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.

frannyf at you on the computer. PMSL...
yes I sometimes browse through the paper at lunch with dd, bad/long-established habit but I can and do in fact keep up a conversation with her at the same time. I get bored unless I have something to read at the same time I'm afraid.
also LOL at Binkie. there were five of us (four v close together) and meal times especially were often an exercise in crowd control asmuch as anything else. when we get together for mealtimes as an extended family, dh looks like a rabbit in the headlights. he describes it as trying to eat on the deck of a crowded ship in the middle of a very fierce storm. singing would certainly be a sing of impending doom.

We have a no singing rule at our house because it ends up with DD getting giddy and throwing her food around and DS taking longer than ever. Also no singing in pubs/cafes/restaurants. We have a weekly paper that DH and I will look at. Other than that we do not read at the table.

I would probably be the one who would be most likely to do that TBH. I remember as a child doing some of the things that Georgina lists such as reading while walking. Also remember trying to sneakily read my book under the table without being caught. And on the very rare occasions when I am alone at a mealtime I would always read or Mumsnet. Mumsnet also while eating at work.

buffyhc, your poor dh. Mine's one of four too so is not phased by us all - actually it's me who flounders - his family, with their academic training and their Opinions - it's like eating through a meltdown at air traffic control.

Thank Goodness for Reading Suppers.

Yes, yes, hc, snigger all you like. Even we perfect control freak parents have our dark side. [tongue sticking out emoticon]