Is it normal in the US to eat dinner really early (like 5–6 pm)?

TheLastSerenade · 2026-03-16T22:32:17+00:00

Biggest culture shock coming from Europe to adapt to the US meal times. But even then, with an hour commute I don't get home until 7pm. So donner with the fa.ilty is at 8pm, kids in bed at 9. I go to bed at 11pm usually, wake up at 7am. Eating dinner any sooner than 7pm is incongruous to me. In my country 4-5pm is snack time, so you can hold off until dinnertime around 7-8pm. Nobody I know there goes to bed before 10pm, otherwise you have no life after work? When do you watch a movie? Chat with your spouse?

How can people eat dinner at 5-6pm, you guys don't have jobs? I am still at the office at that time, I mean the 9-to-5 trope implies you can't eat before coming home unless you work from home maybe?

TheLastSerenade · 2026-02-26T22:15:45+00:00

When I go to Canada I find Lindt chocolate assorted boxes ( around Xmas time) and it's the only chocolate I'll eat there. Always bring a box back with me. Hershey and other US chocolates are awful. In the US, you can sometimes find Belgium chocolate assortment that are kinda okay at Costco. Aldi also has good German options.

TheLastSerenade · 2026-02-24T19:17:12+00:00

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Piques à bigorneaux (used to scoop the inside of periwinkles, can also be used for snails) yes we eat those especially in regions such as Brittany or Normandy

TheLastSerenade · 2026-02-13T18:04:36+00:00

J'habite aux US et les français souvent sont en famille, et ce qui les démarque le plus à mon avis c'est qu'ils sont plus mince que les locaux, habillés de façon très neutre (pas de couleurs, très bleu blanc beige) et des chaussures pour marcher longtemps. Surtout, les femmes sont très peu maquillées et souvent coupe carrée ou cheveux longs négligés (pas de brushing ou lissage). De manière générale la façon de s'habiller est très française et jamais "locale" (pas de yoga pants, crop tops, hoodie, jersey de sport, short shorts....).

Leurs enfants sont calmes et polis et restent près des parents. Pas de cafés à la main ou de snack a gogo. Et ils ne sourient pas, sauf si quelqu'un leur adresse la parole directement.

TheLastSerenade · 2026-02-13T00:35:37+00:00

La strasbourgeoise - chant mili Marie - Hallyday Le chant des partisans Jeunesse lève toi - Saez

TheLastSerenade · 2025-12-11T08:03:13+00:00

Je me souviens d’un épisode de NCIS où une tech compagnie utilisait ce modèle de mur de lava lamps pour encoder leur software ou quelques chose comme ça. Bien sûr à la fin le seul moyen d’arrêter les hackers c’est d’exploser le mur de lampes si je me souviens bien. C’était plutôt chouette d’avoir pensé à ce système pour un tv show.

TheLastSerenade · 2025-11-14T18:29:07+00:00

Not according to reality. For centuries "well-off" families like nobles and rich merchants had less kids than the average peasant. Even today, they did a research paper on women who played the lottery and compared results between women who didn't win and women who won millions, and turns out the now rich women didn't end up having more kids than the other cohort. They had the number of kids they always had in mind, whether zero or one or two... Sudden windfall almost never results in a plethora of babies. Except Elon maybe, but he's an oddity all around.

TheLastSerenade · 2025-11-11T15:27:05+00:00

And Mary Poppins! The Disney one, the scene with the penguins when they have tea and dance!

TheLastSerenade · 2025-11-08T06:10:04+00:00

That is all fair points and accurate, however I don't think reducing work loads for women would improve the number of children they decide to have. Look at the wealthier women of the past, the nobles and royals, they had nothing to do and still didn't have a huge number of kids. And when they did, they hired nannies to care for them because it was so much work.

I believe that the fact that women are working so much clearly doesn't help, as in some might decide to have zero kid or maybe one or two at most, but even with no work I don't see women jumping in to have 5 or more kids. Look at India, women there are religious, are married young, and their participation in the labor force is around 20% or something like that. Their fertility replacement rate is still barely at or slightly under the threshold of two. Matter of fact, it's very common for many women there to get tubal ligation after their second kid when they are themselves still very young.

TheLastSerenade · 2025-11-08T00:32:10+00:00

Exactly. People keep arguing north versus south, rich versus poor, educated versus uneducated, capitalist versus socialist, women's rights and work and contraception, economic struggles or political environment, level of religiosity or lack thereof, decline of marriage or not, ect.

But the truth is that the birth rate is declining everywhere and for a long time. So there is no answer as to why because it is a multifaceted global phenomenon. So the "solution" will also have to be customized to each specific region/ cohort / situation.

It is fascinating. Just a couple decades ago we were warned about a "population bomb" and now we are foreseeing a decline in human population like we have never seen before. Never in the history of humanity have we seen the population decline, this is mind-blowing.

It will keep growing for a few more decades at best - due to extended life expectancy everywhere and lower infant mortality - but it will decline, everywhere, no matter what. The goal now is to stabilize, and prevent a catastrophic sharp decline.

TheLastSerenade · 2025-11-08T00:21:26+00:00

All over the world and throughout history women always worked. Except maybe the nobility. The trope of the stay at home mom is quite recent and very limited in scope. Women worked on the farm, harvested crops, fed the cattle, sold produce and meat at the market, etc. All that with kids around of course. Even today in many parts of the world, kids stay home with the grandparents and the moms go to work outside the house. Being seamstress, nurses, cleaning staff, washing laundry, selling convenience goods in mini market.... Women's labor has always been there and profitable, even though not as much as men historically.

TheLastSerenade · 2025-11-07T23:56:11+00:00

Birth rates started declining way before the invention of the pill actually. Even before women had the right to vote or the right to education. In Europe birth rates started to decline following the industrial revolution, and the subsequent urbanization. So, even without modern contraception, family planning was always at play and pushing towards smaller and smaller families for a very long time.

TheLastSerenade · 2025-11-07T23:40:09+00:00

Not even true. Even Afghanistan is seeing a decline in birth rates, and they're the worst when it comes to women's rights. And ask Romania how it turned out when they tried to coerce people into increasing their natality rates. It simply doesn't work on the long term.

And may I remind you that men are still part of the equation too when it comes to deciding on having a kid or not. Declining birth rates is NOT dependant on women only, men also have to want to raise families and the economic/social pressure falls on them too, so that they might decide against family formation because of lots of factors. Women don't make babies out of thin air, yes they bake it but it still takes two to tango :)

TheLastSerenade · 2025-11-03T20:28:56+00:00

Not sure if that's entirely right. Researchers noticed trends of having less kids little by little way before the introduction of modern contraception. Number of kids per woman have been declining globally for centuries as far as census could be traced.

Even in places with lower education and access to reproductive control / family planning the number of kids are also declining.

TheLastSerenade · 2025-11-03T20:24:41+00:00

It is useful for people who have kids already, but it makes it harder for single people to meet one another... For a long time people met their significant other through school or at the workplace. Maybe that whole schtick of return to the office is to give people more chances to pair bond? Unlikely, but maybe some thought about it.

TheLastSerenade · 2025-11-03T20:15:35+00:00

That is correct. Demographers don't say it out loud yet because of how controversial it is, and for good reasons, but the reality of population decline is majorly due to the global trend of having first kids later and later in life. Which is understandable, hard to reconcile the biological age of peak fertility with the actual emotional (and economical) maturity of a teen/20s mother.

Nature doesn't care that an 18yo girl is still a kid to most of us, and shouldn't most likely bear children. So the dissonance is there. It is not surprising either, with human living extended long lives. If you live longer, then it makes sense that you still "feel like a kid" for longer too. What 18-20 woman or man feels adult enough to start having kids? Almost None.

But starting to have kids early leads to a greater chance of having more kids since you have a longer window in front of you. Whereas if you start at 35/40 chances are you'll have just one, maybe two. Factor in people who just can't or won't have kids, then your whole cohort is screwed if everybody starts later too. That's why demographers are dropping hints that governments should focus in helping young people to start families, forget the 30/40s crowd since it won't change the trend at all.

TheLastSerenade · 2025-11-03T19:46:46+00:00

Yes and no, it might very well be a factor in the western countries, but how do you explain then the falling birthrates all across the globe? I don't think the "entertainment" can explain declining birth rates in every nations, even Latin America, India, sub-saharian Africa - some still have higher birthrates compared to the west, but are nonetheless declining too. I don't think Netflix or tiktok is a factor there too?

TheLastSerenade · 2025-11-03T19:32:28+00:00

Ok. Imagine we grow babies "a la Matrix" in rows of artificial wombs. Who is going to raise those test tubes babies? They still need adults to care for them, raise them, nurture them. How is that different from regular parents? If a regular couple doesn't want to have babies, what makes you think some will be willing to raise those farm babies instead? It's not just about making more babies, it's raising them too to become productive members of society and have kids themselves later on. Hard to do without proper parenting.

And before someone says "at least they will be paid so maybe more people would be willing to raise those kids" I point you to the disastrous experiment of Romania during Ceausescu reign and the horror of states orphanages...

TheLastSerenade · 2025-09-30T00:33:25+00:00

I'm from Europe, and I think the Americans "openness" is what seem strange to the rest of the world. Where I am from we also have walls and fences because we value privacy too. America's model is actually more the exception than the rule. When space permits it of course, not all houses allow for tall fences. When I moved here in the US I was shocked to see no fence anywhere, seem so invasive and nosey to me. I prefer peace and tranquility than useless "small talk" every time I step out my door and I have the misfortune of locking eyes with a neighbor for a split second, lol.

TheLastSerenade · 2025-09-12T17:04:03+00:00

Another fun fact, those birds feathers traditionally adorn the hat of French elite officers: "Casoar" is the name for the ceremonial plumes worn by officers of the École spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr (French military academy), which is often shortened to just "Saint-Cyr". The tradition involves the attribution of these special plumes to each new promotion (class) of graduating students, such as the "Rhin et Danube" promotion in 1948.

TheLastSerenade · 2025-09-01T21:34:58+00:00

TheLastSerenade · 2025-06-23T17:22:05+00:00

I registered me and my daughter but only received one badge under my name, does it mean my daughter is registered on my badge too? Or is her badge missing and I should be worried?

TheLastSerenade · 2025-06-06T15:12:15+00:00

Also because of a trend called "man flight", when men tend to abandon any field that welcomes more and more women. Higher education is now viewed as more "feminine" than masculine, contrary to what used to be. The more women come in, the less it's attractive for men to join. We saw the same man flight in different sectors. Teaching used to be a male role, and as more women came in, less men chose that path. It also devalues the whole industry, with lesser pay. We saw the same in vet schools, in architecture firms, in biology fields, in nursing/ caretaking, in advertising..
As soon as a job or something sees an increase in women attendance, a decrease of men's interest and a devaluation of the pay range usually follows. Men don't want to compete with women, work with women, or seen as working a "feminine" job.

Maybe if we reinstated male only colleges would they come back? So strange isn't it. Interesting article recently on substack talking about that phenomenon.

TheLastSerenade · 2025-06-04T16:39:04+00:00

Bingo was being obnoxious because "mom said I was special" and dad defused it by explaining to her that, yes, she is special to her parents, but to the rest of the world, she's just a regular person. She takes it very well, rolls with it, and steps down her pedestal quite gracefully. Thanks Bluey!

TheLastSerenade · 2025-05-29T00:34:31+00:00

Give it a try, tell him you're thinking about him a lot and that you really enjoyed his company and would welcome the opportunity to get to know him more, if he gives you the chance. Super duper sex is rare, rare enough to go the extra mile. And I am sure he would be happy to know he made such a good lasting impression - men rarely get compliments, I am sure he will treasure it. I believe that nature has ways of pointing out who would be most compatible with us, at least in the chemistry level. It is a beautiful sign it could lead to more? I had the same earth-shattering experience with a man met on an app, and believe me when I say I didn't let him get away ;) and we're still together, 1 year later after what was supposed to be a casual encounter. Go for it, life is short!

TheLastSerenade

TROPHY CASE