Another thing I've just learned on Mumsnet....

[CurlewKate]

Families don't all have their own places at the dinner table-some people just sit anywhere. I am dumbstruck!

I can't imagine having your own place 😂

Some families don't even have dinning tables 😱

What anarchy is that?

Oh I understand about not having dinner tables-but if you do have one....
I feel as if I have landed among aliens!

We have had the same dinner table all my ds's life. He's 22 now, but when he comes home he always sits at the place where his high chair used to be! Obviously not in a high chair....

You would have hated my childhood home OP, there were 9 of us and no one had a place. It was anarchy every mealtime.

I find that weird but I’m a creature of habit. We use a conference room for lunch at work when no one is in it. Fourteen chairs and two sofas and I sit in the same spot every time. I feel like I should switch seats now and broaden my horizons.

We’re proper hardcore here, we swap seats mid meal.

This is so funny, we all have our own places too, I'm not sure how it happened and it wasn't intentional. On the rare occasions when it's just DH and I having dinner, we sit in our places as do the DC when it's just the two of them. When I have found myself sitting elsewhere at the table, it feels so wrong and uncomfortable!

We have our own place at the table, on the sofa and in the bed.

That is adorable 😍 my Dds are 26 and 31 and if they are both in our car they sit where they always sat as children it isn't even a discussion.

😂love that, I can just imagine you all picking up your plates and moving.

I read on here that some people don't even have a side of the bed !

We never did growing up. The first time I met my in laws you'd think I'd arrived smoking crack the way they went on when I sat down in the 'wrong' place (that no one told me about).

It never occurred to me to have our own set place. I also have toddler twins that don’t sit in the same highchair each time. You’ve opened my eyes to the chaos we’re living in.

We had our own places with our initials embroidered on the woven placemats.

This makes my mother sound significantly more domestic goddess than she would ever profess to be.

It meant if we spilled food, we lived with our own stains, not each other's!

Left-handed and right-handed people need to think carefully where they sit so elbows don't bump together. Assigned seating naturally follows.

But also, I'm sure food must taste differently depending on where you sit.

Places started as riot control.
DS could not be sat next to,or opposite DD. Then DS2 arrived and could not be sat near...anyone really..
But that's how it was.
Now it's just habit.
When out for a meal it's different.
But at home. Places are normal.

DDs are 40+ and if either one is with us for a meal they sit at "their" place. It's a bit different if partners/children are with them, it's more chaotic then!

My very adult children still take the same places at our table and last month when they were all home they all got into "their" seats in the car.

Ha! We don't have our own places, but growing up, my parents and gran (lived with us) always had their own places in the front room.

Where do they eat?

Sofa? If DH and I eat without the kids we eat on the sofa and it feels so bad in the best way. It’s about as far as I’ll go in rebelling.

It's not hard, have a guess.

Assuming you're not being sarcastic that is.

We had the same seats until 2020 when DH started wfh - since then the dining table has been his desk so we use a folding table which we set up in the kitchen. Once it’s up it’s hard to get past so people tend to sit where they are when we set it up, the door is at the opposite end to the stove so those cooking are trapped at that end (the distribution of cooking duties means we’re often in the same seats but not 100% of the time!)