doesn't happen too often. Sometimes I walk in minutes before he does, which means I'm scrambling to throw something together. If I don't have a meal ready when he comes home, he usually wants to cook something quick, so we end up eating at about the same time.

On the weekends we are less likely to keep to a schedule.

It all depends on the kids schedule. Try to eat around 6:30 to give them time between eating and bedtime. If there are sports it is whenever we can fit it in that day.

Well, firstly there is a matter of definition

I eat breakfast, Dinner (midday), Tea (main evening meal).. although I am conscious that most people call their midday meal lunch and their evening meal Dinner or Supper.

I have my tea (depending on when I finish work and what Im cooking) between 6-30 and 8pm normally. I dont like eating a big meal much after 8.

Breakfast is the only meal that I have at anything like a regular time. Usually sometime between about 8:00 and 9:30am, unless I'm going in to work early for some reason, or am on the road. Lunch is whenever I happen to think of it, or if someone else asks me to join them.:shakehead:
Since my Sig Other is out of the country, and I eat supper alone most of the time, supper is ... whenever. Like some others, I don't like to eat a big meal late, and if 8pm rolls around and I haven't had supper, I may just resort to a snack, some fruit, nuts, beef jerky... especially if I had a late lunch.

SF, thanks for your discussion of the English definitions.
Where I grew up, in "farm country" USA, the main meal of the day was always called Dinner. Except Saturdays, sometimes the main meal was breakfast, with no one being around the rest of the day. On work days, dinner would be the evening meal. Sundays and traditional family holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc the main meal was called Dinner, and would usually be served mid-afternoon, maybe about 2:00pm. On those days, supper would be light, perhaps some kind of cold sandwich, soup, salad, or just leftovers from dinner. Okay, sometimes a second round of cake, pie, cobbler, with homemade ice cream too.:)

Lindy