not going home until tomorrow evening/only going home tomorrow evening

[Topstudent]

Daughter: Can we play again? Just one more game?

Mom: I'm sorry, sweetheart. It's way past your bedtime. We can play again tomorrow.

Daughter: But we're going home tomorrow.

Mom: We're not going home until tomorrow evening/We're only going home tomorrow evening, so we still have most of the day here, OK?


Hi. I wrote this dialog. Are both of the underscored suggestions natural here? Do you prefer one? Thanks.

 

[5jj]

The first is more natural.

 

[jutfrank]

The second sounds wrong to me.

The first is more natural.

Are you suggesting that the second is a less natural way of saying the same thing as the first?

 

[Barque]

In that context, I'd have expected the mother to have just said "Not till the evening, so we'll have most of the day here".

I've heard "only" being used to mean "not until" or "as late as" but I didn't find that definition in the two online dictionaries I just consulted.

 

[jutfrank]

I've heard "only" being used to mean "not until" or "as late as"

I'm not aware of, or really understand this at all, and it seems like I'm a minority!

Could someone explain it for me? Are you all saying that the second sentence is a way of saying the same thing as the first?

 

[Barque]

I've heard it used as in the following examples:
8 is impossible. I'll get there only at 10.
I can do it, but only in the evening. You'll have to wait till then.
He's coming here only next week. Not this week.

 

[5jj]

Are you suggesting that the second is a less natural way of saying the same thing as the first?

That was my first thought. It now sounds wrong to me.