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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask if I'm the only one who prefers to eat with a tray on my lap rather than at the table?

150 replies

JeanfromAccounts · 09/05/2020 08:45

I don't really want to chat about my day or hear about my family's day when I'm eating. I want to eat, savour the food and read or watch the news with my tea (dinner/supper/whatever you call it) on a tray on my lap.

Any fellow heathens out there?

OP posts:
Pika09 · 09/05/2020 09:07

Yabu

Confuzzled123 · 09/05/2020 09:10

YANBU!

formerbabe · 09/05/2020 09:10

We have a big table but dh and I always eat our dinner sitting on the sofa once the kids are in bed.

missmouse101 · 09/05/2020 09:12

I'd really like to but being fat and short, I don't have enough lap to do it!

BadLad · 09/05/2020 09:13

I don't usually come into AIBU, but I felt the Earth move from the force of millions of pairs of judgey pants being hoiked up, so I came to see why.

Now I know.

lazylinguist · 09/05/2020 09:15

YABU. But then I'd find the news more distracting from my food and less pleasant and relaxing than chatting with my family.

Chicchicchicchiclana · 09/05/2020 09:16

Yanbu. I am so tired of the tedious middle class trope that everyone in the family should eat together round a table in a room lined with bookshelves filled with dusty 20 year old paperback books that no one is ever going to read again and if they don't you are a useless person and even worse parent.

supadupapupascupa · 09/05/2020 09:16

I had dreams of family meal times around the table. We have an open plan kitchen diner. Ds won't eat there because he has ASD and sensory needs, the cooking is too smelly, the acoustics too noisy. Dd won't eat there because ds won't. So dh and I go watch the news with tea on out laps. I don't mind really to be honest

Original poster
JeanfromAccounts · 09/05/2020 09:16

BadLad Grin but they are too disgusted with me to tell me i am BU en masse.

OP posts:
Pelleas · 09/05/2020 09:17

It depends what I'm eating! If I or my husband have cooked properly we'll eat at the table. If I've just heated up something from the freezer, I'll eat it off a lap tray.

Letthemysterybe · 09/05/2020 09:18

My children are only small so they eat dinner early at the table and then we eat later whilst sat on the sofa in front of the tv. One of these days we are all going to have to eat together at the table and I’m not 100% sure how I feel about that!

SpillTheTeaa · 09/05/2020 09:20

I sometimes do but find it very awkward so end up resting it on the arm of the sofa. Prefer to eat at the table though it's just easier

Bagelsandbrie · 09/05/2020 09:22

We always eat on our laps in front of the Tv. We actually got rid of our table because it never got used. We did used to eat out a fair bit - once a week and or so- so the kids know how to behave at a table (!) but at home we just like to be comfy. My mil and fil are always horrified when they come round and realise we have no table....!

Scruffyoak · 09/05/2020 09:23

I prefer to eat with lap tray too. Often I wait till kids go to bed so I can eat in peace.

hamstersarse · 09/05/2020 09:23

I love a good fucking row around the dinner table

Lllot5 · 09/05/2020 09:24

I always sit up the table no matter what I’m eating. Always.

recrudescence · 09/05/2020 09:24

I am so tired of the tedious middle class trope that everyone in the family should eat together round a table

Sharing food together is the preserve of the British middle class? How silly.

formerbabe · 09/05/2020 09:25

My children are only small so they eat dinner early at the table and then we eat later whilst sat on the sofa in front of the tv

My dc are 9 and 12 and we still do it like this...they eat dinner early...5ish...dh and I eat at 9. We usually all have lunch at the weekends at the table together.

MamaGee09 · 09/05/2020 09:25

When our children were little we all sat round the table, now they are teenagers we sit with it on our knee in front of the tv. My 18 yr old is glued to his phone and at times dh is just as bad, so I’m not sitting at a table when they both insist on catching up on the news on their phones.

AnotherMurkyDay · 09/05/2020 09:28

When I make a big dinner I serve the kids and do the dishes. Sometimes I'll have a small portion to see what it tastes like if I can't resist! Then once they are in bed I heat up and eat mine. I eat standing up while kids are awake (usually pick while cooking, and when I cut fruit up for them I'll have some, or a piece of toast or whatever). I only really eat one big meal a day, and it is once my kids are in bed. We do try and sit down together a couple of times a week at least, but usually I end up giving up eating because I'm so busy cutting things up and getting drinks and stopping arguments

AnotherMurkyDay · 09/05/2020 09:29

Eating a tray full of takeaway or a cheese board with a good film on is one of my life's greatest pleasures right now!

halesie · 09/05/2020 09:29

Yanbu. I'm happy with the chat but can't bear to listen to other ppl eating Confused

TheBitchOfTheVicar · 09/05/2020 09:30

I don't even bother with the tray 🤷‍♀️

ipswichwitch · 09/05/2020 09:31

Same as supadupapupascupa - DS2 has asd and he eats better in the sitting room in front of the tv. I think the acoustics in our kitchen diner bother him and he often gets hyper and disruptive at the table. He can sit at the table when we’re out, and we’re careful to only eat at places he can cope with.
At first, I was bothered by not all sitting at the table together, but it makes DS2 calm and happy so I can’t get worked up about it.

DustyMaiden · 09/05/2020 09:36

Always eat at the table. Things get spilled eating on the sofa. It’s a lot more comfortable too.