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.

You burn less of the calories off if you eat later. How many late eaters are obese I wonder?

I could of course be lying. Nobody can see me

(unless they've invented video MN and you can see my megaton bulk under 60 pizza boxes. Oh god! In that case, poor me. And poor you - that vision will never leave you)

but I'm not. 5' 7" and size 10.
A bit thicker round the middle than before the menopause but that's the worst of it.

In Spanish culture there's a tendency to eat quite late, I understand.
They didn't all look obese to me.

(In fact, there seemed less obesity among the Spanish than in people in a city near to me in the UK where some that I've come across eat quite early)

When we were at work we used to eat at 6 ish but do you know at least 3 people regularly would telephone at that time. Our cure was to change it to 5ish now that we are retired and, guess what, now they phone at between 4.30 and 5, honestly you can't win. On a serious note though, I have read many times that it is best to eat earlier rather than later because it gives our systems time to digest food before sleep thus avoiding indigestion during the night etc. Makes sense to me.

Never heard of this. Nor could I care less what other people think of my eating arrangements. Strange 'class' hang-ups, the UK has.

@IdahoGreen I loved that book!

I did ask when I was young and it was explained that ‘poor people’ had to get up early to go to work, ate early and went to bed early. Whereas, ‘rich people’ slept in, had late breakfast, late lunch, afternoon tea and then a late dinner and stayed up late because they could sleep in.

In the fairly recent past, there was also a hierarchy of when you bathed -- leisured, privileged types would have a bath in the morning (the Bloomsbury diarist Frances Partridge is always mentioning having lengthy conversations while either she or her husband are in the bath in the morning, after being brought tea in bed), where those further down the social scale needed to wash off their grubbier working day by bathing at night. And presumably if you were right down the bottom of the class and occupation hierarchy, you made do with a daily wash after your dirty job and a bath once a week.

Afternoon tea (I mean, at home, not the expensive hotel variety) must these days be a meal for those who don't work outside the home, whether that's because they are rich and leisurely, or because they are SAHPs who are routinely at home mid-afternoon. I work from home quite regularly, but I've literally never had afternoon tea.

Maybe I will today...

You burn less of the calories off if you eat later. How many late eaters are obese I wonder?

Not true.

what do people DO after dinner if they eat at 6?

Do the dishes, have a shower, tidy up the flat, watch TV, read a book, do uni work...

it's breakfast, lunch and dinner. If you already had a hot lunch and fancy something cold e.g.sandwiches, salad & cake then dinner becomes tea. Supper is a small snack late in the evening, past 6pm. E.g. a piece of pork pie/sausage roll/crackers.

I'm from SE and that's what it was for me as a kid - breakfast, lunch, dinner, unless you had a hot lunch and want a "lunch" meal for dinner - then dinner becomes "tea"... Never used "supper" and growing up I thought it was an old-fashioned word that nobody used any more, clearly wrong! I just call anything eaten after dinner a snack.

I think "supper" gets a bad press. Especially on MN. I find it a useful word if "tea" seems a bit ambiguous (snack vs main meal) and "dinner" seems a bit pretentious (although it's what I'd normally say).

Supper could seem ambiguous but, if invited for it, not many people would picture a mug of Horlicks* and a biscuit with bed straight afterwards.

At least, not at the sort of parties I've been invited to (my loss).

*Other hot milky drinks are available.

South Londoner here from a working class background - breakfast, lunch, dinner. Never heard anyone say ‘supper’ unless they were super posh - the word sounds funny to me! When we were kids the evening meal would be called ‘tea’ and it was served about 5, because we’d go to bed earlier. I prefer to eat dinner around 7.30/8. When I visit my gran she has dinner on the table for 4pm which is bizarre to me - I’m hungry again by 9!
My parents have recently retired and have started having dinner on the dot of 6pm whereas before it was always 7.30ish. Feels too early to me.

Who cares, just do what my DD did aged 3, call all meals when you're hungry are "bupper" as it encompasses breakfast, lunch and supper. We still talk about "bupper" now.

what do people DO after dinner if they eat at 6?

Some people go to work.Help kids with homework.Have a shower.Go to the gym.

Its limitless.🙄

I LOVE an early dinner and also get judged senseless for it! I’m early to bed Nd early riser so can’t eat too late. Beats the days when I had the job from hell and would need to eat at 9pm at my desk crying my eyes out.

Pp who mentioned a “piece”, I was very confused when I moved to Scotland, and in local parlance a “piece” was a sandwich (eg a cheesy piece = a cheese sandwich) except in the case of a “play piece” which was a snack children took to school to eat at morning break..

Yes I've noticed this before, funny isn't it?

On our home we don't eat til at least 8pm, not because of not being hungry (I'm ravenous by that time!) but I don't get back from work til after 6.30 then have to do snack/bath the children and DH is generally not home til getting on for 8pm anyway

In an ideal world I'd eat my dinner by 6pm at the latest and then spend the evening doing something for me eg catching up on work or emails, rather than eating between 9-10pm which really annoys me as pretty soon after I'm ready for bed

Sorry I think I've digressed from the actual point of this thread

We eat lunch (usually sandwich & packet of crisps type affair) at around 12.30-1.30, and then tea (our main meal - spaghetti bol, roast, curry etc) at around 5.30-6.30 because we all sit down and eat as a family. Kids occasionally have a bowl of
Porridge or slice of toast before bed, as does my partner, but I don't. I go to bed at 9ish so eating any later than 7 would make me feel crappy.

You burn less of the calories off if you eat later. How many late eaters are obese I wonder?

That's not how science / biology works.

We are fairly early eaters in our house. I don't like feeling full when I go to bed. I've never noticed snobbery about it, but going by this thread that may be luck. Then again, I wouldn't give a shit what others think of my eating habits.

[A total aside, sorry, but "Yes!"to the following: I was very confused when I moved to Scotland, and in local parlance a "piece" was a sandwich

I was also surprised by "jobbies" for "poos" and "a safety" for breaking wind.]

Is it really common to eat in a pub at 6pm? Husband just rang to ask if I want to eat out straight after work. We may even be in there earlier if he finishes sooner as he's been in a course. Could be 5pm.

It is in quite an affluent village so I will be taking note of other diners.

I was always told that supper was something you ate off a tray on your lap and dinner was had at the table.

I was always told that supper was something you ate off a tray on your lap

Dear me. A total no-no. The idea!

It is in quite an affluent village so I will be taking note of other diners.

Ah. Listen to their accents.
I've read a lot of Jilly Cooper so know all about this. If they say things like: A) "I'll 'ave the steak, darlin', and make it well done" or B) "Ay would laike a portion of tasty gateaux with hicecream" they're A) working class or B) nouveau riche.

Watch out for anybody holding their knives like a pencil. Not "ducal folk".

If they drink several bottles of Moet, fork up smoked salmon with one hand (while using the other one to finger their lover under the table) and then quarrel with someone and hit them across the room on the way out to their grubby Ferrari, they're upper class.

(If they're reading "Rivals" for the 20th time they're me. Do come and say "Hello" and buy me a huge drink)

LaMarschallin

So funny.

The more I think about it, the more I wonder why anyone gives a fuck what they call what they eat.....