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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

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

108 replies

carriedababi · 06/07/2011 11:27

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

OP posts:

CurrySpice · 06/07/2011 13:06

That's the most couched about with caveats gavel I have ever read Monica :o

WillMcSquirtersMum · 06/07/2011 13:07

I don't want to confuse things further, but when I'm in charge of food, we have breakfast, dinner and tea. However, this assumes that you have a hot meal around midday and we don't, so we often end up having 'dinner at tea time'.

I'm from the NE, but my OH is from the NW and he has breakfast, lunch and dinner.

WillMcSquirtersMum · 06/07/2011 13:08

LieIns - my 'packed lunch' is referred to as my bait box.

JemimaMop · 06/07/2011 13:08

YABU.

Hot evening meal is called supper.

Tea is sandwiches and cakes with a pot of tea. Only really consumed on Sundays or at Christmas.

High Tea is eaten with a knife and fork and consists of cold meats, pickles etc, usually at about 5pm when you have spent the day shearing/lambing/cutting silage etc.

Teachermumof3 · 06/07/2011 13:08

Down south here-it's breakfast, lunch then dinner (hot meal) in the evening.

Unless, of course, you've had dinner (hot meal!) at lunch time-then that then becomes dinner and you will consequently have tea (cold-ie sandwiches) at dinner time 5/6pm-obviously...!

diddl · 06/07/2011 13:09

We also have breakfast, lunch & tea.

But I guess it should really be breakfast, dinner & tea as our "midday" meal is cooked.

AuntieMonica · 06/07/2011 13:09

CurrySpice

eyefankewe

it's made me chuckle

ScarletOHaHa · 06/07/2011 13:10

I vote for Shoden and will try to work it into the Body Blitz I am starting on Monday.

MY DC has tea (15:30) , My DH and I have dinner.

diddl · 06/07/2011 13:10

Forgot to say-the Germans have it right-

"Mittagessen" & "Abendessen"-midday meal & evening meal!

ScarletOHaHa · 06/07/2011 13:13

Oh and my DC will alternate between school lunch and packed lunch

PaintedToenails · 06/07/2011 13:13

Dinner is the main meal of the day. So if you had it at 1pm you would have...
Breakfast, dinner, tea and probably supper as you might be peckish before bed if you had only had a light snack for tea.

However if you have your main meal in the evening, it goes
Breakfast, lunch, dinner. Probably no supper as you would have had a big meal in the evening.

This is what happens in my house. I don't give a Tinker's Cuss if any of you agree or not! And I certainly wouldn't be having a jumped up four year old telling me what to call things!

Sarahplane · 06/07/2011 13:16

My 5 year old dd just told me you have breakfast, lunch and tea. And at Christmas tea is called dinner. I get really confused by all of it so it just becomes interchangeable depending on who I'm with and what mood I'm in.

NeedMoreCakePlse · 06/07/2011 13:18

I agree PaintedToenails!!

What you call each meal depends on when you eat the "main" meal of that particular day.

However I am still liking Shodans idea the best at the moment :) (23 weeks pregnant and eating anything I can get my hands on right now!!)

happy2bhomely · 06/07/2011 13:18

Lunch is at midday (cooked or not)
Tea is afternoon (after school)
Dinner is main evening meal (hot)
Supper is anything after main meal (light meal)

Weekday is breakfast, lunch, tea and dinner.
Saturday is big late breakfast, no lunch and then dinner.
Sunday is small breakfast, big cooked lunch and supper.

Tinuviel · 06/07/2011 13:18

I can clarify all this - in the olden days when I was at school, we were given instruction in what to call meals and at what time they are eaten!! (Thank you, Miss Fife!!)

A midday meal is called lunch if it's 1 or 2 courses, dinner if it's 3.
Afternoon tea is at 4pm and consists of sandwiches, scones and cake.
High tea is a one course meal served at around 5pm. If it's served at 6pm or later, it's supper.
A 2 or 3 course meal served after 6pm is dinner.

Clearly you wouldn't eat all these meals in one day!!

So it depends on what time you eat your meal and how many courses it consists of, as to whether you need to reprimand your DD for getting it wrong, or for being a madam!

PanicMode · 06/07/2011 13:24

I used to have High Tea in my grandparent's drawing room as a REALLY special treat, otherwise it was eaten in the back kitchen with the housekeeper. It was at 5pm and was cold sandwiches, meats, cheeses etc and then cake, scones and sweet things. Savoury always had to be eaten first.

We have breakfast, lunch and supper in this house; dinner is if we have guests or are out for an evening meal. Supper is sometimes a 'kitchen supper', which is an informal Friday night pot luck meal with friends over. Dinner is NEVER eaten in the middle of the day, and tea is only ever a drink.

RossettiConfetti · 06/07/2011 13:25

Thanks Tinuviel. I might print off your post and stick it inside a kitchen cupboard. And thanks to Miss Fife, wherever she is!

KatieWatie · 06/07/2011 13:25

It's dinner (midday) and tea (evening) at my parent's house oop north
Although, as kids, for both of them we ate coal :o

There was no breakfast as mum considered this vain and too 'middle class' so we went to school starving.

My grandma was aspiring upper class and would offer us Supper which was a real revelation and always made me feel like The Little Princess.

I now live down South with a fellow northerner and we've adopted the standard Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner (cue 'raised eyebrow looks' from parents when they visit that I've forgotten my roots) although I do sometimes slip up and call Dinner "Tea".

KatieWatie · 06/07/2011 13:28

In response to the "Do northerners call them packed lunches?" question the answer is yes, I did.

I wish I'd questioned at the time why my mum had no problem with calling it a packed lunch and yet would never have called it lunch at home...

GrimmaTheNome · 06/07/2011 13:35

Ah, that reminds me in a book I was reading to DD not so long ago - I think it might have been one of the Anne of Green Gables series, but anyway, 'lunch' was used as the term for a packed meal - which might or might not be consumed in the middle of the day. In this context 'packed lunch' would have been a tautology.

So, maybe 'lunch' derived from the sort of meal labourers would take with them - pastie or bread and cheese?

nickelbabe · 06/07/2011 13:35

Rossetti

"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?"
yes, that one.
but as you were picked up for making tea in a cup, then you're correct on that too.

sod the upper-middle-class southern types. they don't know what they're talking about.

nickelbabe · 06/07/2011 13:36

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

packed lunches?

you mean "Snap Box"?

Funtimewincies · 06/07/2011 18:05

Packed lunches?

Nah, sandwiches, butties, or brechdanau at school.

catgirl1976 · 06/07/2011 18:46

Tea is a drink

Luch is the midday meal

Supper is the family evening meal

Dinner is a formal evening meal

HTH

hugeleyoutnumbered · 06/07/2011 19:00

surely it road safety technician?

and

mealtime facilitator

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