Is it ok for a seven year old to eat in bed?

[SierraNose]

Question in title. She eats sitting up.

No, the table is where we eat.

Me and my Secondary school aged DC have breakfast in bed sometimes at the weekend or on birthdays. We wouldn’t have any other meal in bed but possibly a snack.

Lovely as a treat or if ill but not something I'd do everyday. Total hyperbole to suggest it's 'gross' though.

Thanks all. Context-We do have a dining table. DW insists on eating in bed in front of the only TV in the house which is also (at her insistence) placed in the bedroom (both practices she grew up with) and DD also does same. For the most part I've made my peace with it (and in fairness, I join in) but it's something that does annoy me a lot. Is there any evidence as to upsides/downsides?

For context we share the cleaning (though I think I do most). Kid and myself do spill a lot and I do personally find it gross to sleep on such a bed.

Are you all eating every meal in bed together?

based on the update for me it would be a no. Outside of the bed hygiene which is a problem, meal times should be about coming together as a family, talking, enjoying food, and (for little ones) learning table manners and how to eat properly - none of that can happen sitting on a bed in front of a screen distracted from your senses. I do it with a dominoes on the sofa occasionally and just scarf it down, not eat 'mindfully' (for want of a better word).

That being said, your wife has an opposing opinion and it seems like she has for a long time, I wonder if it's something that should have been brought up earlier when you were becoming parents or developing your relationship, I'm not sure I could have stuck with DH if he always went to bed to eat? It's something I would want to put my foot down on, but hard to make a kid comply with eating nicely at the table when they see mummy eat in front of TV if thats what they would rather do too.

Like the grandparents from Charlie and the chocolate factory?

how odd

If ill, sure. Breakfast treat in bed once in a while...sure.
Otherwise .no

Wtf??
No!! This is utterly weird!!!!

After your update, I think it's horrible that the children eat in bed in front of the TV. Why did you ever start that?

God that's a little odd....!? Meals at dinner table. Or at a push on sofa. But in bed?! No!
Absolutely no food or drink upstairs here, barring a glass of water if wanted overnight.

No, and I'd say a hard ewwww to DW eating in bed too. Her family of origin gave her some poor habits imo.

The exception is convalescent food and if someone was well enough to eat they might be well enough to come and sit on the couch and eat at a table.

Can you get a second TV?

Where does she expect to eat if you eat at a friend's house?
Does she not get out much, or notice much about the homes she sees on TV, YouTube, etc? Most people do not live as she does.

What?! Gross!

You all eat in the bed you sleep in for every dinner?

No that's horrendous.

And I actually mean more from the bed germs while you're eating perspective than the food mess in bed perspective. Which is also disgusting.

And let me add - very embarrassingly rarely eat dinner at the table. We're a plates on laps in front of the telly family.

But kids have TV tables and have knife and fork lunches at work every day.

In bed as a family though?! Gross and not normal in the slightest.

This is beyond weird. So you make food, carry it upstairs and eat it in bed? Then carry everything downstairs I guess? Or do you keep pepper in the bedside table and rinse your plates in the shower?

No eating all your meals in bed as routine is not ok, and it's unhygienic.

I think that is extremely odd.

From your OP I was going to say maybe the odd breakfast in bed, or some toast in bed if they're poorly etc. But every dinner time?

Sorry but I do think that’s really slovenly without a disability or additional need to take into consideration.
Terrible habits. Dinner times are absolutely sacrosanct here, in fact all meals bar the odd takeaway are eaten sitting up at the island in the kitchen (rarely use the dining table, Christmas and maybe a handful of times through the year), telly off and everyone in the house is expected to join unless poorly.
It’s less about the food (although that’s very important to us too) and more about the socialisation and good eating habits. I’ve got 2 daughters and it was very important to us to model healthy eating and sneakily monitoring their food intake to make sure they were regularly eating sensible meals and not skipping/binning them as I had an ED as a teen.
Dh does all the cooking and we all sit together and eat.
I don’t mind them taking snacks up to their rooms, but they all have sofas/comfy seating areas in their rooms where they chill out and have a bag of crisps etc, as long as rubbish is going in the bin.
We are a very relaxed household and don’t have ‘rules’ but meals are where we have just always come together and it’s a total non negotiable.
Plus the hygiene issues of eating in bed…

I am picturing Charlie Bucket's family here.

Just no.

That is a bizarre situation that needs stopping , does you wife not understand the importance of sitting round a table to eat ? What are your daughters table manners like ?

Oh dear no that's just weird. I grew up in a house without a dining table, we ate in front of the TV. Now I do have a table and that is where I expect people to eat, other than on Friday nights when the DC's are allowed to eat a takeaway in their rooms when they are gaming. But, if I found them eating dinner in bed I'd be furious!

If you must eat in front of the TV surely the answer is to move the TV into the family room rather than all eat in bed.

Says who?

I think you already know that this is not OK. Start eating together at the table.