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

[JeanfromAccounts]

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?

The last time we ate at the table together as a family was in August last year. I only remember because we were on holiday in a cottage and the Netflix wasn’t working.

My DP and I fell into a lazy habit of eating on small tables on sofa in front of tv. When moved house we made a pact to eat at dining table unless a take out. We both much prefer it and talk to one another instead of staring at the tv.

And for those that 'only do it at Christmas', what's your favourite meal of the year? What makes Christmas dinner any different from any other evening meal. If you enjoy it at Christmas you might enjoy it any night?

We stopped years ago. Dh would get annoyed with kids messing around and it was just stressful. All got alot better when we ate together with TV on sat on sofas and it helped everyone's anxiety levels! Kids ate better and I'd rather talk to them when they want to talk. Not when they were forced to.

Yes! My mum never let us eat in the living room so ever since I moved out I’ve eaten nearly all my meals on the sofa xD At the moment DD is 2 so she eats early and DP and I eat watching tv after she’s gone to bed and I feel like we should start eating family meals at the table at some point... but I’m not looking forward to it!

I hate eating scrunched up over a tray on the settee. I just don't find it as comfortable as eating at a table.

Thank goodness we have a dining table. I need to WFH right now. I have my laptop and a monitor on the table to work on huge spreadsheets.

No space for a table so trays all the way here! Growing up we mainly had trays too though (middle class )

We enjoy it, we choose a programme we both like and sit and chat too.

YABU - I've always ended up spilling my gravy everywhere!

Wow, I've never considered eating at a table could be anxiety inducing... Different strokes, I suppose.

@redbigbananafeet

We only really use a table at Christmas because there's usually so much food made, it's put into bowls or plates rather than each meal plated up individually, so you can just help yourself, have seconds etc. So having a table at that point is just easier.

The rest of the year we (me really as I do the cooking) just do individual plates rather than serving it on bowls etc and helping ourselves. Just easier that way, less plates to wash. And then we sit on the sofa and watch an episode of whatever we've been watching recently.

Bedrooms!
My teens eat breakfast in their rooms occasionally or snacks but I wouldn’t be happy with full meals going up there.

This lockdown has increased the amount of time we’ve eaten at the table together and I love it. We get much more out of the teens conversation wise and they don’t seem to be in a hurry to rush off after so it can’t be that much of an ordeal for them. It’s one of the few times they’re off they’re phones so I try to encourage it.

Their

You have plenty of time when you’re really old and need full time care to eat on a tray

Why wait though - live now I say

YANBU to do what suits you but YABU to get snippy with people who like sitting at the table

I'm not getting snippy @CoronaIsComing - just having a light hearted banter.

I don't understand how anyone can use a knife and fork, while sitting on a sofa and balancing a loaded tray on their lap

Check out my YouTube channel and be amazed

DH and DC usually eat at the island in the kitchen with a sitcom on. We chat all the time so don't need a ritual or to think of food as 'sacred' in order to converse. And we're all capable of eating at a table in a restaurantcos they won't let me take my tray

Strike out fail

I insist on table eating for all meals and only one tv allowed in the house which is in the living room. Not showing my family this thread or they'll think I run the house like a prison

Not being picky yes I am but eating at an island qualifies as eating at a table, doesn't it? It's a flat surface.

Some meals are good on sofa... But other meals definitely aren't. But if it works for you...

I sometimes eat at the table by myself for the peace and quiet away from the television.

I loathe eating en famille around a table - I have so many bad memories of it as a child - my mother throwing a hissy fit if we didn't want to eat everything, not being allowed to say anything whilst the grown ups talked, being slapped for not holding cutlery correctly, elbows on table, hands not on lap between courses, not folding napkin up correctly at the end of the meal - the list is endless. SO why would I want to inflict family meals on my children?

When they were little they ate at the kitchen table whilst I cooked for DH and me. Now we eat and watch the news and chat in front of the TV.

We don't even have a table. 🙈it's just ds and me in a tiny flat. I do insist on proper table manners though

And yes like pp my mum made meals miserable with never ending table manners instructions and tantrums

Always dining room or kitchen table for meals but we’re not really TV watchers.

Tray on lap here. Can't bear the sound of other people eating

SO why would I want to inflict family meals on my children?
But surely you understand that is not a typical family meal? . You could have removed all that nonsense from the experience simply by not doing it; quite drastic to remove the actual table too!
How strange.