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AIBU?

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Original poster

My sister has started calling her evening meal supper ...

573 replies

TheFateofOphelia · 05/10/2025 09:43

She was talking about having friends round for "supper" on Friday. I was puzzled as she knows, and I know, that supper is a piece of toast if you're feeling peckish at bedtime.

Apparently, now she's moved to Surrey she no longer has her dinner between 12 and 1, she has lunch. Now I'm ok with that but AIBU to draw the line at her having supper at tea time?

OP posts:
Trickabrick · 05/10/2025 10:09

Breadcat24 · 05/10/2025 09:53

I was told that in Scotland "supper" meant any meal from a chip shop that had chips with it.
Maybe she is eating a lot of chips!

True story. I now want a fish supper.

Westfacing · 05/10/2025 10:09

Nothing to do with moving to Surrey... more like she's moved into being middle class!

It'll be kitchen suppers next.

Namechangerage · 05/10/2025 10:08

Swiftie1878 · 05/10/2025 10:06

The opposite, actually!

Not all terms I use, personally, but:
Breakfast is breakfast.
Brunch is a late breakfast, early lunch.
Lunch is lunch (but is often called dinner up north - hence dinner ladies at school)
Dinner in the south is Tea up north.

Posh southerners distinguish between a casual dinner (say shepherds pie or something) and a more formal dinner (where you’ve invited people over, do three courses plus cheese board etc)
The casual meal is supper.
The more formal version is dinner.

Show quote history

This is helpful, thanks! I was very confused 🤣

Dollymylove · 05/10/2025 10:08

Northerner here.
Breakfast
Dinner
Tea.
Supper is a snack before bed.
I do occasionally ask DH what he would like for "luncheon" 🤣🤣

Namechangerage · 05/10/2025 10:07

ApricotCheesecake · 05/10/2025 10:05

I grew up in London and I say breakfast, lunch, supper.

Really?! I’m also London and never heard that. Are you middle-class? If so that’ll explain why I haven’t 🤣

Swiftie1878 · 05/10/2025 10:06

101WaysToFail · 05/10/2025 09:52

You can bet your arse it’s served on the royal dolton an all 💅

The opposite, actually!

Not all terms I use, personally, but:
Breakfast is breakfast.
Brunch is a late breakfast, early lunch.
Lunch is lunch (but is often called dinner up north - hence dinner ladies at school)
Dinner in the south is Tea up north.

Posh southerners distinguish between a casual dinner (say shepherds pie or something) and a more formal dinner (where you’ve invited people over, do three courses plus cheese board etc)
The casual meal is supper.
The more formal version is dinner.

Hungrycaterpillarsmummy · 05/10/2025 10:06

I like the word supper. My grandad would make us homemade chips and a fried egg and that was supper!

More recently my mum has started saying she's having friends round for supper which on my head means : not quite a 3 course dinner party but more a smaller dinner plate and pudding.

Namechangerage · 05/10/2025 10:06

Breakfast lunch and dinner or tea.

Is this a Surrey thing?! I’m in London but obvs not posh enough to have heard of “supper” being a thing. To be honest if someone did say it around me I’d probably laugh.

ApricotCheesecake · 05/10/2025 10:05

I grew up in London and I say breakfast, lunch, supper.

KimberleyClark · 05/10/2025 10:04

Jeffrey Archer had kitchen suppers didn’t he. Shepherd’s pie and Krug.

Enko · 05/10/2025 10:03

YABU. Especially to say supper is a piece of toast.. a piece of toast is just "a piece of toast." Not supper..

Just let your sister call it what she likes. (And she for you)

Btw I have lunch and dinner and never have supper...

childofthe607080s · 05/10/2025 10:03

What does she call real supper then / the wee snack before bed?????

MrsPerfect12 · 05/10/2025 10:02

breakfast, lunch, dinner is correct,

Brunch normally weekend to replace breakfast and lunch.
Afternoon tea approx 3pm
supper is small meal/snack before 8-9pm ish

Duckswaddle · 05/10/2025 10:02

Supper is a word used by my pretentious in laws and gives me a visceral reaction. I’d relentlessly take the piss.

LozzaCh0ps · 05/10/2025 10:00

And when/where would luncheon come into all this? Is that another tax bracket away?

SunnieShine · 05/10/2025 10:00

I loathe it when people call dinner or tea "supper". Like nails down blackboard.

Justbecauseyoucandoesntmeanyoushould · 05/10/2025 09:58

I grew up in the north having dinner in the middle of the day, tea in the early evening and supper before bedtime. I lived in SE for for decades. I have lunch and dinner these days ("tea" is what young children have between 5 and 6pm). I can't go back to dinner and tea, despite being in the north again. For no reason at all, I hate "supper" as a term for the evening meal! Makes me cringe. I'm totally unreasonable and can offer no justification whatsoever! 😂

Bluebottlerecycling · 05/10/2025 09:58

She’s fitting in with the local nomenclature, which seems entirely reasonable. When in Rome etc

Don't be a big meanie.

neveradmit17 · 05/10/2025 09:58

Another who doesn't like the word 'supper', but let her crack on.

SpudsAndCarrots · 05/10/2025 09:58

Its only supper if you're extremely rich and had dinner at lunch

Fayaway · 05/10/2025 09:57

Darner · 05/10/2025 09:54

🤷‍♀️ Calling lunch dinner would be quite conspicuous, she’s just trying to fit in with others. We have (lovely) friends who’ll invite us for a ‘kitchen supper’ which makes us feel rather second rate.

That’s sad, do you think you’ll ever be upgraded? 😂

Worriedalltheday · 05/10/2025 09:57

It's always breakfast, lunch, supper for me.

I find ‘Tea’ sounds uneducated but each to their own. Tea is a drink.

NCJD · 05/10/2025 09:56

I hate the word supper, which is really quite irrational i suppose 😂 I call the middle of the day meal dinner but I have no issue with others calling it lunch and sometimes call it lunch myself depending on who I am with. But for some reason supper really gets to me. It’s a regional thing definitely.

lazyarse123 · 05/10/2025 09:56

@NoCommentingFromNowOn I love the word frock and say it all the time when appropriate obviously, I don't go round saying it randomly.

Clearinguptheclutter · 05/10/2025 09:56

I know precisely two people who have “supper” at teatime. Both super posh.
They claim to be confused when I suggest it’s tea time and they see that either as the stuff in the teapot or a full on afternoon tea!

the situation is insufferable!
we have
lunch
tea - or perhaps dinner if people are coming round or we are going out

supper is late night munchies, which don’t happen in our house