Do you eat at the table?

steph2901

We tend to eat breakfast (bowl of cereal) in the living room on the sofa watching TV before work, but all other meals are eaten at the table in the kitchen/dining room (apart from lunch during the week, which is eaten in work)

It's nice to be able to sit and talk at the table for a while with my husband and teenage daughter before she vanishes back to her room

Caraway90

Breakfast - always on the sofa.
Lunch - usually on the sofa but I don't eat lunch at home very often.
Dinner - 50/50 spilt between dining table and sofa. Depending on food type/mood/if there's something we really want to watch on TV. I prefer to sit at the table, it's a really good time to talk and I think it's a better posture for eating. Boyfriend prefers the sofa, he doesn't like sitting on a chair for too long! Unwritten rule that takeaways are eaten on the sofa. The table also doubles up as activity table so often has Lego/a jigsaw on it, meaning we are on the sofa.

Binkie_Huckaback

Always sit at a table to eat, - I hate eating off my lap, it doesn't feel like a meal somehow..!


If space is an issue (we've always lived in small flats) just get a gateleg table and put it up at mealtimes.

ZaSa1418

We eat at either the 'island' in the kitchen or the dining table if we are all in. Island can fit 4 comfortably.

NBLondon

pickledonionspaceraider wrote: »

Wow, fifty years in boxes

I'm fairly sure some of my parents' wedding present best china/flatware were boxed up when moving house in 1971 and were never unpacked before moving again in 2015. They may well still be in the boxes at the new place too....
Our "best" stuff is in the sideboard but comes out approximately monthly. The "best" wine glasses are used slightly more frequently. Due to traditionalism for wedding presents - we ended up with "second best" cutlery and glasses as well - these have been used most days for over 20 years.

PasturesNew

Pollycat wrote: »

My younger-than-me friend used to feed her small children sat on the floor with food cut up for them without any cutlery - this is at an age where I would be sat at the table with a metal knife and fork.
I did notice that her children were very awkward with cutlery when we went out to eat in cafes.

About 32 years ago one evening I visited one single parent friend, who had a 3 year old. The 3 year old went into the kitchen, got her dinner on a plate with a fork, came into the room where we were and sat down and ate it.

After I'd visited, I dropped in on my married friend. Her husband was much older, he'd had kids with his first wife. They were wealthy, very wealthy, living in a huge 5-bed modern house with big rooms and a huge conservatory. I walked into the kitchen and her husband was sitting at the breakfast bar with his 3 year old child on his lap and he was spoon feeding him.

I found it most bizarre to see such differences in two identically aged children, on the same evening.

Pollycat

PasturesNew wrote: »

About 32 years ago one evening I visited one single parent friend, who had a 3 year old. The 3 year old went into the kitchen, got her dinner on a plate with a fork, came into the room where we were and sat down and ate it.

After I'd visited, I dropped in on my married friend. Her husband was much older, he'd had kids with his first wife. They were wealthy, very wealthy, living in a huge 5-bed modern house with big rooms and a huge conservatory. I walked into the kitchen and her husband was sitting at the breakfast bar with his 3 year old child on his lap and he was spoon feeding him.

I found it most bizarre to see such differences in two identically aged children, on the same evening.

I'm not sure the financial circumstances or the marital arrangements of the 2 families have any relevance but teaching basic skills (which is what I would class using cutlery as) is important imho.

maman

Pollycat wrote: »

I'm not sure the financial circumstances or the marital arrangements of the 2 families have any relevance but teaching basic skills (which is what I would class using cutlery as) is important imho.

I agree. I remember a programme that Jamie Oliver did years ago it may have been called Ministry of Food where he was trying to teach people to cook. There was this young mum, immaculately turned out with a pristine show house style home with a massive TV and laminate flooring which was the rage at the time. Her child of about 3 sat on the floor to eat her dinner: a polystyrene take away box filled with kebab meat and chips and ate it with her fingers. It was so sad to see.

I think eating at a table with decent table manners is a social skill that we should pass on to our children. I like to use serving dishes too whenever possible and invite children to serve themselves. It encourages them to try things and saves waste.

[Deleted User]

I'm going to be buying an extendable dining table literally just so we can actually eat dinner as a family (me, OH and his 2 kids) rather than them sat in front of the tv in the front room dual-screening with their phones and the tv and taking a year to eat their dinner/messing around. If I get my way then we will all leave our blooming phones in the other room, too.

I have no idea what they do at home but to me it's much more normal to be sat around a table making conversation and spending actual time together rather than 4 people just happening to be in the same room at the same time eating the same food

LilElvis

VJsmum wrote: »

A teacher friend once told us that the best thing we did for our children was to eat dinner at a table all together with no TV. He said it teaches them the art of conversation and shows them that we are interested in their lives. He said it is really obvious at school which families eat at a table and which don't..

We still eat at the table, it is a rare occasion when we don't - even though we are now 4 adults who all do different things. if we are in the house together, we eat together.

Whilst that might be the ideal it also isn't realistic for many families - long commutes, shift working and late finishes. We would love to all eat together, but my husband has a very demanding job and so we can only do this at weekends. It's nearly eight o'clock and he's still not home, twelve hours after he left - and this is normal during the working week. Please don't denigrate those who can't live up to your rosy ideals because we aren't bad parents.