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!

Well that’s just plain degeneracy

😂 love this!

My dcs are all grown up and we have moved so they don't have set places at our table when they visit. But I do - and if someone sits in it I get very grumpy!

Our 3 dogs always organise themselves into exactly the same places for meals though!

We sit where our 3 year old grandson decides we’re going to sit 😁

But some of us don't have a dining room!

I’m going to blow your mind OP, my DH and I don’t have sides of the bed!
In fact, in this house we all bed hop too. We’ll often go to bed and find one of our teens in our bed so we’ll sleep in spare bedroom.
Or I’ll kick my DH out of bed for snoring and he’ll go into spare bedroom only to find DD asleep in there so he’ll go and sleep in her room. We have king sized beds in every room and it’s anyones guess as to who will wake up in which bed.

Kitchen table seating started when toddlers to avoid kicking etc, they still sit in the car in the way they had to sit to fit the car seats in. DH does not get it and will serve dinner to different places, but DD1 in particular (16!) will not sit anywhere but her spot unless we have guests.

I think I’m you’re friend! This sounds like my house

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

I thought you were joking, or a member of the Royal Family, until I read the rest of your post. That sounds wonderful!

We don't really use ours at the moment, it has been shifted from room to room during renovations and we mostly eat at the kitchen counter or patio table. But when it was in one place in the kitchen for 15 years we never had fixed spaces apart from when the DC were in high chairs. Don't have fixed places at the patio table either.

DH and I do have fixed sides of the bed wherever we go and I stay on my side when he's not there, starfishing has no appeal to me, I always sleep on my side and like to be able to reach my glasses and watch on the bedside cabinet when I wake up. The adult DCs do stick to their sides in the back of the car as well.

The sofa thing confused me too! Surely the sofa isn't in the dining room and even if you don't have a separate dining room you'll have a kitchen so you'd sit at the kitchen table to eat, surely???

Some people don’t have space for a kitchen table or a dining table, is that too hard to believe?

Well, of course. Otherwise how do you keep all your stuff ( reading glasses, water glass, specific tablets, crochet hook, newspaper/ book etc etc etc) to hand. Do you have a little basket so you carry it around with you until you find a seat, like on the train ?

And no, my house is actually quite tidy, because everyone’s stuff is in its PLACE.

Oh, I'm not bothered by not always using the same bedrooms. My children had nominal rooms, but whoever was last to bed usually had to have whichever bed was empty. We played musical beds for a lot of years!

@EquallyDetermined "Some people don’t have space for a kitchen table or a dining table, is that too hard to believe?"
Respectfully, I do think you might have missed my point!

Sorry I was addressing @Yerroblemom1923 not you @CurlewKate

Yep, riot control means that DSs have to sit on a diagonal. And DS1 has a wobble cushion and DS2 ‘must’ sit next to me…so assigned places it is.

If we have visitors (particularly grandparents where DSs MUST sit one each side of grandma) then it’s all up in the air again.

We have the same seat at the table, same seat in the car....!

Oh I wish our DC didn't have places or prefered places at the dining table, the number 1 reason for all meal time arguments starts with who's turn it is to sit next to DW and how come dc3 never has to move.

@FatCovidWorries , but it must be very crowded and difficult for the Butler to serve and clear between courses.

We all have our own places, however now DS17 has his gf over regularly, we have different seats when she’s here to when she’s not (as DS has always sat at the head of the table, so would be odd for gf to sit away from him). But we have a seating plan for when she’s here and when she’s not.
DD11 has started sitting in DS’s seat of he’s not eating with us now, feels like she’s being ‘promoted’ in the family 🤣

I had an ex who complained that there was a mug on HIS side of the bed.. that was MY bed in MY house that he didn't live at? eh? its only YOUR side of the bed when your IN it.

I can't even imagine that 😂 We have our own night stands with glasses and books and medication and all our old person stuff!

I don’t have a dining room or space for a table in the kitchen (or a breakfast bar). We just have a dining table in the living room. What blew my mind is realising that other people would choose a sofa over a table if they only have space for one. I’d always pick the table as it’s more versatile and we don’t watch tv, which I forget is such a thing for other people.

I don't have a particular side of the bed. I just get into whichever side takes my fancy and dh has to go in the opposite side. Mixes things up a bit 😊
But I do wish the kids had their place at the dining table. Every meal time they argue about who "claimed" the spot by the French doors. It's a ridiculous argument that happens daily.