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 🤣🙈

I always said tea growing up, then moved abroad and had to switch to dinner because calling it dinner confused people, and now when occasionally tea slips out instead of dinner my daughter gets annoyed and says its not called tea, its dinner!

Argh "calling it tea confused people" not dinner

The key word there is Afternoon. How do you order? Just ask for tea and hope for cake too 😂

Well I certainly wouldn’t ask for ‘afternoon for two’.

But then what would you call the snack that you have before you go to bed?

I used to say dinner or tea but tend to stick to tea now. Mainly because I got annoyed by the "tea is a drink" people so decided to annoy them back 🙄

Midday meal is and always has been dinner. Lunch sounds weird to me, I don't know why.

To me, dinner is hot food, and tea is stuff like sandwiches and cake. So I might offer tea to a playdate guest who’s still here at 4.30, but I wouldn’t say “what’s for tea” to talk about the evening meal…

Breakfast, dinner, tea.

Supper is just a small snack (tea and toast for example) before bed.

Now I'm retired I have my main meal at midday - mainly on health grounds. I don't like a heavy meal in the evenings. Evening meal is usually a boiled egg or very small non carb salad. It would be silly calling that 'dinner'. My main meal is at lunch time and is called lunch is it's relatively light or dinner if it's heavier.

In Ireland we grew up having breakfast, dinner and supper (my friends though had breakfast, dinner and tea).

These days we have breakfast, lunch and dinner. Main meal (dinner) always in the evening as no one is usually home at lunch time.

You know what DH or friends mean, they know what you mean.

Just call it what you want, and let them call it what they want.

I say lunch and dinner. DH says dinner and tea. Oddly the DC change what they say depending on which of us they are speaking to. If we are both in the conversation they use my way so I suspect that is their default. They also change the pronunciation of their words depending on who is asking. "h-air" to me and "hurrr" to DH.

Google how to make a cup of tea

It's a brew

My mum has been a dinner last her whole life. She's never served up a kids evening meal for them.....

*lady

100 % agree op. I hate 'tea'. It's Dinner, Dinner, Dinner. Dinner!😆

I say breakfast, lunch, tea. NW.

As someone who wasn't born on the UK, I find it weird to call a meal "tea".
Tea is a drink!

YANBU - I hate calling dinner/supper ‘tea’.

Breakfast, lunch and supper here.

Batman!

Ahhhhh aren’t you cool and different.

There’s no such thing as dinner at lunchtime 😒

Tea for me (North East) dinner for partner (Midlands) I feel like an imposter saying dinner, goes against my very nature😄

How confusing this must be for people learning English. Unless eg the French also have a load of regional variations on dejeuner and diner.

I use both tea (Midlands heritage) and dinner (middle class) and haven't thought deeply about it!