Reading at the dinner/breakfast/lunch table

[emkana]

Is it acceptable? Or totally antisocial?

I read the paper while having breakfast and lunch with my dd's, while still occasionally chatting to them etc.
No reading during family dinner.
At the weekend both me and dh read the papers during breakfast, again interspersed with talk to the girls etc.

Is is that shocking?

Sounds like me. Ds has started to ask for his Fimbles magazine while he has his sandwich.

Dd1 reads whilst eating her breakfast.

Breakfast IMO is legit, lunch a bit less so, but lunch always social meal for me in the past.

Purely a matter of what your parents did is OK, i'd imagine. My dad used to smoke at breakfast while I was eating. I'd rather it was reading.

We occasionally announce (to cheers) that it is going to be a "reading supper" (or whatever meal). But that means that everyone gets to read, ds and dd too. I think it's not quite right for some people to be reading and not others. (But how old are your girls, emk?)

This is a tradition borrowed from dh's (academic) family. My family did no books, no toys and Absolutely No Singing at the table.

I sometimes leaf through a magazine whilst eating, I know it's anti-social, but don't think it does any harm on an occasion.

I tend to eat more quickly than dd. So, sometimes I will read a story to her while she finishes her meal. I often find that both of us are simply too knackered at the end of the day to have a bedtime story, so mealtime reading is a sometime substitute.

We do no books and no toys at the table otherwise I would never hear a word from dh or dd. Meals (even if they are only dd, ds and me) are an important catch up time for us.

We do not have tv, books or toys at the table. We chat since it is the only time we are all sitting together. Can't bear the thought of greasy fingers and food stains on books either.

I love to read while I eat - I find I tend to eat more slowly too. But i resist the temptation to read in company.

Like earlybirds idea though!

Does anybody else want to admit to reading at the table? Feeling a bit now.

Oh yes, I did today - toddler lunch, I'd finished quick, toddler was playing with food - reading is the only thing that keeps me sane I don't read at evening meal though, but then we all chat (it's not just me and pre-verbal toddler)

Then again, I'd been viewing it as a bonus - I stay sane, keep on top of my reading pile AND am giving a good example to my children about reading for pleasure - please don't disillusion me

Oh yes, if you love reading, the idea of being banned from the table is just so scary! I do talk to ds while he's eating - and even dh sometimes, when I really have to - but I often have a book on the go during lunchtime or dinner.

Not every day, every meal though, before you all rush to condemn me.

It's no good... no matter how hard I try, I can't get my head around "reading = evil" whatever the context (in moderation of course, lol)

But then I have been known to walk and read at the same time too

It's got to be better morally than telly at the dinner table, hasn't it? Then again, did you know the popular novel when they first started were thought to be perverting young people's minds? (much how the television is demonised now, no doubt).

I remember my mother being really proud that I'd learned to read at a young age (so I wouldn't disturb her at night if I woke, apparently) but then spent the rest of my childhood yelling at me for reading under the bedclothes with a torch Oh, and kicking me outside to read so at least I got some fresh air. And having to battle with the library to give me an adult ticket so I could take home 8 books instead of 4 and I STILL managed to read them all in an afternoon and want to go back for new ones the next day

Hmm... I'm not being a good advert for the read at the table side, am I?

My parents imposed a no reading at the table rule but funnily enough, my Dad was allowed to read his paper. There was also a similar argument about having the radio on. Tea always seemed to be ready at 6.50pm on a Sunday, so we missed finding out what was number one each week, but my Dad was allowed to have his scottish country dance music BLARING while we were at the table

Due my first baby any day now, so don't know how it will pan out in our family, BUT I know that I won't make rules that myself or DH are going to break, and I think that one of these rules will be no reading at the table!!

MB

DP and I get panicked if we go out for dinner without papers or a book. We rarely end up reading them, esp. with DD there, but we don't like to be without reading matter, just in case we find each other boring.

I'm embarrassed now... I sometimes (ok, often) go on the computer during mealtimes . That is bad, I think, but I do enjoy it especially breakfast time and ds listens to a story tape. I am going to try not to make a rule not to do it at lunch time any more, and I never do it at dinner time when we all sit down as a family.

What is with the "no singing at table" rule? I never understood that one.

Oh, I read at breakfast sometimes, but the general household rule is, no reading at table. I like the idea of a reading meal, though.

If I read during meals I would forget to eat! I think that reading is much more antisocial than TV to be honest. It's not exactly sharable is it? But then I am a "sneak off and read in the bathroom" type of mum! Reading is only OK at breakfast - that's the way I was brought up, mostly because my parents are not morning people, and hid behind their respective papers.

I don't like the idea of reading during meal times, books would get dirty and the meal would take even longer. dd is the slowest eater I have ever met, so we also have no singing, and on occasion no talking either - "less talking more eating" is a common phrase in our household.

Eat up and then go read in a comfortable chair, I say! :0

I think reading the papers can be quite sociable, when you point out articles to each other and then have a discussion/bitch/rant/laugh about them.
Agree it's not the same with a book.

I read magazines at the breakfast table and do the crossword. And I sing Sound of Music songs too, so does dd.

Yes, NQC, I never really understood why we weren't allowed to sing .. but, looking back on it, there were four of us within five years and I think singing might have been one of those weather-type clues of impending mass mayhem. So if you outlawed the singing, the riot didn't happen. Maybe.