Posted on 09/08/2025 4:38:47 PM PDT by Mariner
I used to tease my parents that if they started eating dinner at 4:30 or 5 p.m., it was the first official sign of old age. And because they have a good sense of humor, whenever they would hop out for an early bird special, they would call me from the restaurant to say, “It’s 5 p.m. and we’re having dinner!”
While it’s no surprise that there are plenty of retirees and parents with little kids who dive into their dinners before many people have wrapped up work, that’s starting to shift. Younger people, particularly Gen Z-ers, are getting on board the early train, with some posting about #EarlyDinner on TikTok. “The stereotype around early dinners being for retirees is fading,” Yelp trend expert Tara Lewis tells Yahoo. “These days, a 5 p.m. dinner is just as much for young professionals, wellness-focused diners and casual friend group meet-ups. In many cities, an early reservation is just as desirable as the once-coveted 8 p.m. table.”
That’s the case for Jennifer Mathews, a personal chef and writer whose ideal dinner time is 5 o’clock sharp. “By the time most people are browsing menus at eight, I’m already in pajamas bingeing Netflix,” she tells Yahoo. Do her friends ever tease her about her preference for eating dinner while the sun is still up? “Constantly,” she says. “I’ve been called everything from an 8-year-old to a senior citizen. Apparently, I’ve skipped right over adulthood and gone straight to the early bird special years.”
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
Usually 5 or 5:30. But not after 7pm... I skip breakfast most days and hit lunch around noon, more often at 1pm. If I miss the 7pm deadline my next meal will at noon or 1pm... lunch really tastes good if you wait... then it becomes a dinner with a lite supper later on, usually a nice soup. We cook from scratch around here.
What farming community are you from?
“We cook from scratch around here.”
Usually here too.
Though canned beans, store-bought bread and canned tomatoes & whole wheat pasta often make the table.
fruit. eggs. occasional chicken. dairy.
We have generally eaten around 5-5:30. Whenever we go out to eat, we make it 5-5:30 as well. Always gets busy by the time we leave. Also all my what cooks and waitstaff aren’t stressed and the food & service tends to be better earlier.
You're right. I'm a divorced mother of two sons I raised on my own. 78 years old now. A lot of things my mother told me when I was younger, she was absolutely right about.
I was the only one of three daughters who had children. My only brother, a U..S. Army Vietnam Vet and his wife adopted twin boys at 3 months, and a 10 year old girl. 15 years into their marriage, my sister-in-law became pregnant. My niece was only 14 when he passed away. She's been married for 20 years now, has two sons who are in college, and twin 16 year old girls. She has a great husband too. My sister-in-law lives with my niece and her family. I wish my brother had lived long enough to see her married and meet his grandchildren.
I never knew any of my grandparents. They had all pass by the time I was born in 1947. I always felt like I missed out on alot by not knowing them. My father came as an 8 year old from Holland with his parents and two brothers. My mother came to the U.S. from Canada with her divorced mother and her older brother. My niece and her family, along with my sons are the only family I have left.
Mom used to get off work at five and be home by 5:30, she generally would want to take a shower and we would have dinner by six. We kids would go our rooms by eight with lights off at nine. I think that was so mom and dad could have some time before he had to leave for work at about half past nine. 6:30 was breakfast.
He would get dinner, she would make breakfast and pack our lunches. During the summer he would make us lunch.
Honestly, looking back in it I am not sure how either of them got enough sleep.
Family is precious. I’m glad you at least have some family still with you.
Not enough sleep. I can relate to that.
I think it’s why I value a solid 8 hours, when I can get it.
Thanks. I appreciate it.
Sorry for the ambiguity, BORN in 66.
In our home, we tend to have late dinners, too, often at 8:00, sometimes as early as 7:00, and sometimes late at night. Not long ago, I read that, in Italy, people eat dinner late at night. So, now, I tell myself, maybe I’ve been following the old traditions of my ancestors without knowing it. But, seriously, I don’t see how a 9-5 worker can arrive home in time to cook a meal and eat before 6:30 at the earliest, anyway. Night shift workers eat late, too.
“My mother didn’t work”?! She likely worked harder than your Dad.
Mother cooked in our family and it was an hour on public transportation to get home from work. Then she napped and THEN she cooked dinner for us all. It was just normal and meant she didn’t have to stress and get exhausted. Never thought our eating hours were in any way strange. Eating late always seemed the norm and couldn’t figure out how anyone had an appetite as early as 5.
I love the idea that your late dining came thru your genes. It’s excellent to keep traditions going. I’m always trying to figure out from which distant ancestor this or that trait came.
My cat has dinner at 5 and U gave a glass of chardonnay. Then make dinner at about 6:30 , eat at 7.
Breakfast at about 10 a.m.
Never have lunch, not hungry.
I don't think so. He worked for the NY Central Railroad in Rochester, New York for the majority of his life. Initially he was a laborer, then at some point became a track foreman and was responsible for inspecting the tracks and signals daily in his region, and repairing them if possible. Every night he had to sit down at the kitchen table and write reports about what they'd inspected, repaired, and what repairs needed larger machinery to fix. He also filled out the payroll for the road crew he had. During the winter, he'd get home at four, eat dinner, lay down for a while, then get up at midnight and work until 4 p.m. the next day. Did that several days in a row when the weather was bad. Tracks had to be cleared of snow and ice. He worked right alongside his crew until the day he retired, which only lasted 7 years until he passed. Not bad for an 8 year old immigrant who came to this country from Holland in 1913, and who only went to the 4th grade.
He also suffered from Osteomyelitis (infection of the bone) he contracted as a kid after injuring his leg. He had scars up and down his leg, and one leg was shorter than the other because of the disease. He had a constant running wound on his upper arm that drained pus, and the bandage, had to be changed every day. After all those years, the infection had worked its way up from his leg, and took hold of the upper arm. They didn't treat it back then. If the wound closed up, another would eventually open in another spot. He had it until the day he died. Never complained about it, never lost a day of work because of it.
.......... “On the weekends, my father did the cooking. He was a better cook than my mother. “
Same thing at our house. Dad was in the restaurant business, had lots of them. His advice re food: :
“Buy the best food you can afford and do as little as possible to it.”
That’s how I cook. Steam organic veggies and potatoes, lightly saute organic boneless, skinless chicken thighs and wildcaught Alaskan Salmon ((great deat at Safeway in freezer) in organic EVOO, Fave dessert is nonfat black raspberry yogurt I get at Trader Joe. Hard to find NONFAT anywhere else.
He used to take me to the meat market on Saturdays every-so-often. We didn't have a car, so we'd walk the mile or so and back to the market. That market was opened in 1946. It's one year old than me, and still survives with two stores in two different suburbs of Rochester. I left Rochester around 1972 or 73. Never get back there anymore as I have no more family there.
Chicken dinner on Sunday at our house too. And yes, gravy. I remember it well. Dad could make it but I never could learn even though he tried to teach me. Have zero talent in the kitchen, which is why I keep it simple.
However, my dad taught me to read when I was 5, could and did read adult novels before I ever saw the inside of a school. Most kids could probably read that early if they had such a great teacher. I’m 89 abd still miss him every day.
eating at 5pm is for those without a job
I managed using cook books back then. There was no such thing as the internet or online recipes. I learned how to make gravy from my father. My mother couldn't make it. I make a lot of soups from scratch. Onion soup made with brandy by combining a couple of recipes together...a little from one, a little from the other. Cream of Turkey Soup, a Harvest beef soup that uses cooked hamburger, vegetables, including diced tomatoes, along with spices and herbs, baked potato soup, etc. One of my youngest son's favorites is Cheeseburger soup. Some recipes were found online.
I used to buy small baking pumpkins to make pies with. I'd clean them out, cut them into pieces and bake them in the oven. The skins would slide right off. Put the pieces in a food processor and then cook it all down in a pan on the stove to get rid of most of the moisture. Then I'd measure out what I'd need for a single pie, putting them all in small plastic containers, and stick them in the freezer. I got the best compliments for the pies I made with the fresh pumpkin. Haven't made them in years. My kids never ate them. I usually made them when I was invited to someone's house for dinner.
I visit my only niece and her family regularly. It's my job to make the desserts when I visit. They feed me, and I provide the desserts. This summer I made a Devil's food cake with vanilla buttercream frosting, brownies with melted caramels in the middle, a New York Style Cheesecake, and a Mars Bars bundt cake and Mars Bars frosting. The only one I made without a recipe was the chocolate cake and frosting.
I rarely bake at home unless my oldest son is coming to visit. I'll bake a cake, brownies, or chocolate chip cookies for him. At Christmas I make cutout cookies from a sugar cookie recipe, and put colored buttercream frosting on them and sprinkles...nothing fancy. I also make candy cane cookies with almond extract from a recipe. You have to separate the dough in half, put red food coloring in one half, then roll a bit of plain dough and red dough until they're about 4 inches in length, then twist them together so they look like a candy cane.
I do most of my own cooking at home, and keep things simple when I'm cooking for myself. Never been a food gourmet. Give me a hot hamburger sandwich with mash potatoes and beef gravy, or French fries with gravy over them. I'm even happy with hot dogs. I have a recipe for a beef hot sauce to put on the dogs. It was a recipe my sister sent me years ago that she cut out of the local newspaper. It was the recipe that a restaurant Don & Bob's in Pittsford, NY made for their hamburgs and hotdogs. I used to buy it in a quart container when I visited family back in Rochester, bring it home, put it in small containers and freeze it. They eventually closed, so it was a real treat when my sister sent me the recipe.
I always cook Thanksgiving and Christmas, usually turkey and ham at both meals so there are plenty of leftovers for my sons. I've never had any complaints yet.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.