To hate the term 'Tea'

[ditzyglamour]

I guess I know I am as it seems the majority use it. But to me, its dinner and growing up I can never recall hearing anyone refer to it as 'Tea'.

I just find it so flowery and annoying.

Got that off my chest now 😃.

Anyone else?

Sooo much better than the dreaded 'supper'.

Dinner was when you ate out in my house growing up in the midlands.

Breakfast, lunch, tea

Dinner menu for the evening sounds bizarre

Even Harvester and Premier Inn refer to it as breakfast lunch and dinner

Travelodge say their dinner menu is 5pm onwards

I'm from Manchester and dinner menu isn't some nefarious southern plot or the preserve of posh restaurants!

Redpony1

Yes, really. See also, lunchtime supervisors.

I don't understand all the "dinner is at lunchtime, simple" posts.

If you know it's actually lunchtime, why do you call it dinner? You know it's lunch!

^ Swap between the 3 terms tea/ dinner/ supper, I meant... can't see "Country" or "Kitchen" (or ruddy "Safari", for that matter) Suppers being used by me, ever!

And I didn't specify region in that search! Not one of the mentions the word dinner.

Also dinner/lunch ladies are now just cooks or chefs. I have worked in schools for years

It's always been breakfast, lunch, dinner to me. I'd never even heard the term 'tea' until a school friend's mum said 'won't your mum have tea waiting?' I still remember the odd looks when I replied 'no, she always has coffee...'

It's tea up North and traditionally eaten much earlier. We call it dinner now, having lived in the South for so long, but DH and I are both Northerners and can't stand waiitng until 8pm to eat. Much healthier to eat at 6pm then not again until breakfast. DC love it too.

A Scot here and growing up I said
Breakfast
Lunch
Tea

You would go out for dinner ....maybe past 7?

Now I am all grown up and live in London I mix up tea and dinner (gets v confusing - even for me!) and I hear the word supper.... so that's one more thing!

I still talk to kids about having tea and if they eat early that is what they / we have.

Past 7 is dinner!

Where I grew up (in the north!) it was breakfast, dinner and tea. As I got older I started to say lunch and dinner but now I have a young DS I say tea time again for his evening meal because it's at 4.30 and it seems odd to call it dinner! Also people talk about 'school dinners' so it's not rare to call the midday meal dinner. Supper was only ever used when I was younger if we had a later night on a special occasion like Christmas or a weekend night and had a snack of something between dinner and bed. Or if we'd had a late Sunday dinner and just wanted a snack.

fruit

so dinner/lunch ladies are now just cooks or chefs. I have worked in schools for years

So what are the (usually) ladies who stand in the playground called

so dinner/lunch ladies are now just cooks or chefs. I have worked in schools for years

I'm a teacher and have been for many years. They are still dinner ladies with one cook, who is still called a dinner lady.

YABVU as it is a northern thing - I can tell you live in the south of England from your post. Come for a trip up north and you will soon find out how flowery "come and get yer tea our Michelle" sounds in a Lancashire accent. For me, calling an evening meal "supper", or even worse "supps" makes me cringe, it sounds so twee and wannabe posh. "Supper" is a kind of snack before bed, mostly eaten by children to help them sleep through - typically a bowl of cereal or some crumpets.

Where I grew up, dinner was main meal of the day, whenever you had it. So we had school dinners and tea when we got home (bread and butter, cake, beans on toast, etc.
As we got older we had another dinner later with folks. I still think of dinner as the main meal, whenever it is. In this house its nearly always in the evening.
I don't like 'supper' either.

A northern friend always says 'tea' for cooked evening meal - I don't have a problem with it - it's a regional thing.

However one term I really hate is 'Christmas lunch'. If the usual turkey blowout isn't a main meal, I don't know what is. I always think it sounds as if people are trying too hard to be 'correct', the same as when they say 'between you and I...'.

Does it really matter? It's a regional thing. Plus - 99 times out of 100, the context makes it clear what someone means. If a northern friend asks, "Would you like to come and have some tea?" and it's 10am, then I know she means a cup of tea and isn't inviting me to stay until 7pm. Equally, if at 7pm she asked "Would you like to stay and have tea with us?", then I know she means would I like to join them for an evening meal.

Equally, some people say "pants" to mean trousers, whereas for others it means knickers. But it's usually pretty obvious to which one they are referring!

So what are the (usually) ladies who stand in the playground called

Lunchtime/midday/breaktime supervisors

YABVU as it is a northern thing

It's not though. I live in Wales.

Also, why do English people say it's Northern or Southern or "I live in the South" and just presume that everyone else is English? It's so odd. Wales has a North and a South, last time I checked. As does Scotland. And Ireland

professorcat what do you do if it's not a lady? Dinner man?

Ah yes, I remember that Victoria Wood comedy from years ago.

Midday Supervisors.

Times have changed see again, the jobs ads.

@Fruitcocktail6

In all my years of teaching I've never yet come across a Dinner Man. Heck, it's hard enough to find good male primary teachers at the moment!

But yes, what else would they be?

The children tend to call them "Miss Firstname" if they are supervising dinner breaks but aren't in the kitchen.

Yes, it's class, not just regional. I grew up working class in the south of England and we had breakfast, dinner and tea. I had supper as a child, which was some toast or bread, some cheese, any salad stuff there was in the fridge and usually a biscuit. I needed supper because we had our tea so early –5.30. Which I think is also a working-class marker.

These days I say breakfast, lunch and dinner. The day I say supper for dinner, though, someone can shoot me

Redpony1

Yes, really. See also, lunchtime supervisors.

It's not me disagreeing! I agree it's lunch at midday and never ever dinner

I'm failing at bold today