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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Apparently rich people have TVs in their dining room

155 replies

Roundtumble · 16/03/2018 15:25

So I'm having a conversation with a family member about renovating the dining room and they have the idea of putting a TV in there. I said No, Tv's aren't meant for the dining room where we are meant to eat & enjoy each others company as a family. They respond with 'we're rich & rich people have Tv's in their dining room'.
(We are rich= in love, family etc etc not so much money..yet )
First of all I don't know where they got that notion from that rich people have Tv's in their dining room and secondly not so much an Aibu because I don't think I am at all but what's your take on it?

It really annoys me that the TV is for the majority of the time the focal point at a lot of family gatherings(usually the men in my experience.) I think it should be off limits during any type of family time except for movie night etc. It totally takes away from really getting to spend time with your loved ones especially when you hardly get to see eachother with different work schedules/life in general.

OP posts:

Eilasor · 16/03/2018 18:14

Currently, we just have one room for cooking/eating/living downstairs as we're renovating (and I hate that theres always a tv around!). Ideally, when we're finished we will have a living room and a tv room - then another tv in the playroom when it's finished probably by the time Dc go to university. I would never even dream of having a Tv in the dining room, but then again I'm someone who hates to have a tv in the bedroom and I know that's entirely normal.

Downtheroadfirstonleft · 16/03/2018 18:14

We have a tv in the sitting room and one in the children's play room. I wouldn't countenance one anywhere else! ;-)

OfDragonsDeep · 16/03/2018 18:25

I aspire to having a dining room and a TV in it

thegreylady · 16/03/2018 18:41

No tv in our dining room, it’s for eating. We have a tv in the living room and one in the bedroom which is so rarely used it hasn’t been converted to digital and doesn’t work!

AChickenCalledKorma · 16/03/2018 18:45

We have a dining room. It hasn't had a dining table in it for over five years, since we extended the kitchen and moved the table in there. But it does contain a TV.

Everyone refuses to stop calling the room-containing-a-TV the "dining room", which really confuses the kids' friends when they come round.

We don't have one in the kitchen, though.

FrannySalinger · 16/03/2018 18:48

They totally don't (disclaimer - am not rich)

Strokethefurrywall · 16/03/2018 18:55

Only one TV here - 80" but on a massive wall in a large living room.

That's it. We're clearly Royalty.

OhMyGodTheyKilledKenny · 16/03/2018 19:02

We have a TV in our dining room.

It's not because we want it there , it's because DS has a PS4 and we won't let him have it in his bedroom or on the main TV in the living room so the dining room was the only option.

It's only a small one set up in the corner on some shelves so not too obvious and it's never on during meal times.

puglife15 · 16/03/2018 19:10

No wealthy families of class would have a television in the dining room. It is absolutely not the done thing. As others have said only the nouveau riche or classless wealthy would do something like this.

Yep.

Vair posh/rich people have a room for the TV separate from their living room, dining room etc called something like the den or the study.

A small, barely used TV in the kitchen is just about acceptable as an addition.

puglife15 · 16/03/2018 19:11

And anything above 40" is vulgar.

crunchymint · 16/03/2018 19:20

We have a massive TV in every room, even in the hall, so we don't ever have to talk to each other. Apart from of course - throw us over a can of lager.

LakieLady · 16/03/2018 19:21

Which is worse? Putting the small tv in the kitchen (aka dining room in my home) or the bedroom? And if the bedroom is the least bad option, should it go in the adult or the child's bedroom?

I love watching tv in bed, so that's a no-brainer for me. And at least if it's in the bedroom, most of your guests will never see it to form an opinion as to whether or not it's vulgar.

Definitely not the child's bedroom, they'd be at risk of too much screen time.

banannabreadforme · 16/03/2018 20:23

We have a combination kitchen and dining room. It has a sofa too and a little play area. We do have a tv but it is switched off while we are eating. We are certainly not rich.

abigamarone · 16/03/2018 20:32

I have a big TV in the dining room. (More of a kitchen diner really)
And a piano. The piano is only slightly bigger than the TV & stand.
But I'm not rich.

Flossie4 · 16/03/2018 20:37

a lot of people with money have no style. You either have it or you don't.
You cannot buy it. Old money families see ostentatious displays of wealth as extremely common. I do too. Think footballers wives. Flashy, blingy but oh so trashy. Have a TV where you need it. Problem solved.

Jux · 16/03/2018 20:40

I generally buy two bags of 'orangey things' (things which are not clementines, so satsumas, tangerines, etc) and I put one in the bowl and one in the fridge. This is because it is quite hard to find things which aren't clementines, so when I do find them I get some for later. They sit in the fridge until the first lot are eaten and then they come out. Otherwise they start to decay before we get to them.

All other fruit is just put in the bowl.

Lweji · 16/03/2018 20:43

@Jux
It's the other thread.

giggidy1 · 16/03/2018 20:47

DPs family are old money rich and they don't have any TVs at all - only radio and books.

masktaster · 16/03/2018 20:52

Our dining room is for eating, boardgames and jigsaws. We have the stereo in there for background noise (CDs or radio - usually radio 4). We have a pretty small television in the living room, and that's it.

Nowhere near well off, or as middle class as the above might make me sound - live in a cheap 2up2down with kitchen/bathroom extensions in a post industrial city. It's cheaper to have a house with a dining room than not around here!

SweetMoon · 16/03/2018 20:53

I know a few very rich people. None of them have a Tv in their dining room!

NobbyNobberson · 16/03/2018 21:04

I don't have a tv in my dining room, but I do have a hostess trolley. Does that make me fabulously posh, or a relic from the 70's?

Cellardoor23 · 16/03/2018 21:14

When I used to have a dining room growing up, we never had a tv in there (or the kitchen and bedrooms) We did have a radio though. So maybe listened to music/news sometimes. My family are by no means rich, but were financially well off at the time. I however am not and don't have a dining room, but if I did I wouldn't.

Creambun2 · 16/03/2018 21:38

Large televisions are incredibly vulgar.

Grumpyoldpersonwithcats · 16/03/2018 21:45

We've got a piano in the dining room - and I regularly have to tell ds1 and ds2 to stop playing it during meal times. Can't imagine why anyone would have a TV in the dining room.

SimonBridges · 16/03/2018 21:45

In my experience, the richer you are, the less tvs you have.

A massive TV in every room seems to be a 'working class' thing round these parts

I’m ‘old money’, DH is working class.

The compromise is that we have one fuck off tv in the living room.

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