Meal times. Why?

I'm still feeding the five thousand (okay, slight exaggeration, but close) so we still eat at sevenish in the evening. I do enjoy our family mealtime and enjoy the opportunity to chat with my husband and our sons. On the rare occasions I'm alone though I revel in eating what I please and when I please.
My husband and I are still busy during the week, so weekends remain different. My husband is ten years younger than me so that by the time he retires I'll probably be desperate for a slower pace of life and will be very happy to have every day feeling like the weekend.

I agree with you wholeheartedly. I was never a breakfast person but had to force myself to eat something before going to work. Now I usually have 'brunch' about midday and an evening meal around 6.30 - 7.00. DH gets his evening meal when I choose to make it but can please himself, as to what and when he eats throughout the day.

My annoyance is to do with sleeping patterns. Everybody and their Granny seems to take exception to my preference for short nights supplemented by afternoon naps. I am constantly accused of decadent behaviour for being in bed during the hours of daylight. I have no problem with people who drag themselves out of bed, in the dark, at 6.30 on a midwinter morning for no good reason other than 'it is time to get up'. I wish they would afford me the same courtesy.

Oh God, Granny23! The value judgements people pass on us, I agree.

Are you both still awake isthis and Granny23?

No.

isthis . Yes, it was a daft question! My only excuse is that it's after 1am and I'm not functioning as I oughta!!

Granny23; I always used to have a nap in the afternoon. I like staying up late [as you can see] and I work mornings, so I used to go home and sleep for a couple of hours. Used to do it a lot when the kids were teenagers as well because, living in a village I used to have to get up in the middle of the night to taxi them around. Don't seem to have my naps any more, and I do miss them. As for meals, I eat when I feel like eating, but when the S.O. comes round at the weekend we have a proper evening meal. I do have a problem at weekends in that, on my days off I like to wake up when I wake up, but the S.O. being a morning person wakes me up [not deliberately]. I keep wanting to ask him not to come round one weekend but can't pluck up the courage to say so [he only lives a few hundred yards up the road!].

NO ga I am sleep typing.

I am usually awake until around three but it is unusual to see you still active at this time. Off to bed now and hoping I will not be back up in an hour taking my restless legs for a walk. Night All

Oh, the joys of living alone and being retired! I wake very early but often nod off in the afternoon which always feels luxurious. I eat what and when I like - I also need much less food now even though I am more active than I ever was when I was working. I wait until I have a hunger pang before I eat.
My days are differentiated by the TV programmes I watch. I have to remember that my little local supermarket is closed on Mondays, as are many restaurants, and of course the big supermarkets here now open on Sunday mornings, but only until 12.30.

I quite agree that we are all entitled to set our own rules about our own lives, as long as they do not inconvenience others. I feel a bit guilty now, remembering how we used to tease our mother when she fell asleep on a Sunday afternoon, having worked all week and done the washing for six people without a washing machine, and cooked a large Sunday lunch. It was accepted that men would go to bed on Sunday afternoons, after their lunch and a couple of pints.

Everyone has a personal clock I think and the joy of being retired is to be able to go with the flow rather than at the dictates of your employment etc. I am a morning person so tend to wake and be up by 6 or 7 and then potter through the morning and after lunch tend to sit and read or whatever for an hour and often drop off for a while - nothing wrong with that - perfectly normal for my body - by 5pm I am good for nothing - have a bit of a blip by say 7 and totter to bed often between 9 and 10. Mind you if we are out to a party etc - I can dance all night!!! Sod the body clock.

I am still bound by school and work hours, so our mealtimes are pretty well set in stone.

But, both my mother and my parents in law are absolutely inflexible when it comes to their mealtimes. They are all in their eighties and get extremely agitated if, for example, lunch is ten minutes late.

Silly old them granny23 - and rude too.
You could regain the moral high ground by declaring that you "meditate for an hour every afternoon"

Good thinking, jess.

The more I read of the irritations and foibles and complaints that other people have to put up with, the more I appreciate what reasonable and understanding people I live with! If I mention that I'm going to have a rest (sometimes I just go and lie down without a word) I might get a nod from one of my 'housemates', but nothing more.

I provide an evening meal for when Dh is expected home because he's usually starving. He doesn't bother to take a packed lunch or buy something. More fool him; I'm not doing it for him; he's an adult. At weekends, I sometimes say it's a "feed yourself day" because I can't be bothered to cook. They get on with it from the usually well-stocked home stores.

I find as I am now on my own that it suits me to have a light breakfast, my main meal around 2.30 or 3.00 and a snack around 8.00 p.m.

I suffer with insomnia and would love to be able to sleep during the day but unfortunately I can't no matter how tired I am. I would like to stay in bed a bit later in the morning but unfortunately I have a brother in law who likes to call in around 8.30 in the morning!

I was brought up with very regulated and fixed meal times - breakfast at 7, lunch at 12 and supper at 6, on the dot or else! Due to OH's job and very irregular and long hours, our meal times have always been fairly flexible anyway. Now we are both retired- anything goes. But we try to have our main meal any time between 1 and 3ish, and only soup or light meal in the evening- and prefer to eat early-ish and not have carbohydrates after 6ish. Sometimes supper is just a bowl of cereal if neither of us feel like cooking. Hurrah.

Isn't cereal mainly carbs? [little devil emoticon]

I was thinking just that, Bags,

Supper at 6 though, so not after 6ish.

Like Greatnan and many other GNs I find that the joy of living alone is that I can eat what and when I like,sleep when I like and have total control of the TV remote.
I love my morning porridge but apart from that times and quantities of food/drink are completely variable.I eat when I'm hungry.

My mealtimes/sleep times are all variable.

I have had a bowl of porridge & cup of tea at 10:00 today but was awake at 6:30 doing a sudoku in bed as could not sleep. Did a school run for both DDs today got caught by the head of the school to chat about some governor issues so was later getting back for breakfst! Will have lunch when I am hungry and tea/dinner/supper once DH home which can be anytime between 6:00 and 8:00p.m. on his working days.
DH is particular about breakfast and has to have a bowl of cereal before he does anything even when leaving early like his 6:00 start today. He would instinctively like more regular routines but he has chosen to live with me!

I do love my afternoon "toes up" and so does Theseus (and you can stop sniggering - in different places!) In my last few years at work, I'd have given anything for just 15 minutes' snooze at lunch break, before re-entering the fray.

I have weaned Theseus off saying "Well, will you look at the time!" when he thinks a meal time is approaching, by reminding him where the kitchen is.

Just happened upon this thread - I usually wake at 7 and get going soon after, but this morning, very unusually, I went back to sleep and woke up to the phone ringing at 9.45; I am still not showered or dressed and I think, so what, it's piddling with rain, nothing to do particularly, I'm on my own and I can do what I want. I think I've thrown caution to the wind for the first time in years! Now, what shall I have for breakfast/lunch?

Cake.
That's what I had.
It's an experiment...
To see if I still want cake later.

As I still work, I have breakfast around 7.00ish before catching the train. I eat lunch around 12.30 in the offices - sometimes just soup, other times a sandwich or prepared micro meal. Depending what I've had for lunch, I eat about 6.30 to 7.00 - if I had soup, then I have something more substantial, otherwise it's an omlette or cheese and crackers.

At the weekend, I only eat two meals - late big breakfast and then a substantial meal about 5.00.

Sleep - I only sleep about 6 hours a night during the week. As I don't have to get up early at weekends, I may get another hour's sleep - if I'm lucky.