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?

@RoxyMuzak as long as it's not Monster Munch and Naked Attraction you'll be grand 😀

We eat every meal at the dinner table.

Basically always. I hate eating without being sat at a table now, it's messy and doesn't feel comfortable.

3 times a day.

All meals are at the kitchen table here, with veg serving dishes as appropriate. I just put the 'main' dish on the plates and plonk them on the table.
Having said that, we have a telly in the kitchen and it's always on. Over dinner we have a quiz show on and I've found that attracts the mishog teens as they love to show off their superior knowledge (and it often triggers quite useful discussions).

We always have our evening meal at the dinner table unless we're eating out and it's a family meal, with everyone together at the same time.

We mostly have our lunch at the dinner table to when we're at home, i.e. weekends, holidays, etc.

We never take food into our lounge, except for snacks like fruit or crisps.

Makes a massive difference to family dynamics, communication, etc. Even if we're doing other things, like watching our ipads, or watching TV, the mere fact we're all in one place, doing the same thing, just for half an hour a day, really opens up lines of communication, gives us a window of opportunity to talk through things, makes plans, etc.

Always,.

We eat in front of the TV. DH gets in really late and it's eat/TV and bed. Otherwise they'd be no proper downtime. Plus I like eating while watching the TV and I find it more comfortable.

TBF I always did this growing up too whereas my DH's family is definitely an eat at the table family. I've converted him to my dark ways 😳

For those saying they can't eat with a plate perched on your knee, just get a tray!

On reflection I also think this has become our go to partly because in our last place we didn't have a dining room or a kitchen big enough for a table. So sofa with trays was the only practical option.

I also like it so don't have any reason to change it now we do have a dining room.

If it involves cutlery then it's a table meal. If it's hot it's probably a table meal (toast notwithstanding). That's probably 95%of main meals.

Sometimes we have a carpet picnic if it's pizza or similar.

We eat at the dinner table every night with our almost 2 year old, apart from on Friday's when we have a 'TV dinner' all together and pop on a kids movie for half an hour or something. He's a night owl though and doesn't go to bed until 9-9.30pm, so this means we can eat around 6.30-7pm which suits all of us x

I eat breakfast and lunch at the dining table, which is the only table in our open plan downstairs. Dinner for me and teen is on trays in front of the tv.
When younger they were fed at the table, I think the change comes at secondary when schedules start being different with after school activities, so one child might have to eat early if they have practise at 6pm, or later if they have a straight after school activity.
I tried to do the Sunday lunch always at the table, but after my husband died I no longer had enthusiasm for it (he cooked it).
Even watching tv we still chat though.

P.s I should add that before he was born, we ate on the sofa in front of the TV every night!

We mostly sit at the table together, maybe sit on the sofa to eat once or twice a week.

One of the reasons we moved house was so we could eat at the table (it wasn't really feasible in the old house - the kids could eat at the breakfast bar when little but no room for adults) and we do so every evening now and its great. I do eat in the living room if its just me at home and I want to watch the telly, but now we have the option, the kitchen table is preferred.
Before kids - well I can't really remember if I'm honest but probably more sofa food...

We eat breakfast & dinner at the table every day. There’s 6 of us, so we leave at different times in the morning so are not necessarily together, but in the evening we are. At the weekends we’ll eat lunch at the table or in the garden if the weathers nice.

We didn’t do this growing up, and it was the one thing I wanted to implement when I had a family of my own.

No way would I let my DD eat on the sofa. Imagining it would look like a nursery where 30 toddlers had had a spag bol food fight.

All meals at table here to protect my stress levels!

God this thread is shaming me!

We have a huge dining table and have eaten at it once.

Usually eat on the sofa with the littlest children in high chairs beside us.

Maybe time for a change!!

No kids. DH and I eat at the table.

I didn't used to, I used to eat in front of the TV as I had always done alone. But DP perferred to eat at the table and we started doing that.

Now I still eat at the table when DH is away. I do prefer it now.

The dinner table is the time when our teens properly talk - it's invaluable to us...they were having none of that having chats in the car nonsense that gets frequently recommended - they felt ambushed.

Pre-children we ate at our computers.

Post-children all meals together at the table, no exceptions.

All meals at the the table. No screens allowed.

As children we had majority of meals at the kitchen table. The only exception was on takeaway nights, we might have fish and chips around the coffee table in the lounge room.

I've carried this over into my family. Meals are always at the table. No TV viewable from the dining room. We chat and play games such as eye spy or "guess what number/animal I'm thinking of". I like the opportunity for us to come together and connect each day.

We have always eaten at the table, especially given messy kids.

As a child? on Sunday's I think, or special occasions

Now, never - as we don't have room for a table