Meals with baby

How are people eating dinner with their LO if they are going to bed at 7pm? My husband doesn't get home from work until 5.30 and I can't even start cooking dinner before that because my LG is so clingy she will just scream and moan, so by the time it's ready it's almost her bedtime. At nursery she eats her dinner at 3pm!! And so we just give her a snack on those days when we're all home which is fine. But on the 2 days we're at home she's either eating something I've had to make quicky in the 3 seconds she'll allow me to leave her alone or she's not eating until 6pm if we're lucky. But we're never eating as a family.

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Can you get a slow cooker? And/or prep the night before when making something? Days when we’re at home I try to follow her nursery food times so she’s not starving by 5pm, so give her a big snack at 3ish so she will last till 5.45-6pm. So she’s still having a top up when we eat our dinner. Some days she has a proper portion and other days she will pick. Or I’ll save dessert for when we’re eating. Aside from trying to do the whole eating together thing it’s a lot easier as she will try to get under the table whilst we eating etc. But slow cooker is a god send. Plus prepping an extra dish the day before and sticking it in the oven to heat up ready for when your husband comes home. It does require planning but it comes together most days and occasionally it just doesn’t.

I totally get you! We never have dinner together as a family but i will have breakfast and lunch with my LO. On the weekend, we will sit together and have conversations with LO as he eats. Sometimes we’ll be eating a snack as 4pm dinner is just way too early for us.

We rarely eat as a family midweek for this reason as it just isn’t possible. I find the timings really difficult and my husband isn’t often back until after 6, I also can’t eat at 5:30 when little one wants something 😂 I mostly meal prep at the weekend and just heat something up quickly for him as soon as we walk through the door. I just sit and have a piece of toast or fruit with him. We just try to eat breakfast/ lunch with him at the weekend

We are the same. My partner isn’t home to 5.30/6. My lo is whinging for his dinner from 4.30 so I cook dinner to be ready for 5pm, something simple from the freezer usually. So we eat ours together at 5. I hardly ever eat with my partner. Some days I just give lo one of the Heinz pots if I’m not going to have dinner ready for 5. And the 2 days he is in nursery they give dinner at lunch time so he just gets a snack when he’s home

Similar timings, my partner or I home from work about 6ish. Tend to give dinner at 4 to LO, then start cooking the minute he walks in from work and eat at 6.30. LOs usually bathed and in pjs by then so has a bedtime snack with us at the table eg peanut butter on toast and then straight to bed after dinner and clean up etc post bedtime!

My boyfriend can finish at anytime being a scaffolder, he could be home at 12 or 4. If he's late home, i cook for us after i finish work, i clean a nursery 6-8pm, i will give my boy something to eat before i go to work to tie him over until i cook dinner, if its something i feel comfortable giving to him, he goes to sleep quite late but always with a full belly xx

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