Do you eat at the table?

rach_k · 20 January 2020 at 10:18AM

We have a small table in the kitchen and a larger one in the dining room. I tend to eat breakfast/brunch in the kitchen. The kids eat theirs at the dining table or one of them will sit in the kitchen if they're bickering. Lunches tend to be all over the place - although the kids are banned from eating in the bedrooms and living room at the moment, too messy - but dinners are eaten at the dining table.

For me, it's important that we sit down together and, although we are a long way from formal, I think children need to see how to sit down with people and eat nicely. Grown-ups need a reminder sometimes, too! I spend enough time in a school to be horrified by the number of children who don't know how to use cutlery and don't have even basic manners (school does a good job at helping them catch up). I'm not talking about something you'd expect at the Queen's table, more not talking with your mouth full or pointing with a knife. Maybe I'm old fashioned but I'd prefer to teach these things at home rather than have my kids having to learn it in the work canteen!

onomatopoeia99 · 20 January 2020 at 10:28AM

PasturesNew wrote: »

I've never had a table. Tables and paraphernalia are an item that takes up space and costs money.... I've always said a table is the thin end of the wedge... as you need chairs, tablecloths, "best tablecloths", Xmas ones, placemats, "best", "Xmas", serving dishes, "best", "Xmas", then all sorts of impulse purchases for place settings and dishes .... then you might feel obliged to invite people round (£££ and effort). Then, where's it all going? All this stuff + the plates and cutlery.... you need a sideboard, more cost/space.... and that now needs dusting ... and some ornaments on top ....

I have a table. I don't have even one table cloth, never the bewildering array of them you suggest are required:eek:. I also have one set of placemats. I do very occasionally have guests, but when I do they get the same food I usually cook, dished up straight onto a plate or bowl in the kitchen with not a serving dish in sight.

I have plates and cutlery, which live in the kitchen. My "best" plates and cutlery are my only plates and cutlery. No sideboard. I have nothing to put in it.

I mostly eat on the sofa as most of my cooking involves pasta + sauce or rice + sauce, is served in a bowl and doesn't require a knife to eat. If I'm eating a pizza from a plate and need to apply some force with a knife, I'll sit at the table.

Newly_retired · 20 January 2020 at 10:30AM

We always had meals at the table when we had family. Now it is just the two of us most meals are eaten in front of the tv, except for Sunday lunch.
However, the dining table is often covered with a large jigsaw puzzle.

NBLondon · 20 January 2020 at 10:31AM

YBR wrote: »

At the dining table in the dining room as a family.
"TV tea" is a treat.

Pretty much that. Breakfast standing up in the kitchen if I'm multi-tasking (making a sandwich for work lunch, emptying the dishwasher). If I'm lunching alone at home - depends whether it's something that can be eaten one-handed and whether I am working from home (so at desk with laptop) or lazing.

Pollyflinders · 20 January 2020 at 10:35AM

rach_k wrote: »

We have a small table in the kitchen and a larger one in the dining room. I tend to eat breakfast/brunch in the kitchen. The kids eat theirs at the dining table or one of them will sit in the kitchen if they're bickering. Lunches tend to be all over the place - although the kids are banned from eating in the bedrooms and living room at the moment, too messy - but dinners are eaten at the dining table.

For me, it's important that we sit down together and, although we are a long way from formal, I think children need to see how to sit down with people and eat nicely. Grown-ups need a reminder sometimes, too! I spend enough time in a school to be horrified by the number of children who don't know how to use cutlery and don't have even basic manners (school does a good job at helping them catch up). I'm not talking about something you'd expect at the Queen's table, more not talking with your mouth full or pointing with a knife. Maybe I'm old fashioned but I'd prefer to teach these things at home rather than have my kids having to learn it in the work canteen!

Absolutely.

We always ate at the table and chatted, OH usually telling some corny joke he'd heard at work. The kids would also let out things about their day.

Now it's just the two of us, I'll have lunch on my knee in the living room, while reading the paper, dinner is always at the table and more enjoyable.

One concession to above - if we're running late, I have been known to take a tray into living room to watch Strictly. OH is appalled at this! :eek:

pickledonionspaceraider · 20 January 2020 at 12:03PM

About 50/50 sitting at the table or lounging on the sofa - depends on the mood or what we are eating

When I was a kid, I used to sit on the stairs (out of choice, I wasn't forced to haha) but I was a strange child

phoebe1989seb · 20 January 2020 at 12:33PM

onomatopoeia99 wrote: »

I have a table. I don't have even one table cloth, never the bewildering array of them you suggest are required:eek:.

I meant to say this too - no bewildering array of tablecloths and placemats here either! Despite always having had a dining table of some kind, I've never seen the point of tablecloths for every occasion, particularly Christmas. No tablecloths at all here

When we had a larger house with a large dining room we actually couldn't afford a big grand table when we first bought the place as all our money went on renovation. Instead as (like a previous poster) we preferred DS to learn good manners sitting at a table at home, we bought the largest cheap second hand one we could find and placed an 8' x 4' sheet of MDF on top. That was the only time we used a cloth - actually a massive piece of thick, spongeable upholstery fabric which stayed on year round - to disguise what lay beneath, lol! We kept that set up for ten years till we downsized to a house with smaller dining room.

We do have ten (fabric) placemats that are identical and rotated throughout the year, although we do have some silver/gold charger plates for use at Christmas that were a gift from my late parents who always used to spend it with us......

All our stuff gets used. I'd hate to be like my mum who kept things 'for best' - despite them being frequent dinner party hosts, when we were clearing my parents' house we found fancy tablecloths, fish knives etc that were still boxed and unused from their wedding more than fifty years previously

pickledonionspaceraider · 20 January 2020 at 12:48PM

phoebe1989seb wrote: »

All our stuff gets used. I'd hate to be like my mum who kept things 'for best' - despite them being frequent dinner party hosts, when we were clearing my parents' house we found fancy tablecloths, fish knives etc that were still boxed and unused from their wedding more than fifty years previously

Wow, fifty years in boxes

I am the same as you - I don't have 'best' stuff

I used to, my parents brought us some fancy plates a while back, and for a couple of years they sat looking pretty on a welsh dresser

Then I thought what am I doing, admiring these plates whilst eating off of chipped wilko ones

bertiewhite · 20 January 2020 at 1:49PM

At the dining table in the dining room.

On a very rare occasion we may eat sitting on the sofa if it's something we can easily eat with our hands (as opposed to using cutlery).

Morbier · 20 January 2020 at 4:06PM

How do you teach children 'table manners' if they never eat at a table?

I must be old-fashioned thinking this, I do realise, but if you want to bring up a child to become a well-rounded, socially acceptable adult, then eating at the table is one of the necessary experiences, surely?

We always eat at the table. I was brought up to do so, that's probably why it feels wrong to do otherwise. No, I don't have 'best' tablecloths etc, neither do I have a sideboard.

Yes, even pizza is eaten at the table. .... and yes, sometimes I eat on my lap :eek: if it's something easy like sandwiches.

Do you eat at the table?

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