She’s been doing it for a few months now and says she’ll never go back.
In many homes dinner time can be extremely stressful.
Parents are desperately trying to get everyone to sit down together to bond and eat healthily – but the kids seem to have different ideas.
Between stroppy teens wanting to eat in their rooms so they don’t have to talk and screaming toddlers refusing to eat anything that’s not a chicken nugget, sometimes it’s tempting just to give up.
But one mum thinks she’s come up with the perfect solution to make dinner a more enjoyable experience – changing the time.
Writing for the parenting website Scary Mommy, Wendy Wisner has shared her secret.
Her children were always really hungry when they got home from school, and there were always arguments and tantrums about snacks.
She writes: “One afternoon I had this lightbulb moment – What if I just start feeding them dinner at 3pm or 4pm when they’re clearly the hungriest?”
Now her kids tuck into a big meal in the afternoon and they have healthy snacks if they get hungry again later on.
And after a few months it’s fair to say it’s going well and Wendy says the kids are more than happy to eat earlier.
Wendy says: “Feeding my kids an early AF dinner has been awesome, and I can’t believe it took me years to realise this.
“And for anyone who thinks I’m off my rocker, and that kids should really eat at a more normal, civilized time in line with when families are supposed to eat, I ask you this: Who cares what time it is? Do kids’ bodies actually give a shit about what an acceptable time to eat really is?”
As well as cutting out snacking, it also means they’ve got more energy to do their homework and the number of hunger-related tantrums has dropped dramatically.
