TeaTime

flydino

When is teatime?

I always try and have dinner with my kids when I come home form work and my husband tries to join us to. My firend said this was quite unusual and family meals with kids don't happen very often...Is this true?

Also, I have teatime at 7.30pm which my friend also tells me is not teatime...what is considered teatime?

seamus

Heh, the age old Irish arguments.

Out in the bog, "Dinner" is at lunchtime, and "Tea" is at dinnertime. In the cities, lunch is around 1pm and dinner is whenever everyone gets home, usually around 6. I would be surprised if few people had family meals anymore, particularly when you have young kids. Certainly when the kids are older - 16 or more - family meals would be less frequent, but I can't see any reason why someone wouldn't make an effort to have a family dinner around 6-6.30pm.

I know when I was a kid, there were only a few people who actually had "Teatime", and it was usually an hour or two before bedtime - more like supper really.

Oryx

How lovely that you make that effort to sit and eat together, it is true it happens less and less. I blame the microwave.;)

Teatime in our house when I was little was 6pm on the dot. But I dont think people are as fixed on mealtimes anymore, its a lot more changeable. So I reckon teatime is whenever you sit down to eat it.

dame

flydino wrote: »

When is teatime?

I always try and have dinner with my kids when I come home form work and my husband tries to join us to. My firend said this was quite unusual and family meals with kids don't happen very often...Is this true?

Also, I have teatime at 7.30pm which my friend also tells me is not teatime...what is considered teatime?

I think your friend just likes to argue.

I'd say most people with younger children at as a family, whatever you call the meals doesn't matter. It would probably get harder as children get older and have more interestes/hobbies outside the home.

*Page*

get home at 6 dinner at 7 a snack at 8(yougurt), if the madame is still hungry. She call's that tea time.
my dad always told me the following
Breakfast till 9
Brunch till 11
Lunch till 2
Dinner till 6
Tea till 10

6th

Mrs. 6th is a saint and 9/10 evenings there is a dinner when I get home about 6pm. Herself, myself and little miss 6th (3year old) sit down at the table for dinner while 6th jnr shouts and raves from his bouncer.

For a while we let little miss 6th eat on the couch watching Tv for a peaceful life but since popping her back at the table she is trying different foods. She heads off to bed at 7.30pm and gets up about 8.30am.

SarahMc

flydino wrote: »

When is teatime?

I always try and have dinner with my kids when I come home form work and my husband tries to join us to. My firend said this was quite unusual and family meals with kids don't happen very often...Is this true?

I hope not. I was at a conference recently in the UK, which showed a lot of children went to bed hungry and were malnourished, not because of poverty, but because of "time poverty", and they never actually got one decent meal in the day. The parents snacked, but never had a family meal. AFAIK no comparaible study has been done in Ireland.

NextSteps

Isn't 7.30 pm supper time? I thought tea was around 4 pm - like afternoon tea.

Cabaal

It sadly happens less and less but its good to do it as routine is good for kids imho

Nevyn

My pair have dinner between 6:30 and 7pm most evenings and at least one of their parents sits with them. I also insist on good manners, that way behaving properly when eat out either visiting family or in public is noting new or strange to them. I find it is a good time to just sit and talk with them.

squire1

Between 6 and 6:30 every day.

Like Thaedydal, teaching good manners at the table is important. Even if they (36months and 18months) do not eat, they stay at the table until the meal is over. It's the only major rule in our house and probably the only time all four of us are together until the weekends.

My kids are no angels but we can go to a restaurant without having to tie them to the chair