..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'?

I live in Kent/London borders. I say dinner and tea as we had dinner ladies that served our midday meals. Also you 'dress' for evening dinner IMHO. My kids and I don't dress for spag bol!

Oh and I think a pp mentioned this, my mum always talked about 'nursery tea' which was a late afternoon meal for children only, traditionally fed to them in the nursery by the nanny. Followed by an early bedtime. Since moving to France, I've realised just how unusual the Brits are in organising life so that children are in bed by 7pm and parents have a child free evening. Here - and in much of Europe- children are expected to have an afternoon nap until they are 3-4 at least, then they stay up later in the evening.

I digress. But I think that's why people say 'tea' for a children only, late afternoon meal, it used to be nursery tea.

Breakfast, lunch, dinner. Supper is snack before bed.
But dinner sounds so formal. I sometimes call it tea when talking to the DCs because I think it sounds lighter and more friendly.
Im not posh enough to call dinner "supper" but i think supper is a better word, evocative of a cosy, comforting meal.
So i use breakast, lunch and dinner
But i prefer breakfast, lunch and supper, but it makes me sound like a tit when I say that.

We live in the south east and usually call it tea.

We have tea. Dinner time is the middle of the day, sometimes called lunch but that sounds a bit posh! If we go out at night we go out 'for a meal' not dinner. I've never been asked out to dinner! Occasionally been asked out 'for a meal'. :-)

Easts Midlands here :-)

:-)

That used to make a :) ! :(

Tea time here!

Yes I'm northern

Supper's a snack before bedtime, Only if we've had tea. Otherwise it's a late tea!

We have lunch in the middle of the day and dinner at 6.30ish in our house.

I know plenty of people who have "tea" and/or "supper".

Even nights that we eat separately, we call both dinners "dinner".

Breakfast dinner tea here in NW

Breakfast Dinner Tea.
In between, we clean the outside toilet, polish the whippet and prepare our knotted handkerchief for the one day of summer.
Who is "everyone", op?

Breakfast dinner tea in South Wales . Supper is a bowl of cereal/bit of toast if hungry later on in the evening

Breakfast
Dinner
Tea

No matter our ages. Supper is a bowl of cereal before bed

Lunch is a silly word

I'm from Lincolnshire and I call it tea and lunch I call dinner! Much to the confusion of my charge.

Breakfast
Dinner
Tea

I'm from the south west.

Breakfast
Lunch
Tea
( although DH. Disagrees with me)

regional isn't it. Welsh here.

my friends daughter once said 'I am having dinner for my tea!'

My DM insisted that we use dinner ,as 'tea' was common.

Tea before 6 and dinner after it!

It's called tea in Wales well most people I know call it tea. Supper is a light snack before bed.

Breakfast
Dinner
Tea

ex scouser now in Staffordshire

I'm in South Wales and it's generally Breakfast, Dinner and Tea here...it's how I grew up.

However, DH is from Surrey and it's Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner to him. I seem to have picked it up, so we all (dc too) use Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner now.

I also now say tooooth instead of the S Wales 'tuth'. I don't do it on purpose but 11 years of dh is obviously going to rub off on me...but it winds my mum up a treat as she thinks i'm 'putting it on'

Breakfast
Lunchtime
Teatime
sit in front of the telly when the DC's have gone to bed and scoff crisps and Maltesers Mummy Time

Plymouth here and I say breakfast, lunch and dinner.

However, my whole family say dinner and tea. My brother likes to point out how I say dinner, he thinks I'm trying to be posh. Once he asked what I had in school as he had a school dinner, I replied that I had a packed lunch. He was not amused