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?

It's a working class thing. We always had breakfast dinner and tea. I still like my tea very early, my body expects to eat at 5.30-6pm.

Supper is something we's have as a snack before bed.

East Midlander here and it's breakfast, dinner and tea.

Growing up it was breakfast, dinner, tea, supper. That was in Bury, Lancashire.

Moved to London and it became lunch then dinner.

I’m in Devon now and have noticed quite a lot of people do say tea for their evening meal.

I’m Surrey born and bred and generally say lunch and dinner, but sometimes supper and occasionally tea. I’m clearly very confused.

Born and bred southerner and it's lunch and tea for us!

Breakfast, lunch, tea. Born in Leicester. Dinner to me is posh tea, going out to a restaurant and dressing up, or planning and cooking a dinner party for guests or a special romantic thing with candles etc. Then while nannying in London I was introduced to supper which seems to be a cold teatime meal, like crusty bread and olives and posh salad. weird how language goes.

Breakfast, lunch. tea. S. Wales. Only posh types call tea dinner.

Tea if it’s beans on toast / sandwiches kind of meal, if dinner been had at lunchtime. Dinner if it’s the main meal of the day.

Breakfast, dinner & tea.
Birmingham.

I shall add it to my long list of 'words I use which people on MN hate'

People who have worked physically hard as working class people traditionally have need to eat earlier than 7-8pm

I drink tea from a mug. I have breakfast, lunch and dinner.

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.

Agree with East it's more of a class thing than a north/south thing.

We had dinner and tea when I was a child. I grew up in a working-class household in south-east England.

Southerner here, with Midlands mother, & southern father - it was always tea in our house growing up.

Now in Lancs - still tea

There's a class survey on the indie site atm & breakfast/lunch/tea is an option along with breakfast/dinner/tea - they clearly think it's more class than location & I agree

I grew up in the south and always called it tea. However, my mum was from the north and my dad was from Wales, so it's pretty clear where that came from.

I live much further north now and call it dinner. Spent years living overseas and had to make the shift or else nobody would have known what I was talking about!

Dinner and tea in both Manchester and north wales. However in a professional workplace dinner is often called lunch.

I have friends that call tea supper which sounds completely wrong!

Do posh northerners call it tea?

Breakfast, lunch & supper here and I'm Northern.

Londoner here. As a child we had breakfast, lunch and tea, but as an adult it’s breakfast, lunch and supper. And occasionally elevenses and afternoon tea too 😆

Grew up in South Yorkshire - we ate breakfast, dinner and tea.

Now in North West Lancashire - my accent has faded and merged with my more middle class, southern/international uni friends long ago. Locals here seem mostly to use breakfast, dinner and tea or breakfast lunch and tea. But I know some who say lunch and dinner, so more of a mix?

I generally say breakfast, lunch and dinner now. This has caused confusion previously, as has asking what people want for 'tea' (Earl Grey not what I was expecting as an answer).

I call it tea and I am a Northerner. Not sure if I am posh though?

Posh northerners? man, really showing a bit of a snobbish side there OP.

dinner and tea. south wales.

how anyone gets to be an adult and be unaware of this variation in terms baffles me. or quite why it bothers people so intensely.

I’ve always lived in the south and usually we have lunch and tea. Dinner is if the midday meal is a hot one (on Sunday’s usually). I think it’s more of a class thing than regional as others have said.