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?

I like a few meals a week at the table with a knife and fork mainly for practice for DC.

But generally ours depends on the meal.

We're doing more sofa eating (although DC sit at a coffee table) as so much time is spent at the dining table for home school anyway.

We maybe have 2/3 meals a week at the table. Fish, roasts, messy things like noodles etc. We sit up.

Something that only needs a fork or hands (tonight is veg curry) yesterday was hummus and falafel and dippy bits etc. We sit down.

Blimey, the first response!

I live on my own, so don’t need to consider messy kids or partners flinging food all over themselves/carpet etc.

Something easy (sandwiches/wraps), then I’ll sit curled up on 5h3 sofa with plate on my lap. I’ve never used a tray, think it’s a balance thing for me. Any meals which need cutlery, then I eat those from the coffee table (with a placemat under the plate - dead classy I am). The tv might be on as background noise for the news etc, but it’s not the focus of the meal. For me, it just feels a bit odd to eat at the dining table on my own, kind of stilted.

If I have guests round, then proper meals are at the dining table, though sandwiches etc would still be on our laps/at the coffee table. Needless to say, it’s been quite a while since the dining table was used. REALLY looking forward to having family visit again for some lovely meals together.

Haha this thread is hilarious, some of these responses 😂

Yep we much prefer sitting with trays on our laps to be honest, we'll eat the odd meal together at the table (maybe once a week?), but otherwise we're all in the front room chilling and eating (oh and also managing conversation without the dining table and chairs ... fancy that).

@KittyMcKitty - you are banned from this thread for calling your evening meal supper

Off you go and take Scunthorpe with you. And yes I do have the authority!

our trays perfectly allow for knife and fork eating and no mess, that's the whole point of the tray. We have a little kiddies table as well but both dc rather too large for it.

*I just can't imagine eating off a tray, how do you know how much to serve
*
What? 😂

I'm 32 weeks pregnant and sometimes I even ........ eat my meals from my bed!! 🤭🤭

[quote FredSoftly]@KittyMcKitty - you are banned from this thread for calling your evening meal supper

Off you go and take Scunthorpe with you. And yes I do have the authority![/quote]
What’s wrong with supper?

Although we have moved down south I have proper northern working class credentials (Barnsley) and grandfathers who worked down the pits! I suggest you read the standing orders I have every right to be here

You can ways tell in a restaurant which kids don't sit at the table at home. They either needs iPads to occupy them or they are on and off chairs, making noise and can't cope with the "boredom" of sitting and chatting. Children develop language and social skills by sitting at a distraction free table and learning to converse politely. They also learnt about social politeness like being excused from the table at the end of the meal.

Funny because ... my teenage daughter eats 90% of her meals on a tray on her lap, and not only is she fully capable to sitting in a chair at a restaurant without getting "on and off" it, she is equally capable to socially polite conversation and doesn't make random "noise" either. Who knew?! Honestly this thread has made my day with the judgmental bollocks 😂

@TakemedowntoPotatoCity

The phrase 'talk about the day' really riles me! I have found my people!

Add to that "family time" "family movie night" and "date night". They all make my teeth itch.

Add "make my teeth itch".

No sorry but I think dinner / evening meal should be eaten at the table, especially when eating as a family.
Dh and I do sometimes have a takeaway in front of the telly, when it's just the two of us.
But with our son we always eat at the table. That's what dining tables are for and it encourages good table manners and using cutlery correctly as well. Plus it's just a nice thing to do

I agree about 'talk about the day'. We talk about whatever comes into our heads while we're sitting at the table (same aa at any other time or wherever we are in the house). it's not a deliberate 'let's talk about our day' thing at all.

I talk about the food mostly!

I've always eaten at a table and having a lounge/diner means that I needn't miss out on the telly if mealtimes coincide. I'd probably spill things down my front otherwise.

You can ways tell in a restaurant which kids don't sit at the table at home. They either needs iPads to occupy them or they are on and off chairs, making noise and can't cope with the "boredom" of sitting and chatting. Children develop language and social skills by sitting at a distraction free table and learning to converse politely. They also learnt about social politeness like being excused from the table at the end of the meal

😂😂😂😂what a load of crap. Wonder how mine manage to converse politely? It weird that they all manage to hold down successful jobs which need a huge variety of social skills.

Why do you need permission to leave a table? Can’t you just go when everyone else has finished eating?

We have 4, 3 fully fledged adults and one teen. All polite, hardworking and socially engaged. Ds managed an interview with Corbyn and Nick Clegg amongst others, which was in the national press.

Wonder how he managed that? As obviously eating at a table is the only way to get ahead and be polite🙄

"You can ways tell in a restaurant which kids don't sit at the table at home. They either needs iPads to occupy them or they are on and off chairs, making noise and can't cope with the "boredom" of sitting and chatting. Children develop language and social skills by sitting at a distraction free table and learning to converse politely. They also learnt about social politeness like being excused from the table at the end of the meal."

Haha bullshit.

My DC sit great in restaurants. And a few times a week we're lap heathens.

Also - do you only talk to your kids whilst at a table?

And who’s been in a bloody restaurant anyway? They’ve been closed for 100 years round me!

@TwoLeftSocksWithHoles - thank you 😂 It's very rare that I get a proper laugh from MN these days! Marquis de Trày - I feel a name change coming on 😂

My mum (neither white nor middle class) would have died of horror QA if we'd eaten her carefully cooked meals while watching TV, growing up I only learnt about TV dinners from reading Matilda, none of our other (also immigrant family) friends ate on the sofa either.

We eat all our meals at the table, but they aren't all big formal affairs, we don't always use cutlery when we make traditional dishes, or force debate, I thought it was standard. How do you not make a huge mess of your sofas?

That said, our children still have terrible manners in public often, so it's not like we have it sorted!

*not sure what the QA was there...

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

To a fucking lunatic maybe!

@hatedbytheDailyMail

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

To a fucking lunatic maybe!

That one is still making me giggle 24 hours on.

Can we nominate an individual —batshit— post for classics?

Also - do you only talk to your kids whilst at a table?

According to some on this thread, yes! I was raised by a slovenly, common single mother. We had no room for a table in our little flat so always ate on the sofa. Funnily enough, never stopped us having a conversation and we're best mates now. Strange that ...

@LouJ85

I'm 32 weeks pregnant and sometimes I even ........ eat my meals from my bed!! 🤭🤭

You heathen!!

What’s wrong with supper? Although we have moved down south I have proper northern working class credentials (Barnsley) and grandfathers who worked down the pits!

Then you should know that supper is a piece of toast before bed. Now - OUT!