dd whos almost 4, pulled me up yesterday and corrected me, telling me its not called tea its called dinner

[carriedababi]

i felt like saying you and your middleclass upbringing!

its always been called tea in our house

i was telling dd, we are having such and such for tea, and she went tea? its not tea, its called dinner

bloody hell

It's breakfast, lunch and dinner. Tea is a drink or a snack about 4pm. Nothing posh or snobby about it.

Shodan - you have missed out afternoon tea ffs.

3 tier cake stand, a pot of earl grey and some cucumber sandwiches if you please.

My 92 year old southern-bred MIL is having to adjust to having dinner at 12:30 and supper in the evening at her Lancashire nursing home. (Tea in the afternoon, obv)

I assume the Dinner being the main cooked meal of the day came from when people had a big, cooked meal in the middle of the day, and bread and cheese in the evening (known as tea)

that would certainly make sense re: school meals (dinners) because often, the midday meal was the only cooked, hot meal a child would have - because the parents couldn't afford to feed them hot meals in the evening.

anyway, High Tea was invented for posh ladies in the days when corsets meant that ladies couldn't eat much at each meal, so had an extra bit in the middle of the afternoon.
posh ladies would drink tea and eat cakes.

No, nickel, that's afternoon tea. small meal twixt lunch and late dinner.

High tea is big evening meal particularly suitable for hungry schoolkids.

Yes - High Tea is lots of jam sandwiches and fruit cake.

Afternoon tea is the occasion we invite the retired couple around from next door to, and DD1 makes a cake and we eat it in the garden.

Dinner is a formal evening, requiring invitations.

Supper is the meal DH and I have on our own after the children are in bed, or relaxed with friends around.

Childrens' Supper is the meal the DDs have before they have a bath on a night.

Afternoon tea. How could I forget that? My sincere thanks, Kitten.

Also midnight feast and second breakfast. I like that idea. Sardines from a tin, I think, for midnight feasts? (ref: Mallory Towers/St Clares).

And hang on a minute- isn't there some kind of repast taken at the end of a ball (the dancing kind, no need for smuttiness), before carriages?

nonononononono
High Tea is its proper name.
afternoon tea is a "common" name for it.

Tea with no prefix is evening meal for normal people

(i'm willing to be wrong on this, as long as Tea is still evening meal)

wiki corrects me
but it's still an extra meal.

That's ices and punch I believe Shodan

Can anyone give a definitive answer please?

My northern roots gave me breakfast (brekkie), dinner and tea. Supper was a glass of milk or bowl of cereal before bed, but usually referred to as 'your cereal' or 'your milk' rather than supper. We had dinner ladies. Dinner was always cold sandwiches, never ate anything hot until teatime.

I currently live/work in a place where most of the people I associate with (and am with friends with) are southern, and/or quite posh (some are very posh). I think they say breakfast, lunch, dinner then supper. But some just have breakfast lunch and supper? Or breakfast dinner and supper? The midday meal we have is sometimes hot (pasta, rice...) and the evening meal can be hot or cold. We sometimes have people over to eat in the evenings. When we don't, DH, me and dc eat together around 6.30pm. Arrgghhh! I don't mind appearing or sounding akin to my working class roots and don't want to sound pretentious, but do want to be understood when we're chatting about meals or inviting each other over for a bite to eat.

What should I go with? And what should I teach my children? It's making my head hurt. Please help me.

Forgot to add, DH and I drink lots of tea, throughout the day, and after meals. We brew it in the mug, unless we have people over, when we use a teapot and milk jug. Is that relevant?

Rossetti - you're correct.

(not relevant)

I have an unusual take on this because in our house, we have breakfast, lunch and tea. And if we go out in the evening, we are "out for a meal" not having dinner. We did have dinner and dinner ladies at school though.

Nottingham. HTH.

Rossetti YABTU to make tea in the mug

We call the meal we have in the evening supper if it's a "casual" meal. "Dinner" is cracking out the Good Plates and multiple courses, "supper" is risotto in the kitchen. "Tea" is afternoon tea. Hope that's cleared that up!

Based solely on my extensive reading of Famous Five books research I am sure that High Tea is a somewhat heartier meal than afternoon tea, which is all cucumber sandwiches and dinky little cakeys.

So to revise:

Breakfast.
Second breakfast.
Morning coffee.
Elevenses.
Brunch.
Luncheon.
Afternoon tea.
Tea.
High tea.
Dinner.
Supper.
Midnight feast.

And of course the wafer thin mint.

(I will admit to a little uncertainty on the correct order of the Teas, please feel free to amend.)

Shodan, I believe the high tea might come before tea, so high tea would be around 3pm, tea would be around 4-5pm then dinner around 6-7pm.
I like the sound of your day BTW!!

Curry I don't think it tastes any different? If anything, my yorkshire teabags brew too quickly in a teapot and it is too strong. With toddlers hanging off my skirt and the rest... boiling water on a teabag, 1 minute to brew, quick stir, flick teabag out, slosh on milk = nice cuppa, does it not?

But nickelbabe, what was I correct on? Breakfast, dinner and tea? Will this stand me in good stead with these upper-middle-class southern types? Will they understand what I'm talking about?

Oh it does so taste different Rossetti - it's too strong and scummy tasting and it's too hot. Yuck! I can even tell by looking at a cuppa whether it's been brewed in the mug before I even taste it

i live in the middle of the country, so i know best

you have breakfast as your 1st meal

you have Elevensies at anywhere between 10.30 and 11.30am

you have LUNCH as your next main meal, be it cooked or otherwise, if it is eaten before 3pm it's lunch

any meal after 3pm is called dinner, unless it's bread-based, then AND ONLY THEN, can it be called tea

any meal eaten after 6pm is supper or dinner, depending on whether you've eaten between that time and lunch, or not.

For us lunch is always 'lunch' unless it's a 'school dinner' for which you take in 'dinner money'. Also I might say at lunchtime at home 'Sit down and eat your dinner!' not remembering or thinking it important what time of day it is!

(northerners, interested to know - do you talk about packed lunches?)

We don't really mind if the evening meal is called tea, dinner, eveing meal, or supper. Lots of parents describe a children's or family meal eaten quite early as tea, or call it dinner if it is later/more adult.