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?

We eat at the table because it’s better for your digestion to sit upright. If it was sandwiches, I probably wouldn’t eat at the table, but for a cooked meal, certainly.

Takethe your post was unnecessary, stupid and bigoted.

We always eat our meals at the kitchen table

Not for any reason than that’s what my normal is

We sleep in the bed

Watch TV on the sofa

Maybe we need to mix things up: watch TV in the bed, eat dinner on the sofa, and then have sex on the kitchen table! (Woke, left wing sex, obviously)

I prefer to eat cross-legged on the floor with my kids. But I also prefer to sit on the floor.
Either way, I've never enjoyed eating at a dining table.

BrideofBideford, Woke, left wing sex, obviously

🤣🤣

@Foxyloxy1plus1

We eat at the table because it’s better for your digestion to sit upright. If it was sandwiches, I probably wouldn’t eat at the table, but for a cooked meal, certainly.

Takethe your post was unnecessary, stupid and bigoted.

Why is it better for your digestion to sit upright? Surely if you’re going down that theory it would be better to stand up!

We do both 3-4 meals at table each week. Every other day we eat with lap trays. Usually of good like a pizza or something less messy. Meals with gravy are definitely table only meals. We still chat about day wherever we eat.

@mrsm43s

I hate eating off my lap. Nothing to do with privilege (seriously!) , everything to do with finding it uncomfortable, and ending up giving myself heartburn/trapped wind/tummy ache. It is also nice to all sit around the table together and chat. And its nice to be able to serve up at the table and have access to the salad/veg/potatoes/bread/butter/condiments etc that i want without having to go into another room. We have a jug of water (sometimes wine) on the table too, so we can drink as we eat and refill as we desire.

TBH, even if its just me eating alone, I sit at the table to eat.

Same. We have most meals at the table. Sometimes on a Saturday night, we'll do pizza in front of the telly as DS likes it but I find it a massive faff. I normally put the pizzas, sides etc on the dining table anyway, then everyone is up and down getting seconds. I'd much rather just sit at the table and eat - much more comfortable and convenient, and saves the living room getting covered in crumbs.

@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.

Not to derail the thread, but are you non-White @TakeTheCuntOutOfScunthorpe ?

Because suggesting eating at a dinner table is absolutely not just the preserve of White people (and as PP have said, no one is implying that it is inferior to, say, Asian or Middle Eastern styles of eating together sat on the floor). Please, take it from a non-White person, I beg.

Eating a TV dinner off your lap, where you are all pointed at a TV and the meal/company is incidental, instead of focussing on the meal and each other is a different matter.

It must be exhausting to make everything so 'woke'...

I grew up eating on a bean bag watching tele (about 1m from a perfectly good table). Definitely ate Christmas dinner at the table but unsure about Sunday dinner. We eat at the table as my kids table manners are bad enough! Not because I’m white though, we are fairly left wing. Privileged-probably, yes. I allow pizza on a blanket sometimes but as a pp I can’t afford new carpets or sofa so food stays in the kitchen.

I think the point is that you do what suits you and your family best. There's no right or wrong way.

I'm presuming that none of the people eating from lap trays have dogs? My greedy puppy would be even more of a nightmare if our food was within his reach. He has finally learned. that however much he begs at the table, he's not getting any more food but I can't imagine trying to eat from a tray near him.

@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.

Good God re. the final sentence!

Yes always eat a meal at the table - got absolutely nothing to do with how I vote (most def not right wing) or about the colour of my skin...

@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.

What the absolute FUCK are you talking about???

We probably eat at the table for half the week, and the other half in front of the TV. It just depends on the food being served. Tonight is a table dinner.

No problems with table manners, DC are aged 17 and 20 and the TV dinners get served in the larger pasta bowls you can get, minimises spillage, etc. I just hold my bowl up at chest level.

We do have lively conversations wherever we eat, we can talk about our day, it really makes no difference whether we're at the table or in front of the tv. Being in front of the tv doesn't mean we're mindlessly watching tv without interacting with anyone else.

When we lived with the DC's dad, my ex, he did insist on meals at the table, and he also insisted on the DC talking about things, instead of letting conversation flow naturally. Definitely more relaxed now he's not around, and our conversations can cover wide ranging topics. The DC were even discussing mythology and gods last week, inspired by something they'd recently seen.

We used to eat sitting on the settee with a tray on our laps but it caused stomach problems because we were slouching whilst eating. We eat upright at the kitchen table now and don't have a problem.

We don't talk about our day whilst eating but watch the cat tilting his head when sitting on the windowsill watching every mouthful my DP eats waiting for a treat after we have finished. He doesn't sit there when it's vegetarian though.

We eat every single meal at the table. It would never cross my mind to eat a meal whilst sitting on the sofa.

I just cannot imagine sitting cross legged on the floor eating, unless it's crisps and a sandwich.
I like a lot of gravy/sauce on my food, I'd have it spattered all down me!

TV and table in the kitchen. Problem solved!

There's no logical reason to not sit at the table in our house. We have a good table in the kitchen so why carry food off to the lounge where it's harder to eat, and messier to clean up. Plus DS has dyspraxia and there is a lot of splatted and dropped food around his area.

In our previous house, pre-DCs, the dining room was off the lounge so as a couple, we tended to eat off our knees. I need a paded lap tray for a surface. Eating with one hand and balancing off the other is hard going.

We take a table and bench set camping because it makes it much easier for the DCs.

Yes, you are, but if it works for you...

I'm not fussed. Sometimes we sit round the table, sometimes we eat on the sofa. Sometimes we all eat together, sometimes we don't. There are no strict rules about it in our house. Growing up I had must-sit-at-table-for-every-meal parents and it's not what I wanted when I had my own house.

@Ohnomoreno

Yes, you are, but if it works for you...

Why is she?

I grew up with lovely sensible parents who ate every meal at the table and thought it was the height of vulgarity to eat in front of the telly - they’d both lived in europe as young adults and had absorbed the habits. This also meant i ate a wide variety of foods from a young age.
Despite having no especially negative memories of family meals like this, I now never eat that kind of ‘everyone sit down and talk about your day’ dinner at the table unless forced to do so i just hate it! it feels artificial to me.

I scrolled through this thread just hoping @TakeTheCuntOutOfScunthorpe would explain her comment because it made me laugh so much 😂 I hope it’s a joke

The only thing we eat in front of the telly is movie night when we have a pizza,once in blue moon.I always put 'movie blanket' on the floor to keep the mess to a minimum and it's just easier to seat to.
I can't imagine having a meal anywhere else than a table when at home.
How do you deal with the mess when something drops,spills, etc?
Unless you are really short with furnishings because you just moved or not able to have a table and chairs, then it's just slobbish.