I grew up having family dinner between 5 and 6 pm.
When we settled down and had a family, I had to persuade my wife to have dinner between 5 and 6. She would always say, “No one eats dinner that early!” We both grew up in 1980’s America.
Frequently, during dinner, my neighbors are running a lawn mower or a leaf blower. If I mention anything about it being dinner time, she will just say no one eats this early.
Are families eating dinner at 7 or 8, or latter?
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It can start anywhere from 6:30 to 8 for us.
When I was a kid, we would eat around 5:30 or 6. But my dad got home between 3:30 and 4, so he had time to cook.
Now my wife and I eat somewhere between 6 and 9 depending on what we are having and what time we get off of work
By the time I leave work and pick up the kids and get home it’s after 6. We’re not eating until 7 or 8
5:30 to 7 pm on school days
We have friends who eat dinner at 9 pm. So strange.
I usually eat around 7:30-8:30. I don’t know how people can even be ready to eat between 5 and 6 unless you work unusual hours. I usually finish work at 5:30, take a little break, and then start cooking.
My a family ate at like…9:00 but I think we might have been the weirdos.
Growing up, and when I’m working day shift, I ate about 6 pm. Maybe a little later. Now I work until 11 pm, so dinner is about midnight.
6pm
6 – 7 in my house.
My family is like old people. 4:30-5 ish
I usually ate at 6:30 or 7 when I was growing up. Although sometimes with after school activities we would end up eating closer to 8. Now it’s just whenever I’m hungry, which could be anywhere from 5-10pm. To me, between 5 and 6 is an early dinner and if want to eat that early I would suggest to my partner that we “have an early dinner”. That said, if I’m hosting a party or something, I would plan on serving food by 6 at the latest because I don’t think it’s unusual for people to be hungry that early and if you’re serving a range of preferred eating times, it’s better to go too early than too late. So early eaters are prevalent enough for me to factor in when there’s a large group. But I would definitely consider it early.
I grew up in the 90s and my family always ate around 7PM. My parents considered 6-8PM the “the dinner hours” during which we thought it would be rude to call other people.
Tbh I don’t personally know anyone who’s off work and home by 5PM these days.
Nowadays my boyfriend and I eat around 9-10PM because we get off work after 6PM and go to the gym before coming home.
Growing up we ate at 6pm, 6:30 at the latest. Now, my partner and I eat at 6:30/7, depending on the day. But neither of us can eat a meal past 8pm or we get terrible heartburn!
7:00. We’re retired, we get to pick our time and this is it–before we get hungry, late enough so we won’t need a bedtime snack.
GenX’er here. Both parents worked so family dinner was usually 6:30/7:00. I prefer eating around 6:00 because I go to sleep at 8:00 (not really but close enough LOL).
Right now, my family is around 5-5:30. I work from home and my wife works in a school so we are home in time. And we moved to this time, so we could comfortably had a family dinner with our baby (who is learning everything). Any later and we’re running into bath and bed time
Around 7 or 8, but I also tend to go to bed pretty late
Growing up it was 5:30. When I went off to college that was when the dining hall opened for dinner and I made friends with the bunch of people from my floor who also like eating then. Still eat between 5:30-6:30.
As a child, between 5-7, depending on when parents got off work.
Now, anytime between 5 and 9
I grew up in the 90s. We usually ate between 5 and 6 PM. My dad would typically be home then and my mom stayed at home/worked for a local school district. If my dad wasn’t home, she’d leave him a plate warming in the oven.
My family was in hospitality, and I grew up eating dinner around 8 or later.
My husband grew up eating around 5:30. That’s what we do now.
I think this very much depends on the family schedule. My dad was a factory worker who got home by 3PM and was in bed by 9PM so we did eat earlier as did everyone I knew who was living on farms because they were also going to bed early to get up early. If you work an office job that gets you home later, of course you will eat later.
At home 6:30. Weekend night out 8.
8-10 for me
Growing up, dinner was at 6pm every night. Once I was living on my own, dinner was 8pm.
During Wheel of Fortune, before Jeopardy.
I’m single at the moment, but i go to bed at 7pm because i work early. Dinner is 4pm when i get home from work
I get home from work at about 4. As soon as I can get dinner done, we eat. Could that be closer to 4:30? Yep! It’s probably closer to 5 normally though just because of how long it takes me to cook. Our 7 yos bedtime is 7, so that means we need to eat at 6pm AT THE ABSOLUTE LATEST to get her to bed on time.
between 5:30 and 6:30. Before kids it was probably around 7 or 8.