Is it anal not to allow your children to eat anything at all in the living room?

[emkana]

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ds's have dry snacks in the living room - they'll usually have a small bowl of dry cheerios or special K mid-afternoon when they're chilling out in front of the telly at the weekend. Other than that it's meals in the dining room!

Anyone can eat anywhere in my house, maybe I am a slob!!!

No it isn't. Especially considering DH's DD is very clumsy. We do let her have takeout with us in there, but invariably she spills something on the persian rug, and then puts her greasy mitts all over the non-leather furniture, argh.

we have a "only eat in the kitchen" rule in our house. This gets ignored sometimes- but it's not meant to . They do sometimes have snacks in their playroom - which is a room next to the kitchen, but are meant to say out of the sitting room with food. I don't think it is anal.

Er, according to me it is, but then I suspect my standards are somewhat lower than those of the average Mumsnetter.

Anyone can eat anywhere which is quite apparent given the state of the house, but I'm quite happy with it and would not criticise anyone else for a different decision - quite understandable if your standards are higher than mine ( not difficult). We do all eat our dinners round the table, though, so really talking about snacks and breakfast/sometimes weekend lunch.

anyone eats anywhere here aswell, although meals are eaten at the table in the kitchen, snacks, toast etc can be eaten wherever - and the dog hoovers up the crumbs I suspect I will regret this (or get another dog quickly) when she dies

I started the rule of only eating in the kitchen when they were small, it makes sense because they easily spill liquids and drop crumbs everywhere. We only eat meals at a table and they shouldn't be constantly snacking anyway, at any age.

We try to have a rule of no messy/wet foods in the living room. It's not very strictly enforced though, especially by dh who seems to be unable to take in parenting rules of any kind.

Interesting I follow this for the kids rule though I do allow kiddies to have fruit in living room since I find that they ike munching it mindlessly in front of tv. plus dh and I eat whatever we like there but then we are grown upos and make less mess plus clear up better. I also dislike toys anywhere near dining table - hate crumbs and grease marks on stuff. I also intensely dislike dh's habit of going to the loo and then washing his hands in loo and then drying them on teatowel in next door kitchen - if I have not got round to replacing towel downstairs loo or kids have nicked it for play. Yuck. Keep mess in its own room I say.

He washes his hand in the loo
I draw the line at that

well we've only got one room downstairs, plus a tiny kitchen with no room for a table, so no rule.

DS has never taken food upstairs so haven't even thought of having a rule against that...we do have breakfast in bed sometimes though, and of course cups of tea and hot chocolate mmmmmmm

it is anal to allow no food whatsoever in the living room - we always eat our main meal in the dining room, but snacks, sarnies, biscuits can enter the lounge!

Tip for cleaning cream leather sofa - a weak solution of warm water and baby shampoo.

I try to keep food out of the sitting room because it's actually on a different floor to the kitchen, so I don't have a dustpan and brush handy. And it's a faff taking stuff up there and bringing it down again. Adults can be trusted not to make too many crumbs and to clear them up if they do - not so ds. I don't always manage it though - I have to hoover the depths of the sofa cushions every so often to dig out all the detritus. V. embarrassing if we have guests as it's a sofabed...

I decided at the age of about 9 that when i had my own house i wouldn't have any rules about where to eat. My mum was so anal about tidiness it was oppressive. Consequently, we eat wherever we feel like eating. Like a previous poster we have leather furniture and wooden floors but to be honest there is never that much mess.

Considering we have an open plan living/dining room with not much distinction between the two it would be pretty hard to enforce a rule like this.

Our kids are not allowed to sit on the sofas to eat and we keep drinks in the kitchen as we have a cream leather suite and oiled wood floors which tend to stain easily.
Cooked meals are usually eaten at the table.

People who let their children wander through the house with a biscuit or a banana or whatever are absolutely nutso - it just makes massive amounts of work. What is wrong with sitting at the table? Our kitchen is very lovely and there is nothing remotely anal about making children sit at the table to eat. We always eat together in any case but if you eat sitting on the sofa in front of the TV then you can't expect your children to want to do anything differently. My es is 15 and I have the same sofas as I had when he was a baby - they hav lasted because I don't allow my 4 children to jump on them or eat on them. But they are definitely allowed to sit on them!

Totally anal. That's what hoovers and washing machines are for.

I can't stand it when I go to someone's house and their living room is pristine (and usually stinking of pine air freshener) - so soul-less.

I don't think teaching children to look after things is anal at all. Seeing children treating their homes badly is up there with mis-treating books in my pet-hate list.
I hope when my children have children of their own they will pass this message on - as it makes life more pleasant for everyone.

Message withdrawn

My kids have to stand in the garage to eat and then sweep up after themselves.

(My great uncle worked on a mushroom farm and my mad aunt would make him strip completely naked in the porch before coming into the house,shouting to their spinster daughter to avert her eyes. Funny,one doesn't think of mushrooms as being that dirty eh?)

I make mine eat in the garden.

No, ours just eat at the table (open-plan dining and living room)

Is that anal?

DD (and any visiting pals) eat in kitchen or dining room. Only certain foods allowed in front of telly are dry - popcorn, digestives, apple, grapes, etc. Drippy/sticky/melty/oily foods stay in kitchen.

I got new carpets and new furniture a few years back, and I don't want things stained/ruined.