Sometimes We Eat Dinner at 4:30 PM

Our weekdays are what some might categorize as over-scheduled. One or both of my two kids have an extra-curricular activity most days of the week including Saturdays. This means that after a full day of school for the kids and work for my husband and I, we’re not even close to being done with our day.

I don’t believe it’s anything over the top. My kids still have time to complete homework, have a dinner that usually isn’t from a drive through and get to bed at a reasonable time. My son even has time to fit in his top priority of playing some X-Box with friends most nights of the week for at least a little while.

But I’ll be honest, sometimes in order to pull this off, it means we eat dinner at 4:30.

I recognize this might sound crazy. Not only that we are able to pull this off but that we actually choose to do so.

I thrive off of organization and routine. I love keeping my kids busy with extracurriculars that they enjoy and that will instill time management skills in them at an early age. I also hate going to bed too late on weeknights or going to bed without the house being clean and the dishes being done.

This comes at a cost; sometimes it sets me up for failure when I can’t pull it all off. There are times when we end up eating dinner much too late for my own liking. Days where my house still looks like a tornado stormed through it.

I don’t know when we decided that 4:30 was an acceptable dinnertime on certain nights. This is when most kids are having an after-school snack before being carpooled around for their activities. But at some point, we decided to replace the after-school snack with dinner and then serve a snack once they return in the evening from their extra-curriculars.

The later evening is then consumed with ensuring homework is done, that the house is tidy and dishes are done and that we all get to bed at a reasonable hour. So that we can wake up and do it all again.

This routine does not work for most and honestly most of our friends laugh with us when we tell them of our early-bird-special way of life on certain nights. But despite us recognizing how odd it seems, it works for us.

Do you have any odd routines like eating dinner at 4:30 sometimes? We’d love to hear!