To live without a dining table??

@Tw1nset I know, I just meant it’s not very practical to not have a table! Pizza/takeaway maybe, but I can’t imagine eating a proper meal on the sofa.

It's grim eating meals on a sofa - it's important to teach children how to dine properly.
Sell the huge sofa and go for smaller one, then get a folding table.
I'd rather my kids sat on a cushion on the floor to watch tv than to eat at a sofa.

Have a kitchen table and dining table at home. Breakfast, lunch and supper eaten at kitchen table and dinner eaten at dining table with whole family. I enjoy hearing about DCs day when they get in from school. No one is allowed phones whilst eating together. It's precious time to catch up with each other and show an interest in how they are, how the day was, etc.

When not eating dinner, the table is used for arts and crafts, sewing (rarely!!), homework, boardgames (Bingo being the most recent) and putting washing basket on to fold up washing. All family life centres around this table whether I like it or not😂

I grew up eating round the table, as did DH with his family. We just don't know any different, really.

Nothing wrong at all with eating dinner in front of TV or at a coffee table either. Eating regularly at a restaurant or with relatives could easily teach children table manners, if you don't own a table at home. It's not a be all or end all situation!

Lots of people on this thread without the imagination to understand that not everyone has the space for a table.

I think if you have children it’s essential. How do you teach them table manners otherwise ?

It reads like you chose a massive sofa over a dining table

It reads like the sofa preceded the house.

[quote Sweetsforsweets]@kowari

Single dad with two secondary aged children in one bed flat.

Surely, surely you appreciate that this scenario must be very very rare.[/quote]
I don't think it is rare for families to live in overcrowded housing.

@kowari

Single dad with two secondary aged children in one bed flat.

Surely, surely you appreciate that this scenario must be very very rare.

Lol at the idea eating on the sofa is grim. That's so mumsnet.

what do you do with the other stuff on the table like condiments, gravy boat etc? Use them in the kitchen. I've never owned a gravy boat nor made gravy in my life.

I couldn’t be doing without a table to eat at. We have a living/dining room with 4 seater dining table and only a 2 seater sofa because of how the space worked out. I think eating on the sofa would be too messy plus what do you do with the other stuff on the table like condiments, gravy boat etc?

For me it’s far less about table manners, or dropping peas down between the sofa cushions, than not sitting face to face with the others in your household and talking without watching tv or other distractions.

I’m assuming that the people who always eat on the sofa also eat watching tv, as most sofas are positioned for that reason, and I think that’s likely to make you inattentive to your food, and lead to more mindless eating.

I too would sell the sofa. We eat nearly every evening meal at the dining table. And breakfast, and lunch. At sit and chat. And work. It's very important family time to me.

I cannot fathom not having a table. But then we don’t eat on the sofa ever, other than maybe an occasional pizza but I think that’s happened about twice.

Can you get a folding bar table and some stools? They’re really good for space saving

And they’re not going to be in one room flats in central London

[quote CakeRequired]@Hellotheresweet

You've chosen a cheaper area of the country to search in there. I've seen 'flats' in London that are one room, a separated tiny bathroom with the bedroom put above it in like a little loft. And people do rent them.

Lived in a 2 bedroom terraced house myself that didn't have room for a dining table even a fold out one without meaning you couldn't walk around properly and would be constantly bumping into it. It only had room for one 2 seater couch too because it was that small. Thankfully only rented that.

You can find small houses that you can fit a dining table in, but not all can. Ops house is one of them, and why should she get rid of an expensive sofa in replacement of a £50 table just because a bunch of people online tell her to? That will be fun, she gets rid of that and those old chairs are all she has to sit on. Very comfortable.

Maybe rather than people saying it's grim, disgusting etc you should appreciate what you have and stop looking down at others and maybe just be thankful that you can afford better. You might find at some point, your luck ends and that precious dining table will have to go. How will any of you cope then? [/quote]
A one room flat is going to be lived in by one person.
In that scenario then a dining table would really be very difficult to squeeze in!

However we are talking about families here.

Well we have a large dining room and a large table in it. It is laid with the family silver every night and we think that people who don't do that or dress for dinner are grim and scummy.

Of course, in real life the dining room table is full of crap and we eat ok our laps whilst watching TV or reading through judgy threads on MN.

I have a table but still eat my dinner sat on the sofa most nights! We have trays with bean bag bottoms so you can still eat properly with a knife and fork which apparently would shock lots of the posters here. Lots of people do this, it doesn’t mean they are incapable of table manners.

Is it 'snobbish' to say you don't like eating on the sofa because it's really uncomfortable - unless it's a very simple meal, a sandwich or slice of pizza for example (or a 'fork supper' - bet Mumsnetters hate that expression ) I just find it really awkward to eat on the sofa, do you put your plate on the coffee table and then sit hunched up over it - especially something like the Christmas dinner when you clearly need a knife and fork, and room for you glass of wine etc.

I'm not remotely snobbish about it (as I said earlier, we often eat on the sofa watching telly), but eating at a low table gives me backache and indigestion. It's one or the other for me: sitting at a full-height table or slurping and shovelling food out of a bowl in front of Strictly.

I much prefer a table, I feel quite sick eating hunched up on the sofa and I really don't like the smell of food lingering around. My kitchen is tiny and I dream of a huge kitchen/diner extension.