A mum says she feeds her kids dinner at 3pm so they are less “over stimulated” and to “eliminate the chaos”.
Aimee Connor, 38, found her four children were always hungry by 3pm when her eldest daughter, Mahli, seven, got home from school.
The family were already having an early dinner around 4.30pm so parents Aimee and Shay, 42, a building designer, could put the kids to sleep by 6pm or 7pm.
But Aimee found her kids – Indi, five, Bili, three, Bodhi, one – were getting irritable and she would give them unhealthy snacks while she was cooking.
Aimee found they then weren’t eating their tea and decided to move dinner forward so her kids eat a full meal – such as pizza or spaghetti bolognese at 3pm – and healthy snacks just before bed.
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Aimee finds time earlier in her day to prepare the meals before reheating it at 3pm.
She said: “Sometimes I’m cooking as early as 10.30am. It’s when I get a minute.”
Aimee baffled other parents when she shared her meal time TikTok.
“People said ‘are they getting hungry before bed?”, Aimee shared.
“They have breakfast at 6.30am and lunch about 11am. They get bed time toast at around 6pm before they go to bed.”
Aimee will also give her kids yoghurt and fruit in the evening and eats dinner at 4pm with her husband.
By moving dinner time forward Aimee has seen a massive change in her kids.
“They used to come home all over stimulated,” she said.
“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. As long as people are eating that is 50 per cent of the stress.”
