Do you let your dc eat in their bedrooms?

[RibenaSky]

Or always at the table? Or a combination
Just wondering what others do about this

They dont like the table but I dont like crumbs/food etc in bedrooms
Ages 10 and 12
Tia

No eating or drinking in bedrooms here, I paid a lot for carpets and don’t want spills and new life forms being grown under beds

Yes, but I would prefer meals at the table if it were my choice alone.

No meals in bedrooms but snacks are allowed.

Wow. Can’t believe folks don’t allow food in bedrooms. How odd. Meals always together, but never had an issue with snacks in my daughters bedroom, it’s her home, not a jail.

Snacks allowed in bedrooms here as well. Although all dc's are over 7. If they end up with crumbs in their bed it'd annoy them more than it would me!
Just don't find it a big deal. We have bins and a Hoover.

No. No food allowed upstairs. All meals eaten at the table, though I generously allow the DC to eat snacks on the sofa if they're watching a film.

No meals in rooms, ever. Always at the table as a family, or the occasional TV dinner in front of a film. Sometimes it's the only time we see Ds1(15) although he does have snacks in his room.

@Bluntness100

Wow. Can’t believe folks don’t allow food in bedrooms. How odd. Meals always together, but never had an issue with snacks in my daughters bedroom, it’s her home, not a jail.

It depends on the child/teen. I got fed up with chocolate or sweets in the carpet or bedding.

No food in bedrooms as they are guaranteed to leave crumbs, leftovers, rubbish, plates and probably worse. They are allowed to eat on the sofa though with a lap tray

Breakfast, which is toast with peanut butter (ASD child) is OK for the bedroom. Supper always at the kitchen table. Lunch at the weekend, can be in the lounge if something like pizza. If more messy than at the kitchen table.

No food at all upstairs here - for anyone, DH and I don't eat upstairs or take our phones upstairs in the evening, and our children have those rules too.

Two of mine are teenagers and have never once tried to argue that they should eat meals in their bedrooms - tbh I am very surprised that children as young as 10 are trying to negotiate for that. They occasionally try to argue that they should be allowed snacks in their bedrooms, but I remind them that foid in bedrooms means increased likelihood of ants, mice etc and that consequently they'd have to do a lot more proper cleaning of their bedrooms rather than just being left to decide whether to keep their own room tidy or not - that makes food in bedrooms less appealing fairly quickly!

Never upstairs.

They didn't have to sit chatting at the table if they wanted to just eat and run. They could bring a book if they wanted to. I sometimes turned on the TV if it looked as if it would be a wordless dinner

They would ask to be excused when they were done, and I always let them.

Dd(11) sometimes eats dinner in her room. It started in lockdown when her group calls would be at dinner time- so they would all eat as a group.
As long as her plate comes down as soon as she's done I'm not too bothered.

Evening meal as a family at the dining table. Breakfast, lunch, wherever they liked.

I love threads like this

We've always eaten at the table, it's something we only did on Christmas Day when I was a child and something I felt very strongly about when I became a parent. At 17 DS still eats with DH if I'm on a late shift, and indeed often eats at the table if he's eating alone.

We allowed food upstairs for special occasions like watching a film with friends etc, from about 12. Now our only rule is that the dirty stuff needs to be bought down on a regular basis - not as regularly as I would like, but more regularly than DS would like

All meals at the table, DS is 20 & away at Uni but I've never known him to take a meal up to his bedroom, maybe the occasional snack or bottle of beer. I would hate to eat in my bedroom - sometimes take a coffee and chocolates to bed though .

I have to confess that no food upstairs, ever, is easy because we have a second TV room downstairs, so films with friends and any birthday type multi guest sleepovers happen there, not upstairs. We don't have TVs upstairs but do have the second room with an Xbox and TV as well as the main living room. So there's never been a reason for anyone to eat anything upstairs.

Breakfast and dinner downstairs but they are allowed lunch upstairs providing plate and rubbish are brought down. They have been doing this for 5 years and no problem with the plates!

No food upstairs is a house rule in our house! Cant stand the crumbs / sugar from sweets etc upstairs.

Dinner is always at the table unless we have a takeaway. Then we eat on our knees watching Modern Family.
They can take snacks to their bedrooms

Used to allow snacks and occasional meals in bedrooms. Stopped it recently and much easier to keep place tidy. Hoover required much less often than before. If they weren't so messy I wouldn't mind some snacks and occasional meals in their own rooms.

A bedroom is for sleeping in not eating in!
Family mealtimes are important. Trying to get DH to conquer his misophonia but it's not working!

I do think no food in bedrooms is a battle well worth fighting, because it means that you're free to leave their bedrooms completely to them once they're 10+ - they don't become unhygienic if you have simple non negotiable rules of all dirty laundry in the laundry basket, all clean laundry put away, no food or drink except water in bedrooms. If those rules are stuck to by everyone, including adults, from babyhood onwards and never, ever up for negotiation then you can say "your bedroom is yours- keep it tidy if you want to live in a tidy room, keep it messy if you want to live in a messy room - your room, up to you, your responsibility".

No food in bedrooms = never, ever having the stereotype "tidy your room" teen- parent stand off. Just doesn't have to happen.

I don’t have kids but I never ate with my family - there were 4 kids so we took turns cooking and ate earlier and then my parents usually ate something else in the living room. We ate on our laps. Then when my siblings left home I ate in my room - we literally eat round the table at Christmas and that’s it! Even now I hate sitting at a dinner table.

DS's bedroom is downstairs so a bit different to some. And we sometimes eat a takeaway while watching a TV show on our bedroom. So mostly at the table but not strictly so. I still have fond memories of working through every Star Trek series while we ate Chinese, us in the bed and DD as a teenager (now 27 years old), on a cushion at the end of the bed with her takeaway too, watching with us.