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

[SierraNose]

Question in title. She eats sitting up.

Me and my kids have breakfast in bed every Sunday. I LOVE it and it's a special treat for them, they love it too. My bed gets crumby but YOLO

Absolutely foul. Show her this thread and tell her to sit at the table like a civilised human. And get the TV out of the bedroom.

Yes!
My kids used to always have breakfast in bed on their birthday. Or well, on the nearest weekend day

Breakfast in bed, dinner if they're not feeling well, snacks while watching a movie. Why not? I wouldn't have let it be every meal though obviously.

We don't let DC eat in bedroom, enough to clean up downstairs with the crumbs, sauce, spilt food and drink. Just a rule in our house and it works well. I do know people who allow it and fair enough but then you have no idea of what they're actually taking up. As someone said, yes slovenly.

I do wish people would at least read all the OP’s posts before responding 🙄

Time to get a TV in a downstairs room? Personally I don't watch TV while eating. Not the best to get crumbs and other stuff in you bed.

Why is the only TV in the bedroom? Is your wife in bed a lot?

It's fine but I could never do it. Always raised my kids to say they aren't allowed and that at least dinner has to be a family meal and everything needs to be eaten downstairs. As they got a bit older, they are now allowed to eat upstairs if they must but it has to be at their desk. Dinner still remains a family meal though. Crumbs in bed is awful to me!! It's not an issue eating in bed but that's just awful to me and DC wouldn't be massively pleased sleeping in that either.

This was my thought reading the update!

IMO, no I wouldn’t be letting my 7YO (or even myself) eat in bed. Food is smelly and beds are for sleeping. Never mind the crumbs! The whole family eating in bed in front of the TV is also weird, but each to their own I guess. I’m sure there are things that are normal to me which are “weird” to other people.

Gross, unhygienic and lazy

Eeeeewwww

No eating in bed for me, it always inevitably gets spilled/crumbs. Also no eating meals in front of the TV unless a special treat. We sit at the table and even if I am by myself I eat at the table or at my desk for lunch. How often do you change the bed?

No. Disgusting. Have some standards.

@Jennyathemall
probably not allowed to do that either!!

Thanks you (not sarcastic) for that very useful comment. If only we had led our lives doing what we "should have done" at the right time, it would be very different. One assumes someone is broadly a grown up and will do the right thing when it comes to kid, whatever their own bad habits (and I have several) When we bought the first house recently and furnished it, I actually looked for a trolley style table (to double up as a coffee table for the living room 😁) as I knew we wouldn't use it, but she decided one day that we needed a large 6 seater table (for family of three)- thank you charity shop!. But it's only used when we have guests and we don't have too many. The whole downstairs of the house (living room+kitchen) is barely used. except when we cook. TV+food time is sacrosanct and the bedroom door is usually locked as she eats. And child eats in bedroom for easy supervision and me because I think this is family time (and it becomes convenient routine)

I wouldn't, I mean if it's a meal they should be eating downstairs with family. If it's a snack it would be messy. Easier to keep it a simple no than yes to this food, but no to that food. Plus it would make me feel like a servant fetching them things to their room.

It's not the most terrible thing but I'd just say from now on if you want a snack come downstairs.

You're locking your child in the bedroom to eat tea?

At my recent escalation of the TV protest, she said we should buy another TV for downstairs, while I think we have enough TVs given everyone has their own device. Even if we do get a TV I need help. She's short and has health issues, so of course physical labour stuff like, mounting and rearranging furniture is my job- But there is resistance to the fact that she needs to at least participate in thinking for redesigning the furniture layout to suit the TV and in finding the right TV/mount/ cabinet we want, given our precise parameters (online shopping is more mentally demanding than my job and I have a PhD.)... I don't even know what my question is about now.😁

Sorry your DW is really not someone I'd hang out with. Your set up sounds bloody weird. And you DD would benefit from seeing a better example.

Do you all get in the same bed together to eat dinner, and lock the bedroom door? That is a bit odd tbh. Who are you locking out?

This all sounds a bit strange OP. On one hand you've got a lazy wife that refuses to get out of bed and are pandering to her. Then you're forcing your daughter to watch TV whilst eating. That reminds me of the scene in Matilda where she blows up the TV. You need to put healthier habits in place for your daughter.

I think just try sorting your dining table and using it at times. No need for another tv then.

@SierraNose

its really weird to eat all your meals in bed as a family.

i do eat toast & other non 'meals' in bed, but I wouldn't eat 'messy' stuff in bed, I'd (personally) make FAR too much mess & I don't fancy, sleeping with the soup/lasagne.. and NO to kids that would make a mess too.

if I were you I'd talk to her & say that you don't think it's a nice habit as a family & that DD needs to learn to eat nicely at the table & you'd prefer she joined you at the table. If she won't then she needs to agree to change the sheets if she spills anything BEFORE you go to bed.

As many meals as possible DW eats alone. Family time, while continuing throughout the day is when DD and/or me eat with DW (usually but not always, she may be already full from her private lock-eat TV session). Resistance mean "you go down with her" and supervising her can't just be my job. Have made peace with eating in one of other bedrooms (table habit lost 😫) when I'm supervising. Private dinners locked in her bedroom is what she's grown up with- we lived with her parents for years and that's how it was. Moulded me too for a bit and it's finally wearing off.