Your family dinner time

[Suzie_Homemaker]

Hi
I am curious.. What time does your family eat dinner.

I have two full time daycare kids. One is gone by 530 at the latest and the other 6 to 630..

I really did not think it through when I accepted the offer to take care of the later kid.

He arrives between 830 and 9am and his dad picks up between 6 to 630.. My hubby works 6am to 4 Monday to Thurs and 6am to 1 on Fridays.. He is the type not to eat all day long so he is starving when he gets home.

Up until I started daycare we ate at 5 as when I worked as a server my hours were 630am to 2ish 4 days a week.

We have tried holding off dinner until the late kid goes home but we are both starving and my one year old goes to bed around 715 to 730 so 630 dinner is too late for her.

This week we started eating dinner immediately after the first kid goes home ( its never later than 530 and usually earlier) I offer the remaining kid a snack or a drink but I feel so guilty eating dinner in front of him.

Do you all wait until the kids are gone or do you eat your meal?

I think it's very unprofessional.

As a business owner, you fully have control over the hours you work. You agreed to work for this family until 6.30pm. While I understand you are used to eating earlier, you aren't available earlier because you are still working and being paid to provide child care.

You are at work. It is not family time. It is not personal time. It is not supper hour for you.

It's very unprofessional to sit and have a meal with your family during your business hours. It's worse if you are preparing it in business hours too but I'm assuming your partner is doing that. If your family is starving, then they can eat but it wouldn't be tolerated in a work place for you to sit down with your family during work hours and have a meal in front of a customer because you are hungry!

Your husband could feed your one year old and then you could do bed time and eat supper together. The reason you feel guilty eating your dinner in front of the one remaining client is because you know deep down it's the wrong thing to do.

Or since your husband knows he finishes work long before you, he's going to have to be a big boy and decide to eat during the day because he knows his wife remains at work until 6.30pm and isn't available to eat with him any earlier. There's lots of ways you can deal with the consequences of the decision to work later - none of which are to cease doing your job and have a meal with your family because the adults didn't eat during the day/are used to eating earlier/didn't consider that they would need to work around this commitment.