To ask if anyone else prefer eating their evening meal on a tray?

[FredSoftly]

I have friends who insist that every meal is eaten en famille at the table so everyone can "talk about their day." Then they complain that it's often tense or their teens are moody and uncommunicative.

When I suggest tea on a tray, they gasp in horror!

We often do this in front of the TV and it can make for a nice relaxed evening. We also manage to chat a lot without facing each other across the kitchen table on a nightly basis.

Am I common?

It's easier using a tray than just having a plate on your lap. Preferably one of those trays with a bean bag underneath.

We only use the table when the meal requires or deserves it. Some things are too messy to risk a tray with, other things are too classy. But eating every meal at a table smacks of unwoke, right-wing white privilege.

No I hate trying to balance a plate/ tray on my knees. DH keeps trying to make us eat dinner in the front room and I hate it. If I’ve gone to the effort of cooking him a meal, the least he can do is bloody well sit at the table and eat it!

It’s not the furniture you eat at or on for me, or the position as regards the other people, it’s that eating while watching TV predisposes people to mindless grazing and an association between tv and eating that I don’t think is that good for eating well.

It also limits what you can eat, I think — pizza or wraps are fine, or noodles in a bowl you can hold up under your chin, but I would find it uncomfortable to be eating something messier, more intricate, or that involved a lot of cutting up off my lap.

@TakeTheCuntOutOfScunthorpe

It's easier using a tray than just having a plate on your lap. Preferably one of those trays with a bean bag underneath.

We only use the table when the meal requires or deserves it. Some things are too messy to risk a tray with, other things are too classy. But eating every meal at a table smacks of unwoke, right-wing white privilege.

It really, really doesn’t. No one has suggested traditional floor eating is in any way inferior to eating at a table, and I assume that for many cultures, that’s the equivalent of table-eating, anyway. I’ve certainly eaten with Asian friends’ formal grandparents on the floor, and it certain,y wasn’t mindlessly scooping in food in front of the tv.

OP if you are common so are we!

Not for me. If I'm eating a meal, even on my own, I sit at the table.

I just find it more comfortable,

Trays are bad, lap even worse

@TakeTheCuntOutOfScunthorpe

It's easier using a tray than just having a plate on your lap. Preferably one of those trays with a bean bag underneath.

We only use the table when the meal requires or deserves it. Some things are too messy to risk a tray with, other things are too classy. But eating every meal at a table smacks of unwoke, right-wing white privilege.

This is one of the most bizarre posts I have ever seen.

CounsellorTroi

OP if you are common so are we!

As are we, then. Just three of us for Christmas meal this year, on trays in front of TV for the first time. Lovely it was too, relaxed, chatty and I wasn’t frazzled and not wanting to eat it myself.

We regularly eat in front of the TV. When we've all been in the house together all day it's hard to think of things to say while we're sat round the dinner table. But we comment and chat about whatever is on TV. There are usually some good quiz shows on around 6pm, they're always good for some chat

I think it's much nicer to eat at the table. It's better for your digestive system too rather than being slouched up on a sofa.

@TakeTheCuntOutOfScunthorpe right cos only white people eat at a table /not in front of the TV

I hate eating off my lap. It's too much bending forward which seems to disrupt the food's passage to my stomach, or I get dinner medals. My in-laws won't use their dining table, so every single meal is served on trays - I end up kneeling at their coffee table for things like roast dinners

We eat every meal on our table! We have two young kids so I rather they mess the kitchen up than the front room. Plus, growing up we had to eat dinner at the table so that's what we do now

But eating every meal at a table smacks of unwoke, right-wing white privilege.

What a load of shit 😂😂

Growing up we ate at the (fold up, with stackable chairs) table because the living room was tiny and there wasn't enough sofa space for us all to sit down at once.

Now I have a slightly larger living room in my small ex-council house and we eat at the table because it's 4 feet away from the sofa anyway.

@babychange12

We eat every meal on our table! We have two young kids so I rather they mess the kitchen up than the front room. Plus, growing up we had to eat dinner at the table so that's what we do now

It’s true — the sofa ends up looking like a war zone, only with strands of pasta.

That’s hysterical - trying to make people eating at a table racist!

We mostly use trays unless someone else is coming round.

We eat at the table mostly, DS is two and I think it's right that he learns good take manners/to sit nicely etc, but once or twice a week DH and I eat in the sitting room, but it has to be something easy to eat eg flatbread/wraps/ a bowl of pasta that can be eaten with just a fork, we're having spicy chicken livers, with crusty bread and salad tonight (DS will have dinner at nursery before we collect him), that will be at the table, too much hassle having a bowl of livers, bread to butter and a plate for salad all balanced on a tray on your lap.

@Honeyroar

That’s hysterical - trying to make people eating at a table racist!

We mostly use trays unless someone else is coming round.

Maybe they’re eating off EDL-themed plates?

I don't even have a table any more

Come to think of it, claiming that eating every meal at a table is right-wing white privilege, is offensive to both black and white people

We make all the dc sit to the table when dss is here and me and dh sit on the sofa. When he's not here (50/50) my teens often eat in their rooms.

We don't need a table to talk about how our days have gone. We do that when we all get home from work and school.

DP and I have just moved and haven't even bothered with a table yet. We much prefer eating off of laps.

We eat 90% of our meals at the table. We sometimes have pizza for a movie night in the living room, but haven't eaten a regular meal on my lap. A snack/sandwhich occasionally but nothing using a knife and fork - I can't see how that would be comfortable.

I think its quite fine that other people do thigs differently! Although if I was invited round I'd find it odd to have it on my lap if there was a table avaiilable.

I can't cope with tv as "background noise either though." Happy to watch a movie etc but wouldnt want to visit friends with it just on.

If I’ve gone to the effort of cooking him a meal, the least he can do is bloody well sit at the table and eat it!

Why? Because you're incapable of balancing a tray on your lap? It's a lifeskill - get practising!

Bar an occasional pizza in front of the telly, we always eat at the table. Our kitchen/diner/tv room is open plan, so no real need for a tray.

I'd def not want a proper cooked meal on a lap and would want the people I'd cooked it for to sit at the table with me and converse etc.

Completely ok with other families doig it differently though!