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?

Oh its pretty confused in our household. We're East Anglia, but I was brought up in North East, and DH in North West, so we just use whatever comes to mind first.

Breakfast, is always breakfast.
We never say 'supper'
We never say 'brunch'
Tea means both a cuppa and dinner.
Dinner means lunch and tea
Lunch means dinner, but never means tea
Snacktime is the kids favourite time of day. As far as they're concerned, snack time is any time at all. I beg to differ, but they're adamant

Ooh this is one of my favourite things to discuss (I know, I'm very sad).

I'm from the south, I have breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Brunch exists but is only something I'd have out (the bottomless variety).
Tea is a drink, I've never called a meal 'tea' although I know what people mean if they say it.
Supper is incredibly posh, I assume it's an evening meal but I imagine it to involve very long dining tables with chandeliers and candlesticks.
Calling lunch 'dinner' is absolutely unreasonable and I will never accept it

@Lapdanceshoeshine, exactly the same as you, are we sisters ? Midlands Mum, Southern Dad, breakfast, lunch, and we use dinner, supper and tea; Mum may well phone me and say “do you want to come round for tea/supper,” but then another day we may say “fancy going out for dinner tomorrow?” Mum was from a working class mining family, dad I’d say probably lower middle class. Supper is normally used when we are eating later, or having a late snack.

Ps lunch will never be ‘dinner’ in my mind!

I am London born and bred and I say tea if I'm eating at home with just family but dinner if we are going out or having guests. Also had dinner ladies at school. Lunch ladies sounds weird.

Lunch and supper for me here in Yorkshire. My parents also from Yorkshire but all went to school in the south. No wonder I’m confused

Dinner is for going out to dinner or having people round ie a dinner party. Wondering what the rest of you call that if you call dinner being at lunchtime

East Midlands here with a Scottish heritage. I say breakfast, lunch and dinner but for some reason when living in Oxfordshire it morphed to tea instead of dinner and its what I say when referring to it with DD as lunch at school was called dinner.

Now we live in the South and we say breakfast, lunch and tea or sometimes dinner. I occasionally say supper and I think I got that off my mum who was lower working class Northerner. My dad was middle class Northerner and he said breakfast lunch and dinner.

Complex!

It's a class thing, in the main. Working class Londoners call it Tea.

Of course it's a class thing.

When middle class southerners say it's a northern thing, what they really mean it "all northerners are working class".

I'm a born & bred northerner & live next door to a southerner (in the north),we constantly joke & wind each other up about what is correct.
For me - breakfast,dinner & tea (no brunch or supper,that's posh!!)
For her - breakfast,lunch & dinner.

Breakfast Lunch and Dinner (elevensies in the nursery. supper when old)
Kentish lass.
But kids raised in Scotland. They have School Dinners. And Tea.

Dinner, or lunch, and tea. My best friend calls the evening meal dinner though. Both from Norfolk.

Just to add to the mix...

I know quite a few posh (-pretentious-) people who say Kitchen Supper. This is meant to indicate a low-brow evening meal, something quick & easy and eaten at the kitchen table, as opposed to Supper or Dinner, which is eaten at the dining table.

Just to really mix it up

I have lunch and tea, lunch and dinner and less frequently dinner (sunday/christmas/roast) and then tea!

South East and clearly confused.

You can tell by context usually though

What do/did peoplel call the women who help with school meals?

Dinner ladies? Or are they lunch ladies down south?

Alpha - if you read the thread, we've discussed that a couple of days ago.

Dictionary definition is that dinner is the main meal of the day, whether it is at midday or the evening

A hot meal at lunchtime at school is assumed to be the main meal of the day. Hence dinner ladies. But a sandwich is assumed not to be. Hence packed lunch.

ACAS, the NUT and gov.uk all refer to the midday break as the lunch break

It might be a dinner lady for a hot meal but the time of day is considered lunch by the relevant bodies, not dinner

Breakfast lunch and dinner here in Kent

That's you told alpha

Funnily enough, when I was at primary school the teacher used to take a lunch register and pupils would shout out "packed lunch" or"dinner" depending on whether they were having a school meal.

I've never thought about that before.

I once worked at an office in London and asked a fellow manager if he wanted to have dinner sometime because we were working on part of the same project and never had time in office hours to catch up. He thought I meant lunch. He came from Cambridge!

(London - lunch and dinner)

Breakfast, lunch, dinner.

London!

Even in the north, "having your tea" is more of a lower class thing. Posher people still call the evening meal dinner. Plus the people who call it "tea" tend to eat about 6pm while those who call it "dinner" eat about 8pm.

Christmas is the exception though. It's always Christmas Dinner regardless of the time it's eaten. Never Christmas Lunch! Does anyone call it Christmas Lunch?

I say tea and dinner. From southeast.