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kristinannie
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| Posted: May 13 2011 at 10:22pm | IP Logged
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I am in a quandry here. I really love family dinner. It is so great to pray together, talk, share each others' days. However, lately we have to do it after 7pm. My husband sometimes doesn't get off until 6:30 or 7 and on the days when he gets home earlier, he takes my son to karate and gets home after 7. It is really hard to eat dinner this late. The kids get antsy and I start snacking (not good since I am working on losing baby weight). I would love to hear your suggestions. He does come home for lunch, but it isn't until 2 so that doesn't really help there either!
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: May 13 2011 at 10:29pm | IP Logged
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have a tea time in the afternoon with a decent for you snack?? You should see all the ideas around her for tea time.
One of the things I love about homeschooling is being in charge of my schedule.. I can make it fit to my dh's. So I'd either be shifting our whole day so that meals can be later vs at the traditional times.. or I'd be adding in a tea time so that everyone can comfortably make it to dinner.. and if it's planned then you can eat something good for you.
With toddlers you think in terms of overall nutrition not necessarily getting everything at the one meal.. so you might have raw veggies at your tea time.. good for you and good for the kids.. and then you don't have to fight about eating veggies at dinner (if you have to) AND you can just skip that portion of dinner vs eating a double portion.. just think of it as having that portion of your dinner early.
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Jodie, wife to Dave
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MichelleW
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| Posted: May 14 2011 at 5:00am | IP Logged
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To accommodate my dh's schedule we eat all our meals later than most. Breakfast at 9, lunch at 1:30 or 2 and dinner at 8. If you wanted to try something like that you could work on sliding your whole schedule a little bit at a time...
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Michelle
Mom to 3 (dd 14, ds 15, and ds 16)
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Chris V
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| Posted: May 14 2011 at 9:01am | IP Logged
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Our schedule has shifted as well. Since we began building our house (about 6 months ago), our dinner schedule has shifted about an hour and a half - so that puts us eating dinner between 6:30 pm and 7:00 pm ... a huge challenge because my three little girls have a 7:00 pm bath then bedtime. It was difficult at first (only because I was resisting this change), but ultimately eating dinner with Daddy was more important than getting them in the bathtub by 7 pm sharp. So, instead of doing 4 o'clock clean up (this was our precursor to me making dinner and us eating - we all clean up our areas so by 5 pm the house was clean and dinner was on the table); we now do 5 pm clean up, and while I am making dinner I give the girls a light snack and they can either watch a TV program while I make dinner or go outside and play for a while. And actually, this has worked out just fine because they used to have a bedtime snack before their bathtime, but since they eat dinner so close to bathtime, this eliminates the need for a snack before they hop in the bath.
And just like Jodie suggested, we too make the snacks a good healthy sort, so that I don't have to worry too much if they just aren't has hungry at dinner time. ... it all tends to even out over the course of a week. 
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Chris
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JamieCarin
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| Posted: May 16 2011 at 10:33am | IP Logged
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My husband works from home except Tuesdays he goes into the office. On those days he gets home later obviously. We start dinner without him usually and whenever he gets in he can sit down and join us.
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Wife to Claudio for 9yrs, Mom to Ben (4), and Annabella (almost 3), and Beatrice (born 1/17/12)
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3Giftsathome
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| Posted: May 26 2011 at 12:04pm | IP Logged
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During high school basketball season my husband usually gets home pretty late. It's hard on the kids to always eat dinner at that time. We often have a snack with him instead of having a snack before dinner or I will have the "dessert" part be with Daddy. My dessert is something like fresh fruit with cottage cheese or cream whip cream (as they prefer it ).
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mamaslearning
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| Posted: May 28 2011 at 7:44am | IP Logged
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I know families that eat dinner around 8pm and stay up until 10-11 pm to spend time with Daddy. Of course, they also get up later the next morning. It's great to be able to shift your schedule to meet the needs of the family instead of being held to a strict school schedule.
With younger kids and eating, I usually make sure that snacks are healthy, especially before dinnertime in case they decide not to eat much at dinner. Like Jodie said, look at the entire day in terms of nutrition.
Also, one day a week missing dinner together is hard, but sometimes unavoidable. Even if hubby is late from work and we've eaten, we still sit with him and talk as he eats. Sometimes that means eating another snack after dinner, but the kids enjoy it.
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Lara
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4Real Forums : Mothering and Family Life
Topic: Family dinner
