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?

The table is in the kitchen, and the sitting room is downstairs (upside down house). Ergo, it is easier to eat at the kitchen table than sitting on the sofa. And it avoids spilling food down the stairs.

We eat together at the dining table, always have.
It's good to get together and chat about the day.
Good for teens too, they aren't all moody and uncommunicative.

We never sit at the table except at Christmas. My mother used to always insist we sit at the table and I hated it so have never insisted we do it. We usually eat at different times to the kids anyway so eat in front of the tv.

Growing up we ate at the table every meal.
With my DC, I think we ate at the dining room table about 70% of the time.

It's just me now, so I just eat wherever. Dining room, in front of tv, in bed, balcony, outdoors, desk.

No criticism but I don't get at how eating at a table can feel artificial?! I think if we had the tv on at dinner time I would probably never hear from ds16 again - dinnertime is about the only time he gets chatty!

@3JsMa

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.

Fetch a cloth. Or don’t drop things. Or don’t eat tricky food in front of the telly.

I wouldn’t put a 3 year old with a bowl of baked beans on a cream sofa. But as an adult, I’m quite capable of eating anywhere without making a mess.

Sometimes we do, sometimes we don’t. I feel uncomfortable at a table for some reason. Not enough wriggle room or something.

I ate mine off a cushion balanced on the arm of the sofa the other day. That’s probably my favourite position. Dh remarked he’d never seen anyone eat off the arm if a chair before.

I hate sitting straight, l think that’s the reason. I’m sat on the sofa now with one leg curled on the other on the seat.

I just find it really uncomfortable to eat in front of the tv - and I can never concentrate on either the tv or my meal .

Very, very occasionally if I was eating in my own I might have something like pizza or 'easy to eat' food in front of the tv but I would nearly always sit at the table. I honestly can't recall ever eating in front of the tv as a family. It's not so much 'sitting together and chatting about our day' (certainly over the last year there is absolutely nothing to chat about ) but I just couldn't bear the mess and faff of carrying food into the living room to eat in front of the tv. Our table is in the kitchen, just so much easier to serve up and eat at the table.

We do have a dining room but that is really only used if we have guests or on Christmas Day I guess that makes me very right wing and privileged .

I eat at the table and chat in front of the TV.

Surely the truly woke don’t do anything as conformist as eating. They are fuelled by righteous indignation not carbs.

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

😂 😂 😂

This place

I hate eating at a table, much prefer the comfy sofa and tv. Even if i wanted to it's my home office now so trays it is 😁

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

It's funny you should say that, but I thought I was getting too unwoke and right-wing white, so made the dining room into a snug.

I don't feel so privileged now.

@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.

eh?

@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.

How the fuck do you work that one out?

I think TakeTheCuntOutOfScunthorpe's post is officially the most quoted post ever.

And still I don't tire of laughing at it 😂😂

@FredSoftly

I know it's a lot to do with luck but my child is not a fussy eater at all and I think a lot of that is due to home cooked meals eaten together with no distraction and us rolemodelling

Ah bless you with your home cooked meals and role modelling

Why sarcastic response?

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

Total and utter bullshit.

I don't have a preference. Sometimes I eat at the table, sometimes at my computer desk and sometimes a tray on the sofa, depending on what I'm doing/what I'm eating.

YANBU at all, we eat at the table depending on what we’re having but for the majority of it we eat in the living room with trays/laps (though the kids need to sit on the floor, I daily regret the choice of a fabric sofa).

But right now I really really want to know why a pp thinks “unwoke” is a real word. Do they mean “asleep”? Only time I’ve heard “woke” is when someone’s describing the youth of today taking the trans movement way too seriously.

Can you not eat at a table if you are Black or any other BAME race then?
Very rich people in this country are the privilaged whatever their skin colour. Many of our ministers for a start.

Can you not eat at a table if you are Black or any other BAME race then?

Well, if tables are the bastion of the woke, as well as the white, I suppose I'm not allowed there either because I do not think transwomen are women, and if someone attempts to designate me as a cis woman over a meal, I will definitely stick a fork in their hand, whether we're sitting at the table or on a sofa.

I prefer sitting around a table chatting unless it's a film night where we have homemade pizza on a tray.

Chatting at table is very hard during lockdown, though, as we have nothing to tell each other. In our house most dinner timers revert pretty quickly to talking absolute nonsense or doing some online quiz. If everyone wanted to eat in front of the TV instead, I'd be happy to do that more often - at least we'd all be watching the same programme and be able to discuss it afterwards.

We don’t have a table so it has to be eaten on a tray/lap.

@TakeTheCuntOutOfScunthorpe come baaaaaacckkkk I need answers!!!!

I know it's a lot to do with luck but my child is not a fussy eater at all and I think a lot of that is due to home cooked meals eaten together with no distraction and us rolemodelling

It's luck. I have one child who will eat just about anything, one who was so self restricted we had to work with a psychologist when he was young, and one who is slap bang between the two. I'm sure your home cooked meals are lovely, that eating them together without distraction is great fun and that your role modelling is a pinnacle of parenting, though.