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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think that you’re evening meal is called ‘tea’ not ‘dinner’?!

999 replies

Biscoffaddict · 04/02/2021 16:33

I see so many posters on here referring to their evening mea, as ‘dinner’, but in real life I’ve never met anyone who does this and it’s always ‘tea’. It always has been tea. My parents call it tea, my grandparents called it tea, my friends call it tea, my work colleagues call it tea etc. ‘Dinner’ is the meal you have in the middle of the day and that’s why school dinner ladies, are called dinner ladies!

I don’t know but I find it quite irrationally annoying! Surely I’m not alone?!

OP posts:
Crystalclair · 05/02/2021 18:19

I say

Breakfast
Lunch
Dinner
Dessert

And I'm far from middle or upper class! I'm surprised so many people think that calling it dinner is posh?!

If I have something later in the evening after dinner, I'm simply just having something to eat. Literally dont label it 😁

Crystal90567 · 05/02/2021 18:21

Breakfast
Lunch
Dinner
Afters/ pudding

Dinner ladies are now called lunchtime supervisors.

MrsMackesy · 05/02/2021 18:22

Oh, we're throwing dessert into the mix now, are we? I see pp her dessert and raise you a pudding.

Nope1721 · 05/02/2021 18:23

It depends where you live. Everyone I know calls it dinner.

lynsey91 · 05/02/2021 18:25

@x2boys

Have you tried chips and gravy or curry sauce though ? Don't knock it untill you have tried it.
Well, as I said, I detest gravy so don't want it on anything. I have tried chips with curry sauce and it was totally revolting.

I like my own home made chips with just a splash of vinegar. Chip shop chips are always so disappointing

browneyes77 · 05/02/2021 18:26

I think it’s a regional thing.

I’m from the West Midlands and everyone I know says breakfast, dinner and tea. Or we’ll swap out the word dinner for the word lunch.

But evening meal is always referred to as ‘Tea’ round my neck of the woods.

Nohomemadecandles · 05/02/2021 18:26

To have never met anyone who calls it dinner is really odd.

Some people live in echo chambers.

Sarahrellyboo1987 · 05/02/2021 18:27

You know what they mean. So, why care?

Nettie1964 · 05/02/2021 18:28

So Enid Blyton. I just cant cope. Breakfast lunch dinner. But i am a Londoner x

icedgem85 · 05/02/2021 18:29

Tea is a drink. You can’t have dinner for lunch, lunch is lunch. However I don’t get ‘irrationally angry’ that northerners call their dinner tea - it’s different, it’s not bad...

Crystal90567 · 05/02/2021 18:31

Afters if its not an actual pudding. Eg yogurts / fruit / icecream / chocolates.
Pudding if its actually a pudding (or pie or cake or crumble).
:)
Also not everyone who says 'tea' in the north. Only some...I'll say no more on that point for fear of appearing a bit rah! :)

Crystalclair · 05/02/2021 18:32

Pudding to me is literally a pudding. If someone is having fruit or yogurt and call it pudding.. it just don't sound right to me.

Just like tea us from a cup

Dessert if I've genuinely bought something cakey for after dinner. Or afters, for literally anything else.

HeelsHandbagPerfumeCoffee · 05/02/2021 18:33

@x2boys➡️Have you tried chips and gravy or curry sauce though ?Don't knock it untill you have tried it
Mmm yes it’s great

lovelemoncurd · 05/02/2021 18:35

It's a class thing. It means you're from working class roots op.

Shboogiebop · 05/02/2021 18:41

It used to be called tea when I was a child, and we had Sunday dinner at lunchtime and then Sunday tea in the evening. But for some reason as an adult I've always called the evening meal dinner. My boyfriend calls it supper 😂 but he is quite posh!

lynsey91 · 05/02/2021 18:41

@Fluffy40

I reckon north of Birmingham it’s tea.
I was born in London as were both my parents. Also DH and his parents. We all call the evening meal tea.

Lunch for us is around 1pm and is a sandwich or soup or something like egg on toast (I had boiled egg and toast soldiers today). Tea is about 7.30 and is a cooked meal BUT on the rare occasion we have a cooked meal at 1pm it is still lunch and then we would have a sandwich, soup etc in the evening and it would still be tea

Jayne35 · 05/02/2021 18:41

I used to call it tea when growing up but say dinner now (south west).

FancyAnOlive · 05/02/2021 18:43

Dinner. Pretty much everyone I know calls it dinner, I'm in and from London. I know people who call it tea, think they are mostly from the North. Why on earth do you find it annoying what people call their meals?

Justgorgeous · 05/02/2021 18:44

The only tea I have is in a cup or a cream tea!

Mmpip · 05/02/2021 18:48

I live in the North and it's breakfast, lunch, dinner & supper......

MacDuffsMuff · 05/02/2021 18:52

Hang on, so because you call it tea and they call it tea on Coronation Street, we should all call it tea? GrinGrin

Here, it's breakfast, lunch and dinner and we drink a cup of tea. I demand that everyone else do the same! (not really ...)

poppy990 · 05/02/2021 18:52

I grew up in Surrey. It was lunch and dinner, now live in Manchester where it’s dinner then tea.
Def regional

HeelsHandbagPerfumeCoffee · 05/02/2021 18:54

@MacDuffsMuff such a great user name,and a tittery double entendres

winniestone37 · 05/02/2021 19:02

Wow are you for real!? I’ve called it supper/dinner my entire life. Have you never been anywhere? Do you not know about regional dialects and differences? You are genuinely ridiculous.

KimchiLaLa · 05/02/2021 19:05

No one I know calls it tea, our nursery does but the kids eat at 4pm so that actually is tea.