To not use my dining table?

[JorisBonson]

It's just DP and I in the house. Realised last night that I think we've only used our dining table about 5 or 6 times in the 2 years we've lived together. One was Christmas and once was playing cards.

Are we terribly slovenly to eat our dinner on the sofa?

I haaaaaate eating in front of the tv. DH loves it and I hate when he makes himself breakfast/lunch and plonks himself down infront of Andrew Marr instead of eating at the kitchen table.

Conversation stops, it makes the living room smell like whatever you’ve been eating, crumbs on the floor and balancing a plate on your lap is a pain in the arse.

I wouldn’t dedicate a full room in a standard 3/4 bedroom house as a dining room, but the time spent around the kitchen table for dinner catching up about our days is really important to me.

I love eating at the table and talking about our day with no distractions. TV dinner is only when DP is knackered after a 12 hours shift or something as a ‘treat’

Eating together is a social activity in our house, you don’t get that by eating on the sofa watching tv.

I agree. Even if we have friends round for dinner or if we go to friends for dinner we still stay at the table to chat because it feels more sociable than spreading out in the lounge.

There is no way I would sit at the dining table if it was just me and my partner. It just seems so terribly formal and I might have to talk to him God forbid!

Cripes this is a dividing topic.

In answer to a few points -

We have a big coffee table that we can put particularly tricky plates on
Our whole house is open plan, so any cooking smells waft through the house anyway
We do chat about our day, sometimes zone out to the TV, depends what mood we're in

I think it's a bit sad sitting just the 2 of us at a table, which is in eye and earshot of the TV anyway

There is no way I would sit at the dining table if it was just me and my partner. It just seems so terribly formal and I might have to talk to him God forbid! grin

Also this! Perish the thought.

We never eat in front of the tv

I guess we don’t watch tv much anymore, is there anything good on around dinner time? what do I miss?

we always eat at the table...best bit about having doen an extension is space aruond it..
I also sit at when wfh as the light is better, and dh when he wfh and dc when doing homework - can get 4 laptops on it!
anyone comes for tea/food always round the table... never on the sofa - 'we retire' to the sofa to watch tv after clearing the table (DC say this v funny!)
I grew up eating on my lap though as DM a teacher so our table was always covered in her marking!/books

In defence of the PP whose cat eats at the table, so does mine. Otherwise the old cat, who is too old to climb, eats her food instead of his special prescription stuff and makes himself sick. Whenever the table is required by humans, it's sprayed and scrubbed and is hygienic once more in seconds.

We don't use the dining table much, but when we do, e.g. Christmas or visitors, nothing else will do, so we can't make the dining room into a cosy second sitting room as much as I would love to.

We have every meal at the dining table! Mealtimes are for conversation not watching tv. We often sit there and chat after we've eaten too. Wouldn't be without it.

We've only started using ours since we have started fostering, now we use it for every meal. When it was just me and DP we only used it if we had guests or at Christmas.

Our dining table is in the kitchen with a TV conveniently right next to it, which is sometimes on if we want to hear the news and weather.

I'm much less comfortable than I used to be with holding my plate on my lap for a TV Dinner even though I have no objection at all to TV Dinners. So yes, we eat at the table. All of us together where possible.

I have grown up in another country and we don't eat anywhere else than around a dinner table. I now sometimes eat on the sofa when it's an easy meal and we are tired. But honestly it's so much more faff, I don't get it LOL.
By the time we put all the food on the plates, take cutlery, napkins, glasses with us, then we forget something like oil or cheese or bread or salt...
And, also, we tend to put the food in a serving dish or a pot on the table to be shared. And that it's again too messy done on the sofa.

In other words, eating on sofa it's not part of my culture but I don't find it easy either.

My husband is incredibly ambitious at what he'll try to eat on his lap.

He was quite surprised when I started putting out the cutlery for steak at the table!

I mean, I cook it tender, but you still need to cut it up!

It's fine Op. People might judge, but just ignore them from the comfort of your sofa

Plenty of time for family dinners if you have children in the future. When it's just me and DP we occasionally will sit at the table, but generally it's the sofa. We talk plenty at other times. Dinner time is literally the only time we watch films/box sets together, and that works for us. I'd rather chat in bed or snuggled up on the sofa after dinner than around a table where one of you will always have a mouthful of food to swallow before you can contribute to the conversation.

We're also perfectly capable of cutting food up without splashing it down ourselves because we're competent adults.

We use the table when we have guests (fairly often) so it does get used for dinner sometimes or gets extended into a beer pong table

I think it's a bit sad sitting just the 2 of us at a table,
Why is it sad?
Do you never go out to a restaurant together?

We have the odd meal on the sofa but it is messy.
Also we have dc and I can't teach them table manners without a table.
Also conversations flow better without the distraction of a TV.
We have a small kitchen table that we use much more than our formal dining table though.

@notso presumably in restaurant you’d be sitting at a table for 2, not on the edge of a table for 6/8. I agree, I find it a bit sad and actually a bit awkward

I would give anything,to be able to have a little dining table now. I live in a tiny old terraced cottage,and just have a tiny kitchen,and small sitting room, and no room for a table. I eat with a tray,on the sofa,which I hate doing.

I sometimes think about the days,when I was married, when my late husband came home from work,and our two,then young children came in,and we always sat around the table for meals and chat,in our lovely dining room. The table was also used for lots of other things too.

Do whatever suits you
I don’t enjoy meals unless I’m sat down properly at a table - even when I’m in on my own
Drinking on the other hand can take place anywhere including in the bath!

Whilst my daughter was growing up, dinner was always as a family round the table, breakfast and lunch on the sofa in front of tv.

Now my husband and I tend to eat in front of the tv, but when my daughter is home we always eat round the table.

Also when friends are over it's alway round the table, which is actually a very large kitchen island, and even though I suggest sitting somewhere more comfy people prefer it in the kitchen round the island and tend to want to stay there.

With the kids, always at a table, either the breakfast bar, or the dining table. In fact, food and drink are banned from the living room until after child bedtime. If it's just DH and me, we still usually eat at the table, as it's a time when we make a point of talking to each other, catching up with each other's day, and so on. Sometimes we stay at the table just the time it takes to eat, and sometimes we can spend the whole evening there. Just occasionally, and only if we're eating something that's not messy, we will eat in the living room in front of the fire, but not with the TV on. We only do this in winter, and it's driven by wanting to be snug by the fire rather than wanting to eat on the sofa.

I don't know @Passthecherrycoke we're those annoying couples who sit at a table for four or even six if there's one free.
I can't bear being squished on a table for two, I like side orders and there's never enough room.
I don't think it seems any sadder than two people sitting on a three or four seater sofa for example or driving a car on your own.
In fact on the recliner thread a while back many concluded it was sad to only have enough seating for two people and no guests.