A mom says she feeds her kids dinner at 3 p.m. so they are less “overstimulated” and to “eliminate the chaos.”
Aimee Connor, 38, found her three younger children—Indi, 5, Bili, 3, and Bodhi, 1—were always hungry by 3 p.m., when her eldest daughter, Mahli, 7, arrived home from school.
The family was already having an early dinner at around 4.30 p.m., so Ms. Connor and her husband, Shay Connor, 42, a building designer, could put the kids to sleep by 6 or 7 p.m. However Ms. Connor found her kids were getting irritable, and she'd fallen into the habit of giving them unhealthy snacks while cooking.
The part-time nurse, from Wollongong, Australia, decided to move dinner forward, so now her kids eat a full meal such as pizza or spaghetti bolognese at 3 p.m. and have healthy snacks just before bed.
“I was flustered at pick up,” Ms. Connor said. “When they got home they wanted to snack. I reached for easy and not-nutritious snacks, but when I served dinner, they weren’t hungry.
“I started to prepare dinner before I picked up the kids. When they all balled through the door, it was all there. It’s not ideal for most people, but it works for us.”
Ms. Connor says they have always been early eaters because of their young family.
“Because they are little, we are quite strict with bedtime,” she said, adding that she’s also conscious of her daughter, Mahli, who has autism and finds meals an anxious time.
“She has a lot of anxiety when it comes to mealtime. I’ve been through periods when she doesn’t eat at all,” the mom of four said.
Because of this Ms. Connor makes four separate meals for her kids—cooking easy food such as chicken schnitzel and chopped potatoes for her youngest and steak and rice for Mahli. She finds time earlier in her day to prepare the meals before reheating them at 3 p.m.
“Sometimes I’m cooking as early as 10.30 a.m. It’s when I get a minute,” she said.
Ms. Connor baffled other parents when she shared her meal time on social media with many questioning if the kids get hungry before bedtime.
“They have breakfast at 6.30 a.m. and lunch about 11 a.m.,“ Ms. Connor said. ”They get bedtime toast at around 6 p.m. before they go to bed.”
Ms. Connor will also give her kids yogurt and fruit in the evening and eat dinner at 4 p.m. with her husband. By moving dinner time forward she’s seen a massive change in her kids.
She said: “They used to come home all overstimulated. It eliminates that extra chaos. I had mum guilt that they were just eating rubbish.
“No one wanted to do anything after school. They just wanted to compress. Now they are doing that while eating and have a better mental state.
“Do what works for you. Spice it up. You don’t have to follow what everyone else is doing.”
