..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'?

Breakfast
Dinner
Tea

East Mids. (Though DH from same area, says breakfast, lunch and dinner or as a child, supper...! Posh.)

Breakfast
Dinner
Tea

S.E, it's what I grew up with, so it's what we have. If I was having dinner in the evening it would be because we had gone out.

I do think that the posh mummies here in SW London call the kids meal at 5pm Tea to be 'cutesy'. They are all firmly from the South! I will stick with Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner.

Mother if someone asked us to go out for tea I would expect we were going to a restaurant for a hot meal.

If you were just going for a cup of tea you would say they are going for a coffee - you may not drink coffee but that's what it would be called.

If I was asked to afternoon tea I would expect tea and cakes

If I was going for a high tea I would expect tea/coffee and toast to begin with then a main course hot meal followed by cakes and more tea/coffee

Breakfast is first, lunch at mid day ish (whether hot or cold), evening meal is tea if cold and dinner if hot, supper is last thing before bed and consists of cereal or toast. I wonder if supper in that sense is northern, DH is a southerner and says he had tea about 5pm and then nothing till breakfast as a child

It's breakfast, dinner and tea.

Although my kids call it breakfast, lunch and tea because my mil taught them to.

We have Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner. To us Tea is a drink.

Breakfast, lunch and dinner here. To me tea is a drink or means afternoon tea.
I'm Irish and DH is Scottish and calls it the same. We live in the North West and most people say Breakfast, Dinner and Tea. I get really confused if asked round for dinner as never know what time they mean haha.

Supper if eaten here is normally a snack before bed, toast or crumpet.

Breakfast, lunch and tea for me - no official supper, was more 'grab a sandwich if you're still hungry' when I was growing up and now I don't bother.

And I'm from East Yorkshire if anyone's still looking at geography

NW here.
Breakfast
Snack
Dinner
Tea
Dippy biscuits and coffee before bed.

It used to be lunch if we were round Nana's house because she was a bit posh she thought

Breakfast
Dinner
Tea
Here and I'm south west

We don't live up north . Some of us do.

Breakfast, lunch and tea here. Unless I'm eating out for the evening meal, then it's dinner.

If I cook something 'proper' and 'from scratch' then it's dinner but if it's thrown together like tonight's oven chips, haloumi, avocado and pickled onions it's tea

Breakfast, dinner and tea here.

Breakfast
Lunch
Supper

Lunch or supper might also be dinner.

Wikipedia: Dinner usually refers to the most significant and important meal of the day, which can be the noon or the evening meal.

Wikipedia: Supper is either the main evening meal or a light snack later in the evening.

Tea is a hot drink.

I say breakfast dinner and tea. I'm a right common northerner. I try not to say this in front of colleagues but end up slipping up, then I feel stupid.

Tea (Northerner in exile Dahn Saaarf)

I think posh people, used (still do, perhaps, in some circles?) to give children "nursery tea" which was early, like adults might have High Tea or Afternoon Tea (which is differentiated by whether there was hot food or just cake/sandwiches) and Dinner was the main evening meal for adults only.

So perhaps OP's friends mean childrens tea in this manner, as opposed to their own dinner?

Southerner, living in NE or Yorkshire since I was 21:
Northern Now
Mid day meal - lunch
Evening meal - tea
Snack at bedtime - supper
Dinner what you go out for /special occassion meal

Southern Childhood
Midday meal - lunch
Afternoon snack - tea
Evening meal - supper
Dinner - what you go out for/special occassion meal

Breakfast
Lunch
Dinner - but I have been known to shout 'your tea's out!' when dinner is ready, so I guess they are a bit interchangeable.

Supper is toast and a cuppa before bed. We were once invited to 'supper' by a posh neighbour, which I gather would have been dinner but late in the evening.

DH and I both Scottish. I grew up posher than he did - we always had our main meal in the evening, whereas he had main meal midday, then nursery / snack tea at 5pm.

Now we live in France and it's all fucked up. Breakfast is a cigarette and an espresso on the move. Lunch is a full three-course meal lasting at least two hours. Gouter / afternoon snack is substantial and at 4:30pm. Dinner is at 8pm. Children and parents eat together in the evening - how will children learn to behave at table if they eat on their own?

We do a mixture of all the above. Somehow it works out.

Breakfast 7 - 10
Lunch 12.30 - 2
supper, or dinner if we have guests & it's posh 8 - 9

Tea is a drink with crumpets or cake at about 5 pm

We have breakfast, lunch and supper if it's just family and informal but dinner if we have guests. I'd normally offer wine with dinner but we wouldn't dream of drinking alcohol with supper. I guess we should all be thankful that we have 3 meals a day - what we choose to call them doesn't matter a bit.

We say breakfast, dinner and tea, Wales x

Breakfast, lunch and supper. I'm Welsh born and bred but my family is quite English. DH calls supper tea when MIL is around.