To not want to say tea instead of dinner

[Remembereveryonesayingwhatsupppp]

Grew up in the North west, child of the 80’s, teen of the 90’s
Working class dad, middle class mum, we grew up in a nice area. Mum always called ‘Dinners ready!’ Dad would call it tea, friends either called it dinner or tea, grandparents said dinner, then supper.
Anyway, as an adult and ever since, I just naturally say dinner, as in ‘What’s for dinner’ ‘Where are we going for dinner’
Ive no idea why, but when Dh says ‘What’s for tea?’ Or a friend will ask ‘Shall we take the kids out for tea?’ I just hate it 🤷🏻‍♀️Whyyyy 🤣🙈

Tea is early, up until around 5pm. Any later it become dinner.

Is a throw back to high tea.

I use both - dinner and tea for evening meal
And - lunch and dinner for midday meal

It's not an issue unless you are a snob.

Actually it annoys me too. Totally irrational, so I’m glad I’m not alone.

DH from London says it's dinner mid day because you had Dinner Ladies at school,I'm from West Sussex,it was the lunch time break at my school, afternoon or high tea,is sandwich, cake,tea,late afternoon,(after a big breakfast on Sunday) Dinner is evening, friends who have supper it's a lighter meal.

It’s breakfast, lunch, dinner. Any other eating is snacking. Tea is a drink one I don’t Actually like so people wouldn’t get far offering for me to come around for tea. A brew is a witches potion and supper? Is just a snack before bed.

It's good that most of those expressing hate and annoyance preface it with irrational' and recognise it to get do.

In Yorkshire, it was breakfast, dinner, tea and supper. Supper was usually around 9pm, because tea was about 5pm.

Now it’s breakfast (or not), lunch and dinner.

Fellow northerner!!!

1st meal is breakfast
2nd meal is dinner
3rd maelstrom is tea

And that's that 😅

That's interesting, over the years I've realised a lot of my slang is actually Irish (2nd gen immigrant living in an area with huge Irish ancestry) like dodie, banjaxed, hames and craic but have always said tea. Is it regional in Ireland too?

Haha OP I also find it confusing. Not from the U.K. though. We always used lunch and dinner. Also I go this date have no idea what is supper? When do u have that?

My kids always ask for tea and also pudding every time they eat they must have a pudding 😅

I'm from Manchester in the NW and most people here call it 'Breakfast, Dinner, Tea'. Sometimes call the midday meal lunch, especially if it's not a hot meal (I think)

One thing that I've always wondered about the South is what do you call school dinners, ie the midday meal that schools provide for children?

I’ve always said tea because at school they say lunchtime and dinner lady - which is even more confusing!!

So by saying tea - you know it’s the evening one.

Dinner could be lunch or tea.

I have found myself saying dinner more though because apparently tea is very common lol.

Given that dinner can happen at lunchtime or in the evening, and tea could be cake and tea at 4 pm or a full meal later, it's far simpler to call the evening meal supper.

Always lunch for me but I use tea and dinner interchangeably.

In my experience 'real' posh people don't care, it's the 'triers' that do 😉

To me, there is a difference in what I expect to be served based on what it's called.

Dinner is the main cooked meal of the day.

So I'd say breakfast, lunch, dinner if lunch was a sandwich and dinner was cooked.

Or I'd say breakfast, dinner, tea if the noon-time meal was Sunday roast and evening meal was salad.

Parents from the Midlands but I'm SE.

It's breakfast, lunch and supper here. Wonder what class that makes me lol.

YouGov research suggests that this is all dependent on the region you live in:
yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/articles-reports/2018/05/22/dinner-time-or-tea-time-it-depends-where-you-live

"Across England as a whole, the majority (57%) call it “dinner”, while just over a third (36%) opt for “tea”. The remainder either call it something else (including 5% who say “supper”) or answered “don’t know”.
However, despite dinner’s overall victory, the data shows there are clear geographical differences. Breaking down the results by county reveals a stark North/South divide, with “dinner” the winner in the South and “tea” being top in the North."

You can call it what you want but so can everyone else

Your title asks if you are being unreasonable to not want to say tea.
Who is asking you to?
Yanbu. Keep saying dinner if you want to.

I say dinner. My sister says tea. I can't remember what it was growing up so can't say which of us is the rebel 🤣

Southern here. Have breakfast, lunch and supper. If I have tea, it would be at 4pm with cake. However, children have school dinners, at lunchtime, and if I go out for a posh meal in the evening, I go out for dinner. Strange.

We are in Ireland. Because I work, we have our hot meal at 6pm after work Mon to Fri. We have our hot meal at 1pm at the weekends when we are off work.

Work colleagues always call the 1pm meal 'lunch' even if you are having hot food. They always call the 6pm meal 'dinner'.

I say dinner when I am talking about a hot meal. Dinner is in the evening on the weekdays. Dinner is at 1pm on Sat and Sun when we are off work. When I am in public (outside of my immediate family), I don't call the hot meal at 1pm at the weekends 'dinner'. I say 'lunch' instead.

I always say lunch if I am having a sandwich/small meal at work at 1pm. If we go out for a hot meal at work, I say 'hot lunch'.

I say 'tea' when I mean a sandwich/small meal at 6pm at the weekends. DH calls this 'supper' and my family think this is funny. I would think of supper as a very small meal e.g. tea and a bun before bed.

@Newrumpus 😂

I grew up in the NW so grew up with breakfast, dinner & tea. But I've lived in the South / overseas for many years now so use breakfast, lunch & dinner. (Never use supper, that's for posh people!)

I don't know what the problem is OP. When I'm in the NW and people say 'tea' I know what they mean and I may well use it myself when talking to NW friends/family e.g. "do you want to come round for your tea?" If I'm talking to non-NW folk, I'll say "do you want to come for dinner?". It's not rocket science. Use whatever you prefer but be aware that others will do the same. It's like getting upset that someone says Nan whereas you say Grandma and you think everyone should be the same as you. It really doesn't matter.

We say dinner for the evening hot meal, always have (although had school dinners as a child) but I have no problem at all with a Yorkshire friend calling her evening meal tea.

As younger children siblings and I had tea straight after school - bread and butter, jam, home made cake, etc,, but as we got older it was replaced by ‘adult’ dinner. I’d still need a piece or toast or something straight after school, though.

We say dinner or supper, depending on the time, however I've fallen into the habit of saying tea for the DC (when they eat early with friends, for example), as absolutely everyone around us does (southerners moved north).

When I worked briefly in the Midlands, people would ask me to join them for dinner - it genuinely led to a couple of confused conversations, as they were referring to lunch!