What time's dinner? More people (and Gen Z-ers) are saying 5 p.m.

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.”

As Don W wrote above, originally, the term ‘Generation X’ started with 1960 births.

I never identified with a “generation,” but I’d say ‘Generation X’ starts in 1960 and ends in the mid-1970s.

The term “Generation X” was around a long time - for example, a book about “Mods” in the 1960s, and Billy Idol’s punk rock band in the late 1970s.

But, as Don W mentioned, there was a 1991 book, “Generation X,” written by Doug Coupland (born 1961). Maybe you all read it. I never read it - only read about it. Coupland is credited with naming “Generation X,” but he was writing about people his age. He is said to have been writing about people born in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s. But the book description says Generation X is 1960 to 1978.

A few years before he wrote the book, he wrote a magazine article in 1987 about people his age, which he called ‘Generation X.’ Then, he had a comic strip called ‘Generation X.’ All about people his age in their 20s at the time.

Then, his 1991 book caught on. By the early 1990s, when I returned to college in my mid-20s, there were posters about ‘Generation X’ on campus. The posters said (for example): “Generation X is the first generation with a retirement age of 67.”

A retirement age of 67 refers to everyone born 1960 and later. There were many other indicators that matched 1960 and later, too.

But, sometime in the mid-1990s, someone decided Gen-X should start later in 1965. That is, our younger siblings took the term “Generation X” because they liked it, and they cut us out. (lol)

So, then, Jonathan Pontell came up with the term “Generation Jones” for 1950s and early 1960s.

But, really, 1960-1978 (at most) should be known as Generation X. Or, at the least, 1960-1975 (since later generations are 15-year periods).

since highschool, my day wouldn’t end until after 7pm.

since i was 20, my typical day, as a professional developer, would start around 7a and end after 8p.

once desert shield/storm started, my days were 7a to 2a 6 days/week for 2 years.

after 9-11 i ended up overseas for a bit... no formal dinner times.

things slowed down around 2010 but that didn’t mean dinners would be around 5p.

i’ve never known anyone eating that early, except on a sunday

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