What on earth is this mealtime snobbery about?

[Diemme]

At 6.45 this evening, DH and I went to sit outside at front of the house to have a coffee and enjoy the last of the sun - we live in a close with benches outside the houses. Almost immediately our neighbours came back from a dog walk. They chatted for a few minutes and then she said she was going in to make dinner. I mentioned just in small talk that we'd already eaten. And I swear she did a head tilt and tinkly laugh as she said gosh that's early. Then she went inside and her husband arranged his face in a sort of patronising / pitiful expression and asked why we'd eaten so early. It's not just them, ive come across it loads of times. It's as if there's a bizarre sense of superiority to eating at 8 rather than say 6.

@PhoenixIsFlying Yes! I agree! I'm not originally from the UK and don't come from a particularly posh family but the evening meal has always been referred to as supper in my family and tea is a lovely hot drink before bedAmazing how things work differently from country to country! Each to their own imo

Isn't it just a life style thing? As a single parent with two young DC's I'd often not start cooking until 6.30 after picking them up from childcare following an arduous commute. Every weekday every week.
Of course I often had home cooked stuff in the freezer from batch cooking but even so. And sometimes did easy meals as in pizza and salad and stuff and that would be a treat for them. Even a takeaway here and there.
Homework and baths to be done too.
That ain't no snobbery. It's a lifestyle.

Sorry that sounded very martyish.
My point is let people be.
Everyone is different and you don't need to know why they eat when they do.
Many early risers would be in bed by the time someone else considers it's bedtime.
Live and let live.

*Sorry not bedtime
I meant dinner time

Working class & Scottish here: lunch 12-3, tea 7-10, dinner can be used in place of either of they terms and a supper is something you get from a chippy.

Saying you eat “Supper” means you have ideas of grandeur! Lol!

No it doesn't. It's just what some completely normal people call it (including me).

I’m Irish.. we have breakfast lunch and dinner
Breakfast 8ish
Lunch 1ish
Dinner 6ish

I wa surprised when my sister said her children have supper. It’s an alien word to me as it didn’t exist when we were kids..

Although it’s only cereal, toast or fruit.

It had never occurred to me to give my children food before bed when they had their dinner at 6
My son is always hungry so we have introduced supper at 8 usually toast or fruit..

When they were babies they had dinner at 4 and me and ex had our dinner at 8 when they were in bed..

Breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Supper is a light meal verging on snack maybe 30 minutes before bedtime preparations start

To hear supper being used for dinner makes me cringe and would make most of my peers lol

@Didntwanttochangemyname

I'm quite posh

Says who?

One thing puzzles me though, does no one go out in the evening? If people aren’t eating until 7.30 pm or later when do they go out to the cinema, theatre, book clubs etc?

People often eat early-ish when they have children at school so the children can eat and then settle down for the evening, get ready for bed at a reasonable time, etc. Later on or at weekends and during holidays it's later - this is what I have seen and experienced up to a point though rarely did we eat before seven in term time.

I had people say to me, "My goodness you eat late!" (when we were later), it never occurred to me they were being 'snobbish' in any way, they just did things differently. Our parents used to eat between 6 and 6.30pm, when we entertained them at our house we tried to make it happen a bit earlier.

What origamiunicorn said was true for me and mine, if we ate early we wanted more food before bedtime. It works both ways though, if we ate late we'd have had a snack 4-4.30pm and children always want something when they get in from school, can't expect them to wait until supper time.

In America, so I'm told, practically every family sits down to a meal around 6pm. Eating later is for when they go out to eat or have a dinner party.

There's no 'snobbery' involved that I can see.

If people aren’t eating until 7.30 pm or later when do they go out to the cinema, theatre, book clubs etc?

Then you have to have high tea.

(I have to say, I'm more than a little offended that some people would either laugh or cringe at what I call meals. I imagine someone will be along soon to mock 'high tea', too)

Given how popular intermittent fasting/16:8 diets are surprised they had that response. The idea is to narrow your eating window so you're not eating all day or late into the evening.

This is what I have noticed on here:

Working Class people eat Tea at 6pm.
Middle Class people (or those aspiring to be) eat Dinner at 7pm.

Upper Class people (or those aspiring to be) eat Supper at 8-9pm.

The only time I use the word 'Supper' is when I have invited adult friends round for dinner after the children have gone to bed, so around 8pm. In my head, 'Supper' is for adults only.

Dinner at 5.00 pm is quite common in this country. We often eat at 4 but I start work at 5 am and I’m hungry when I finish at 2.30 pm.

Christ..ur being dramatic..did she actually scoff&call you a commoner😂why so sensitive?we eat at7.30..if it was 5pm we'd all be wanting supper by7.30..

I was brought up British to have my tea at 6 o'clock, live in France where they sit down 7.30 to 8.30ish but I think I'm secretly Spanish because by the time I get the food on the table its 10pm!

I could never eat that late. I'd feel sick waiting for food. I only have 3 meals day,(calorie counting) so wouldn't want to have another meal just because supper is so late we eat at 8am, 12 and 6pm. Children eat fruit and toast before bed.

I think I must be confused - I call it breakfast, lunch and tea.

I get up at half 5, so eat breakfast at 6, lunch at work is 12:30 without fail and by the time I’ve gotten myself home, faffed about, DH is home and we’ve cooked, tea is around 7:30-8. I go to bed about half 10. I don’t snack between meals, but might have a wee ‘something something’ after my tea.

Our friends all work similar hours to us and few have children, so I always thought it was a pretty normal time to eat.

One thing puzzles me though, does no one go out in the evening? If people aren’t eating until 7.30 pm or later when do they go out to the cinema, theatre, book clubs etc?

Three children under 6 and no babysitters on hand... we rarely go out. When we do, it’s usually for dinner!
Obviously timings can be changed though. It isn’t set in stone. I have a yoga class at 7-8 one day a week so I eat when I get home (which would be our normal eating time anyway, around 9ish). If I was to go to the theatre I’d eat beforehand. Can’t remember the last time I went to the cinema but would eat either before or afterwards, depending on the time of the showing. If I’m meeting friends for drinks at 7, I’ll eat before I go. If I was meeting for early drinks, I’d probably eat when I got home.
DH take it in turns to go to the gym in the evenings, whoever goes is usually home for 8ish and we eat after that. It’s pretty simple!

I think it’s weird that so many people are able to eat together so early. Never worked for our family and still doesn’t.

When young DC wanted their tea as soon as they cam out of school, I ate around 6:30 and CH when he got home around 7:30.

Now I eat around 6:30, DS and DH at 7:30 and DD at any possible time of day as she works shifts 24 hours a day 7 days a week.

My DB has used the word supper ever since he moved form Yorkshire to Surrey. Ridiculous, we both know supper is a slice of toast or a bowl of cereal. Pretentious crap.

My DD has 5 DC. When they arrive home from school at 3.30 - 4 pm they usually have pancakes, fruit salad and milkshakes.
Then the whole family sit down together for dinner at 7.30 pm when DH arrives home from work.

In our family, it has always been breakfast, lunch and dinner.

If people aren’t eating until 7.30 pm or later when do they go out to the cinema, theatre, book clubs etc?

I wouldn’t ear before either of my book clubs as there is food there.
Theatre tends to be at weekends and we’d have a pre-theatre supper in the theatre or other local restaurant usually. That would be earlier.