I am just curious at what age you started feeding your toddlers later/all eating as a family. My girls are 2 years, 4 months and currently eat dinner at 5. We start our bedtime routine at 6:45. There is not a lot of down time in there to get a bath, and have bedtime milk and a mickey mouse. While I do like the idea of eating together as a family, and wonder if it would solve some of our mealtime issues (food throwing, general toddler pickiness, etc) I just don't know how we would both get home, get dinner ready, eat, get a bath, and get to bed at a reasonable hour! Sometimes they don't seem as hungry as they could be at 5 either, but oddly they are less hungry on the 2 days per week they go to pre-school and they eat later those days (I wonder if they pump them full with more snacks).

Btw, breakfast is usually at 7:15-7:30 and lunch at 11:15-11:30

Thoughts?
Thanks!

Lara
Mom to GGG born at 25+4 on 12/25/09

I have always tried to have mine on my eating schedule. It is easier for me to sit down and eat lunch or dinner with them then to try to eat after they eat. We eat dinner around 5:30 but sometimes it gets a little bit later at around 6 or 6:30 at the latest. You have the same breakfast and lunch schedule that we have too. Mine are 2 1/2 years.

I have always tried to have mine on my eating schedule. It is easier for me to sit down and eat lunch or dinner with them then to try to eat after they eat. We eat dinner around 5:30 but sometimes it gets a little bit later at around 6 or 6:30 at the latest. You have the same breakfast and lunch schedule that we have too. Mine are 2 1/2 years.

I started eating dinner with them part of the time when they were in their boosters with trays and full time when we moved them to the table. They were about 22 months. I was very happy to do that because I finally felt like a normal family eating together. I personally think it is important to eat dinner as a family. If you ate dinner later with them, could you just skip the bedtime milk? Whenever you start potty training you are going to want to cut that out anyway. Maybe they could watch Mickey while you cook dinner and just read a book after bath and before bed.

Lori

http://yesidohavemyhandsfull.blogspot.com/

We used to dinner around 5:15, but now have pushed it to 6. I don't think eating as a family helps the mealtime issues you have mentioned. We still have them even with us all sitting down! However, we really value that time to sit down and eat together. Although, truly sometimes we wonder why since I spend 80% of the meal getting up and down to refill plates, get drinks, etc. and barely eat dinner. Our BBB are 2 years, 3 months, and we also have an almost 7 and an almost 4 year old DDs. We really need that time to connect as a family. However, if you guys are at least all sitting together, whether or not you are physically eating is really irrelevant. I think the point is just to try to connect during that time, rather than trying to do laundry, pack lunches, etc. Do you know what I mean? On the nights I don't eat, I find myself trying to get 100 other things done rather than sit down at the table with the kids.

If you have a schedule that works, stick with it! The reason we pushed dinner back was that my guys were not hungry for that 5:15 dinner anymore (they have a snack around 3:30/4 depending on when they get up from nap). Do you do an afternoon snack on the non-preschool days? I can tell you there is little down time with a 6 pm dinner. We finish that, play for 15 minutes, and then pretty much go into bedtime routine (bedtime is no later than 7:45, lights out). But, we do get that time from 5-5:30 to play and usually my husband comes home around 5:30 and takes over while I make dinner.

HTH!!
Erica
BBB 2/14/10
DD, 6
DD, 3