Is "having my tea" a northern thing?

[Queenoftheblitz]

I'm a working class southerner. The only tea I have is in a cup with milk and sugar.
On mn a lot of posts talk about their evening meal as"tea", "what shall i make for tea" etc.
Do any southeners call it tea?

To those who don't use "tea" - What would you call a light evening meal? If you had a cooked meal at lunch/early afternoon, then something light in the evening. Would it be supper, or something else?

Northerner (now living in London)

Was breakfast, lunch and dinner in my household

Tea was what we had as small children as our early evening meal when we ate earlier than my parents - once we were old enough to wait till my dad got home, we had dinner

Tea was then just a snack (sandwich or similar) when we got in from school, to keep us going till dinner time when we would eat as a family

Same down south with my friends' kids. If they're fed their evening meal at nursery of the childminder around 5pm, before pickup, it's tea. Once they're old enough to eat with the family, that evening meal is dinner

So I think of tea as a timing thing tbh. If I had a very light meal very early evening (say 5 ish) then I suppose I might call that tea - because it's too early for dinner. If I'd had a main meal at lunch, then if I wasn't going to have a proper evening meal, but had something light to eat, I'd probably call it a snack / light dinner if it was normal dinner time (any time after 7pm). Tea is early evening, not the full evening meal.

In an employment contract the time in the middle of the day is usually referred to as a lunch break, rather than a dinner break

Restaurants have lunch and dinner menus.

It seems to be “tea” everywhere except London and the SE.

I'm from Liverpool and it was Dinner and Tea.... Been in Suffolk for 17 years and it's now Lunch and dinner ... family also point out that we have Ice Lollies and they have lolly iced!!! My kids still have butties though and I cringe when they ask if they are having a Barth......🤣

Northerner here. I have lunch, and evening meal is dinner. But I call the DC’s meal tea because they eat at teatime (5pm, which is when I like to sit down for a cup of tea and a biscuit.

Really posh people call it supper

Essex
I say lunch and dinner
Unless I've had my main meal at lunchtime then it becomes dinner and tea... 😁

To those who call the evening meal tea - would you still call it tea if you sit down to eat later on (say 8/9 ish)? To me tea time is early evening - if you eat later on is it still tea?

From Bristol originally - lunch and tea. Then I moved all over and tend to just call them all “dinner” as I can’t always remember which place says what.

@Queenoftheblitz YES! 'Supper' makes me feel a bit queasy, it's up there with 'moist' for me. Oh and breakfast, dinner/lunch, tea. Northern.

In Herts - I say tea/dinner interchangeably for evening meal, but my mum is from the West Midlands so maybe that's where it comes from in my family.

I would always say dinner if we were going out to a restaurant though.

I've never said supper in my life. It sounds very weird.

Born and raised in Herts. I've said Tea all my life, dinner is something we would go out for.

I'm in Newcastle and it's dinner and tea. I was talking to someone from London and said something about my husband's bate she was very surprised and didn't know what it was.

Lunch and tea here.
Supper if late food after 7:30.

Softy southerner.

Home Counties here, not working class, and I sat breakfast, lunch and tea. Sometimes dinner in place of tea. Never dinner for lunch. MIL is from Lancashire and says dinner instead of lunch and it confuses the shit out of me.

Also, if any of my friends ever said ‘supper’ the rest of us would piss ourselves.

• say not sat!

My working class London family would always have their tea at tea time. I think it’s a class thing as much as a regional thing.

Yes mine too. The other side (also Londoners) had breakfast, lunch and supper.

I now never call an evening meal “tea” unless it’s a light meal served to children. I think.

I’m a bit squeamish about calling a fully fledged meal “supper” too.

Maybe I picked up on the mutual sneering in the family

It's funny I'm southern born and bred and was raised quite 'posh' to me 'tea' is a drink.

HOWEVER 'Tea' is also the children's evening meal. Adults have dinner.

Supper is something else (usually later than dinner and often lighter)

@ForForksSake a sandwich box!

Breakfast dinner tea

Derbyshire

Middle class Scot. Dinner was in the middle of the day and we had high tea (think Enid Blyton) in the evenings until my school had a canteen that meant we didn't always have a hot meal at lunchtime so Mum started making dinner in the evening. Now have children in the NE of England, they talk about lunch and tea (thereby avoiding the class signifying dinner) but will no doubt migrate to dinner in the evening since that's what DH and I say. I had cousins (middle class Scots) who used supper for their evening meal but their Mum grew up in southern England.

Lunch and dinner. Except Sunday when it's dinner (roast at lunchtime) and tea (sandwiches at dinner time). south east

I’m from Yorkshire and it’s breakfast - lunch - dinner.
Tea is a drink not a meal.

Ive known a few people that say ‘tea’ as a meal but not many, it’s definitely not common anywhere I have lived.

It goes: Breakfast, elevenses, brunch, lunch, afternoon tea, high tea, dinner, supper.

Tea where I grew up in the East Midlands too. But if you go out to a restaurant for an evening meal you'd call it dinner.

Not a northern thing. I grew up in the south east and always had breakfast, dinner and tea growing up.
Though now I think of it, these days the big meal is always dinner, and the lighter meal lunch or tea respectively. Don’t know why!