How often do you eat at the dinner table?

[mosiacmaker]

How often do you eat at the dinner table vs on the sofa for “tv dinner”, and do you have kids?

My DP and I have no kids and we eat on couch in front of TV a lot and I am starting to dislike it. It feels lazy and boring and like a bad habit.

When we went to visit his parents I realised they eat all meals on the couch with the tv constantly on and I see where he gets it from (and was slightly horrified as this would never happen in my family!).

I would hate this to be our family norm in the future so I am trying to break the cycle now and get us into the habit of sitting at dining table to eat dinner. Maybe have a Friday night “tv dinner” but have this be intentional and a fun treat rather than the default.

But I am curious about what other people do and whether I am being needlessly old school on this?

Would you say you have the majority of meals at dining table/kitchen island/couch? Where do you eat breakfast?

Did this change when you had kids?

Where did your own family eat when growing up and is this reflected in what you do?

As a kid, we ate all meals in the living room off our laps. We didn't even have a dining table.

My kids eat every meal at the table - this wasn't actually intentional, they just like order, and find it easier to eat at a table. I have to actually persuade them to eat somewhere else eg. for movie night, or if DS1 is playing a computer game and it's lunch time at a weekend and I'm fine with him concentrating on it - he would get up, lose his place, and come and eat downstairs without even worrying (which conversely, is why I'm OK with him eating at his desk sometimes).

They also both eat cake (etc.) with a fork as they don't like getting dirty hands.

We used to sit at the table all the time but as kids get older, we may have "lap food" if there is football on or we want to start a film. That would always be easy to eat food like pizza, chicken burgers etc.

Eat at table 80% of the time

We eat every meal at home at our dining table. I've never eaten a meal on the sofa. I personally wouldn't like it but wouldn't judge others for doing it.

At the kitchen table most days, formal dining table only about once a fortnight. We don’t have a tv in either room. I don’t think ever on the sofa

All meals are eaten at the dining table here. The table's down the other end of the living room anyway.

All meals at the dinner table here except for Mondays- husbands lie in day and Tuesdays-my lie in day. We take each other up breakfast in bed.
I’m in bed watching a 90s sitcom, eating a Chelsea bun, having a vanilla coffee while he’s on the school run.
Tomorrow I’ll be back to my usual overnight oats and a pint of water at the table with the kids 😫😫

When the DC were at home, we ate all meals in the dining room, where there was no tv. It meant lots of good conversation and informal education took place, and I could hear about their day at school, tell them about my day at work, etc.

When we eat with the kids, all meals are eaten on the dining table, in the dining room. I don't want them dropping food all over the sofa in the front room.
When DH and I eat later than the kids, we will usually eat off our laps in front of the TV in the front room.
As a child most of our meals were eaten on a small table in front of the TV, we used to have our tea when we got in from school. Apart from on Sundays when we ate a roast dinner all together at the big table. We only had one downstairs room apart from the kitchen, so the dining table was at one end and the sofas, small table and TV at the other.

If we are eating with DD6, then we always eat at the table. She eats breakfast at the table too (I don’t have breakfast).

If DH and I are eating alone, which is rare, we will eat on the sofa. TBH I find it much harder to eat on the sofa and usually end up spilling food on my chest.

Always eat at the table both pre and post kids. Parents always ate at the table too, albeit a small table in the kitchen not the main dining table. As a teen I'd eat in my bedroom watching Neighbours though 😂

All meals at the table everyday even breakfast and snacks, I’ve got a very messy nice year old and five year old though who seem to miss their mouths a lot.

At the table for dinners, occasionally we let them eat in front of the TV if we're having a movie night and takeaway but usually all round the kitchen table.
They enjoy taking it in turns to tell us about their day.
Eldest is on the spectrum and hates the sound of others eating so I let him eat in his room as it's where he feels most comfortable. He does join us at Christmas or sometimes if he wants to talk about his day

The rule is no food on the sofa, which is occasionally broken when we're having a movie night on Fridays. Otherwise every meal is eaten at the dining table or on the table/ picnic blanket in the garden.

I've also recently broken the habit of the kids watching TV from the dining table while eating dinner - it took some icebreaker conversation prompts and table games for this to become the norm though as we weren't used to having the TV off. Now dinner time is much more fun and the kids love knowing that there's that time once a day where everyone is home together to chat.

Every single meal at the table in the kitchen.

Meals with guests or special occasions (or date night) at the dining table.

All meals eaten at the table, we both feel uncomfortable sitting on sofa to eat! As a child we rarely sat at the table to eat, like it was cleared for special occasions (mum worked from home so used for that) so when I got my own house I made sure I always had a table, even a gate leg one in places that were too small. My kids have never known any different and it’s just what we do.

Wow thank you for the responses everyone! Meals at table is the resounding majority and has definitely inspired me to nip this bad couch meal habit in the bud well and truly!

Aw I love this though - what a nice way to treat each other!

99.9% of our meals at table, no TV. No kids either. It's what my family have always done. Tbh, we spend more time sitting at the table with cuppas, than we do in the living room. It's our most used space, very sociable.

We eat all meals, apart from Sunday dinner, on the sofa in front of the tv, but this thread has made me think! I thought most people did the same but perhaps not.

We do have one DC who eats at the table but we never eat at the same time. DH and I don't eat breakfast and we have dinner after he's gone to bed.

Each to their own, of course, but it does seem to me that balancing a wobbly plate of spaghetti on your lap would be much, much more difficult than simply sitting at a table!

Just out of interest, what do you do when other people come around to eat? Are they expected to balance a plate of food while sitting on the sofa too?

Thank you! We have three kids (6, 4 and 1), and we own and run a business, so we really try to make sure we both get a full morning a week to ourselves.

Always on the sofa I hate eating at tables. Kids 6/9 at the kitchen table but not always.

Always at kitchen table, unless I'm trapped under a cat on sofa, in which case obviously the cat must not be disturbed. Don't normally have breakfast, but if I did it would be at table. Mostly sat at table growing up - dinner on sofa was a massive Friday night treat after swimming.

Please bear in mind that you will get a biased response on here made up of people who will have seen the thread as a klaxon for virtue-signalling.

My advice would be to chill out and mix and match. If you go on to have kids you'll gravitate more towards a table anyway because of the mess and the benefit for family conversation.

But it's needlessly self-flagellating to equate "eating in front of the TV" with "mindlessly shovelling in junk food while gawping at bad reality shows"

It's perfectly possible to eat good quality, well-cooked organic sustainable food in front of a thought-provoking documentary.

Honestly, DH and I end up having more to talk about because of things we watch on TV together, I'd rather not waste TV time chatting more at the table about our boring days when we've already had that chat. And we still sit up straight and use cutlery.

@ChocChipHandbag

It's perfectly possible to eat good quality, well-cooked organic sustainable food in front of a thought-provoking documentary.

What about borderline junk food and Channel 4 News? Must I stop during the ads? Are Twiglets OK?