..to wonder why everyone refers to the evening meal the kids have as 'tea' not 'dinner'?

[Tweettwo]

We don't live up North so why call it 'tea'?

Oh and supper is a biscuit at bedtime, never a meal.

who's everyone? you mean people round you in rl?

Breakfast
dinner
tea.

Supper is the before bedtime snack of cereal or toast or whatever.

called breakfast, dinner and tea here.
south wales.

Breakfast
Elevensies
Lunch
Afternoon Snack
Tea
Dinner
Supper

Breakfast
Dinner
Tea

Lunch is what posh people do innit

We all have supper (5 pm or 9 pm). Tea is a cup of tea and toast or biscuits/cake at about 4ish. Rarely have it! 'Dinner' is a more formal meal. Actually, we still invited friends round for 'supper' although sometimes say 'dinner'... I dunno. Guess it's a regional thing. And depends on whatever your family called it when you were growing up.

I live Newcastle and DO CALL it tea!!

dinner then tea if the mid day meal is big and the eve one little. Lunch then dinner if the mid day meal is small and the eve one bigger. Just to complicate things.

Lunch isn't posh!?! Everybody has lunch don't they???

It's not just a north/south thing, it's a class thing. I was brought up in the south of England, working class, and we had dinner and tea.

I'm inclined to agree with Tanith though, and that's how I eat most of the time, apart from it's 'elevenses' not 'elevenses' for me. [pedant]

It's supper here.

I live in SW London and calling it Tea seems endemic amongst the middle class mummies. Even though I could possibly be classified as such, I insist on calling it 'dinner' and do not understand why they call it Tea. I am glad I am not alone in my thinking! I am not posh enough to call it 'Supper'!

Lunch and tea here. Tea is our 5pm and usually the biggest meal of teh day.
Supper is toast and cocoa before bed.
Dinner is something that happens on high days and holidays if we have guests around or go out in the evening.

Supper's definitely a round of white toast and a hot chocolate.

Breakfast
Dinner (afternoon food)
Tea (evening meal)
Supper (before bed)

We don't live up north, but we do live in the East Midlands and have tea. We have never ever had supper.

Breakfast
Dinner
Tea

Just how it's always been!
Live on the cheshire/Staffordshire border

I'm with cashew here.

Op is right that dinner always used to be the tight word in polite society, but now I've got DC any meal before 6 is tea, after its dinner and if I'm feeling really posh it's supper!

No one here says lunch unless they're posh.

OnlyLovers you might want to check your post as a pedant

I'm from the Midlands and I have breakfast, dinner and tea :o)

Right word not tight word!

Full disclosure, born and live in South, learned most of my vocabulary living in Yorkshire aged 3-7 so I'm a right mess, as is my accent

Breakfast
Lunch
Dinner or Supper (parent)

OnlyLovers Ooops! Obviously I was distracted by the food

Breakfast
Second Breakfast
Elevenses
Lunch
Afternoon snack
Dinner
Supper

Tea is a hot drink.