I try to do dinner together at 6 everyday but to be honest, it often doesn't happen and I am ok with that knowing that it's just our reality with dh and i having full-time schedules. Sometimes I can't get it together to have everything organized for our dinner too, but when that happens, one of us always sits with ds so he doesn't eat alone.
We have friends over for dinner about 1x per week and I try to schedule them to come round at 5.30 so we can all eat together at 6 and luke can enjoy those dinners too.
Melsy, if we ate at 5 I would be so hungry later but 6 is usually ok. My internal hunger clock has totally adjusted so that now I can't even wait until 8, which is when dh and i used to eat. If I do get hungry i have a light snack like carrot sticks, and apple, pretzel sticks, etc in the evening. I guess it depends on your bedtime though, i try to make mine around 10 in bed to read/10.30 lights off so dinner at 6 is perfect.