Evening meals

SatNavSaysStraightOn

SatNavSaysStraightOn

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
11 Oct 2012
Local time
11:05 AM
Messages
19,480
Location
SE Australia
Website
www.satnavsaysstraighton.com
I was brought up in a family with traditional grandparents and very untraditional parents.

My grandparents with whom I lived off and on for many years and with whom I spent every holiday and every Wednesday without fail, always ate the evening meal at 6pm precisely. If you were not there at 6pm, then for was put on a plate for you and kept warm if you were going to be home soon.
My parents, on the other hand, we're not bothered if you ate or not. They didn't cook for us or sit down to meals with us. we could eat what we wanted, when we wanted, if we wanted and where we wanted.
I brought my brother and sister up and whilst doing so, I made sure we always at down to a meal together and ate together.

When I have lived (and on the occasions we have stayed there) with my in-laws, the same thing as with my grandparents happens. Food is served at 6pm and you are expected to be there unless you have said you won't be. Food is set aside in a plate for you if you can't make it for any reason.

How are you brought up wrt evening meals and at what time? Do you still follow that our do you eat whenever, wherever?

Incidentally, the evening meal in both traditional families is/was called tea. My parents tried calling it dinner!
 
I don't eat my evening meal (dinner) at any particular time, just when it's ready or when I'm hungry, but in my daughter's house dinner is ready during the week at 6 p.m, like it or not. Weekends are slightly different - I'm not sure about Saturdays, but Sundays dinner is ready at 1 p.m, just the same as when I lived at home with my parents.
 
When I was growing up, my Dad worked a delivery/sales job, so there wasn't a definite time he would be home. Also, my aunt who lived with us would get home just about six o'clock. Mom worked just up the street and got off at 3:00 PM, so she would have dinner planned for 6:30. If Dad was there, we all sat down at 6:30. ("We all" consisted of Dad, Mom, her sister who lived with us, their aunt who lived with us, and me - I was surrounded by grown-ups!) If the clock ticked past 6:30, Mom would serve us three "girls" and wait to eat until Dad got home. Once he retired, they ate closer to 7:00 since they were sleeping in considerably later than when Dad worked.

We've had a variable dinner time over our married lifetime. Usually by 7:00 PM before we had children, but that's because we both worked. I was first home, but it wasn't until around 5:30 PM. Once the kids came along, we were lucky if we got to eat at all when they were small and my folks weren't around to help! Once they got old enough for me to have something that resembled a schedule, we were back to 7:00 PM-ish. During his work years, hubby had a few stretches where he would travel, going out of town for days. When the kids were in school, we stuck to the 7:00 PM time when a school sport wasn't involved, but during summer we tossed schedules to the wind!

Whoever was home at dinner time would sit down around the table to eat and share our day, talk about upcoming events. When one of them invited a friend over, they were also part of our dinner ritual. A few would say their family never sat down together and comment on how nice it was to be with us. I felt bad for those kids. They also were invited over again. The last year or two of their high school years were crazy, what with sports and senior activities, and our son had a part in a community theatre play on top of it, so dinner became catch-as-catch-can most of the time. Now, when we're back in OH staying with our daughter, our son is over most every evening and we all sit down together for dinner...around my parents' old dining room table. :love:

As for hubby and me here in Massachusetts? More often than not, we're eating on lap trays while watching the TV. Like two old, nursing home residents. :o_o: Except I'm still the one cooking! :laugh:
 
Being brought up in Spain, our dinner hours range from 21.00 - 21.30 depending upon if it was a laboral day or a weekend, which brought the time to 22.00.
I am an only child, so the three of us had dinner together at 21.00 - 21.30 as my parents are professionals and still both working ..

We have always eaten lunch at 14.00 or 14.30 ..

We have always eaten breakfast, at 6am - 6.30am depending on our schedules and a mid morning café and bite at 11am at a local Bar which is norm for us here ..

Interesting post ..
Have a lovely weekend ..
 
It all depends on our schedules and if we are hungry. I we have to do something in the mornings Mom won't eat breakfast, I will get up earlier and fix me something so I can take my morning medicines, and we will have a big lunch when we get home or get takeout and bring it home for lunch. Other days we will have a big breakfast after Mom gets up, a light lunch and an in between supper. We really have no specific times and we eat in the living room so she can watch TV and I do stuff on the computer or read.
 
Growing up we had a main meal at midday and tea around 4.30. Now husband and I work so lunch is at 12.30, sandwich and juice and our evening meal is around 6pm, even at weekends. When we are on holiday we may eat a little later maybe 7pm but neither of us like to eat any later than that because don't like going to bed on a full stomach.
 
Midday meal was always dinner, thus evening meal was tea. This possibly stemmed from school 'dinners' being in the middle of the day. Weekends usually involved egg and chips on Saturday midday and roast meat on Sundays. Evening food would be cold and usually involved cakes and biscuits.

I became vegetarian in my late teens and eating times became less predictable. Beer began to replace food in the evening. At weekends, the 'evening' meal often arrived around midnight, generally in the form of a vegetable vindaloo.
 
Tea, around "tea-time"(17:00 - 19:00). Supper when eaten, 21:00 on.

I've had my dinner(midday meal) gone midnight. Followed by breakfast a few hours later.

Working split shifts, I ate when I got home. From 22:00 on.
 
classic33 said:
...Working split shifts, I ate when I got home. From 22:00 on.
Click to expand...

The last four of five years of working, hubby had the 4:00 PM to midnight shift. He was a Tech Support specialist, and also often chief hand-holder of clients with computer issues. If I client wasn't in, he could manage to slip away around 10:00 PM, but if one was around and having problems, he might end up staying hours (and hours) past midnight. At first I ate supper, alone, around 7:00 PM. Then it got later, and later...and before I knew it, I was plating food for us to eat while watching the 1:00 AM re-run of the 10:00 PM news. He's been off work for almost six years and we still haven't turned our schedule around to complete "normal" hours - except when we're visiting our kids. Then life becomes normal. :love:
 
Lynne Guinne said:
The last four of five years of working, hubby had the 4:00 PM to midnight shift. He was a Tech Support specialist, and also often chief hand-holder of clients with computer issues. If I client wasn't in, he could manage to slip away around 10:00 PM, but if one was around and having problems, he might end up staying hours (and hours) past midnight. At first I ate supper, alone, around 7:00 PM. Then it got later, and later...and before I knew it, I was plating food for us to eat while watching the 1:00 AM re-run of the 10:00 PM news. He's been off work for almost six years and we still haven't turned our schedule around to complete "normal" hours - except when we're visiting our kids. Then life becomes normal. :love:
Click to expand...
Depends on what you class as "normal" though. Evening meal has often been breakfast.
 
We probably have "Breakfast for Supper" nearly every week, @classic33. At least three times a month, I would guess. It's my fall back meal when I'm running short on time or the right ingredients. Much easier than a trip to the store, which involves putting on a modicum of make-up and clothes fit for going out into public. :happy: The "normal" I was referring to was the normal time range for an American suppertime. For most families, 2:00 AM ain't it!

I've also been known to have a breakfast of last night's leftovers. Nothing like stuffed cabbages before noon!
 
Lynne Guinne said:
We probably have "Breakfast for Supper" nearly every week, @classic33. At least three times a month, I would guess. It's my fall back meal when I'm running short on time or the right ingredients. Much easier than a trip to the store, which involves putting on a modicum of make-up and clothes fit for going out into public. :happy: The "normal" I was referring to was the normal time range for an American suppertime. For most families, 2:00 AM ain't it!

I've also been known to have a breakfast of last night's leftovers. Nothing like stuffed cabbages before noon!
Click to expand...
I meant the first meal of the day, breakfast, has often been eaten in the evening, evening meal.
 
Supper is served when the fisherman (who has a problem eating a decent noon meal) arrives home from work.
This can vary ... he manages his company's facilities (oil refinery support industry) and doesn't have a set in stone schedule...so anytime from 3-5 pm.
We do a fair amt of breakfast for supper as well..... waffles being one of 3-4 dishes he can pull off lol.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom