Do you eat meals at a "traditional" table?

[Audrey]

I mean, does your family eat meals around what is traditionally called a dinner table or supper table or kitchen table or dining table.

 

If you don't, where does your family normally eat? A coffee table? On tv trays? Something else? And if you don't eat around a traditional type of table, where did your family eat when you were a kid?

Edited September 13, 2011 by Audrey

[Mrs Mungo]

We eat at a real table.

[Chris in VA]

Real table 95% of the time. In front of the TV in the den with plates on our laps and glasses on our side table and coffee table maybe once every...well, whatever 5% of the time is!

 

When I was little, I remember using those "TV trays" out of metal once in a while. That was a big treat for us. We ate at a kitchen table in the dining area of the house most of the time, and the dining room table for special holidays and usually on Sundays.

 

Now I don't have a k table, just the dining room table, so we eat there mostly.

[MaryCatherine]

We eat at a real table.

 

Yep.

[2_girls_mommy]

Yes, we eat at the table. Exceptions are Sat. morning cartoons when the girls eat their cereal in front of the T.V. and the occasional movie night.

[momma2three]

We eat at a real table. Sometimes as a "special treat" (aka Mommy has a headache) the kids will eat lunch or a snack at the little play table in front of the TV. But that is rare.

[regentrude]

We eat all meals at our dining table off the kitchen.

Growing up, same thing - kitchen table or dining table.

We allow snacks such as popcorn and fruit while watching movies.

[abbeyej]

Dining table. Every *once* in a while, when dh is out of town, I'll let the kids eat in front of a movie. But that's a rare treat.

[rwjx2khsmj]

We usually eat in the kitchen. The table seats 6-8. For extra friends or larger groups, we eat in the dining room. That table seats at least 12. For a special treat, we sometimes eat in the family room while watching a movie but that happens less than once a week.

[higginszoo]

Yes. It's a table that my great-great grandfather made for his youngest dd when she married.

[Stacia]

Yes, we eat at our kitchen table almost always. (We don't have a dining room table.) Our table is usually nicely set for most meals, esp. for our weekend brunches.

 

ETA: Sometimes, we'll eat in the sunroom at our smaller table out there.

 

Some have mentioned eating in front of tv. We do that very, very rarely (probably less than 4 or 5 times a year).

Edited September 13, 2011 by Stacia

[Guest mmto2]

well... for the 7 years my dh and I have been married.. I would say 90% or more of the time is in the living room either talking or watching a movie. Without tv trays, ect.. With kids it has been almost the same. We have done the whole high chair in the lr with us (which is right off of the kitchen) all hard wood. Trying to eat more at the kitchen table now though. Growing up.. table ONLY... maybe a bit of rebellion here ?? lol! Dh, grew up eating while walking around, table, living room.. where ever.

[Kathleen in VA]

We eat at the kitchen table (don't have a dining room) most of the time. Sometimes we sit in the living room while we watch a movie and use tv trays/coffee table - maybe 4 or 5 times a month.

[Acorn]

Dinner is at the dining room table every night. The kids have a plastic kids table in the kitchen for most breakfasts and some lunches.

[Lawana]

We're about 50-50. Half the time we sit at the kitchen table, otherwise we sit in the living room with plates on our laps, watching TV or a movie. Occasionally we have family over and eat at the dining room table.

 

Growing up, we *always* ate at the table. Mealtime was extremely structured. We always ate at the same time, table always set the same way, a small variety of foods, but the meal patterns never varied. Behavior was extremely regulated as well. If one of us got tickled about something, we were excused from the table until we were under control. There were some ridiculous rules, such as who got what size spoon.:confused: The males could eat *cereal* with a soup spoon starting at age 12, but the females could not. But everyone over 12 could eat *soup* with a soup spoon.

 

I am *much* more relaxed. Also, if dh is engaged with something, either work or home/yard maintenance, he prefers the rest of us to go ahead and eat without him so he can continue without interruption. After my upbringing, it took me a long time to *get* that. And honestly, mealtime isn't much fun when he's at the table. His idea of a meal is to silently eat, taking small but rapid bites. He often corrects the kids eating behavior.

[Aquinas Academy]

We eat our "family meals", breakfast and dinner, at the dinning room table. Lunch is usually a help yourself affair here, but we generally still eat at the dinning room table. We have a small table in the kitchen where kids can work, play, do crafts, etc. while I'm cooking and my kids will sometimes have lunch there.

[WeeBeaks]

We eat around a traditionable table.

 

As a kid, we probably ate 50% of the time around TV trays.

[Joker]

We eat at an actual table. I did growing up as well. Actually, growing up, we had two tables (one in kitchen and one in dining room ~ which adjoined the kitchen) for when all of the extended family came to eat.

[The Girls' Mom]

We eat at the table in the kitchen. When I was a kid, we ate wherever.

[Jean in Newcastle]

Real table 95% of the time. In front of the TV in the den with plates on our laps and glasses on our side table and coffee table maybe once every...well, whatever 5% of the time is!

 

 

This is our family, too.

[seraphina]

5-6 days a week we eat in our dining room at the table as a family, there is usually a day or two a week when we are not all home at the same time and those are feed yourself nights. But even then pretty much everyone sits at the table just not together.

[MelAR05]

We eat most of our meals at a tradition dinner table. Breakfast for the girls is at the smaller kitchen table. If the weather is nice we eat outside on the patio, which I try to do as often as possible. That is my favorite!

 

Growing up, my siblings and I ate at the kitchen table, while my mom and stepdad at in the living room watching tv.

[amey311]

We eat at the kitchen table nearly every meal that's eaten in the house. I don't know how "fancy" it is, but we use placemats and cloth napkins. The napkins because we can reuse them. The placemats because the center of our table is ceramic tile and it's a little jarring to put a plate down on the tile. Oh, and we bring serving dishes to the table rather than serving from the stove.

 

Sometimes when DH is away and I'm feeling "done" I'll park the kids in front of the TV with take out or something. They eat on those oversized beach towels to give the carpet some protection. Other than that, we are a "food only in the kitchen or outside" family.

 

Growing up we often at the table, but I think that slackened when my parents split up and then my brother and I were often busy in the evenings. We typically served from the stove. My mom's mom serves from the stove. My dad and stepmother eat on tv tables in the living room. They only have a little 2 person table in the kitchen that seems to serve as a desk. I always feel a little nervous when we're there because I'm afraid the boys will spill (although my dad wouldn't care). Lately we've only visited them in the summer, so that's meant dining outside.

[Diana B]

We are in a really tiny apartment and our table is squooshed into the corner. The 3 of us can fit - barely. And it becomes the drop point when we walk in the door. So if it is clean we'll all sit around it - but it doesn't happen often. I've been trying harder to make it happen more often. DS is messy and we don't like him eating on the floor in the living room (and no tv trays for him to use). I don't want him eating by himself at the table with DH and I in the living room.

 

We'll be moving soon - maybe I'll make the new rule @ the new house: Food @ Table ONLY. :) Not sure DH will go for that! LOL

[QueenCat]

Meals are eaten at the kitchen table. Snacks are usually on the couch or at the kitchen counter.

[Caitilin]

We eat at a real table for all meals, even breakfast and lunch which are more, um, fluid.;) This is how I grew up, though dh ate both in front of the tv and at a table, growing up.

[FairyMom]

I mean, does your family eat meals around what is traditionally called a dinner table or supper table or kitchen table or dining table.

 

If you don't, where does your family normally eat? A coffee table? On tv trays? Something else? And if you don't eat around a traditional type of table, where did your family eat when you were a kid?

 

We eat at the dining room table for lunch every day as a family (Daddy works at home) when I'm not working. It's not formal, but we do set the table with cloth napkins and placemats for a late lunch (around 1:30 or 2:00). Each person eats breakfast on their own when they wake up and snack when they are hungry in the afternoon/evening. No TV, period.

 

I grew up as a latch-key kid and was pretty much on my own after my parents' divorce when I was ten. Before then we ate supper as a family at the table.

[1GirlTwinBoys]

We all eat dinner at the kitchen table together. My kid's eat breakfast and lunch at the kitchen island.

[Excelsior! Academy]

All meals and snacks are eaten at the dining table. In fact, a large dining room was a requirement for us while house hunting. Right now most of our meals are eaten outside on our patio set, which is an outdoor dining area of sorts.

[twoxcell]

Most days we eat dinner together at a regular table. Sometimes on the weekends we eat in the living room at a large coffee table. When I was a kids we pretty much did the same most days at a regular table but sometimes in the living room with stools or coffee table.

[Gailmegan]

Breakfast and lunch is at the kitchen counter, whenever each person is hungry and gets his/her own food (although I have been known to do eggs made to order if there's time and dh will do a huge batch of pancakes on a lazy Saturday).

 

Dinner is usually at the dining room table, together as a family, but sometimes we get take out and will set up a table cloth on the floor in the living room and watch a movie together.

[elegantlion]

80% of dinners are at the dining room table (our only dining table). The other 20% are eaten in the living room or while working.

 

Breakfast we eat alone, we eat at different times. I have to eat when I get up, dh is usually gone, and ds eats about an hour after he gets up. Lunch is usually at our computers. On the weekends if we are home we eat lunch together.

[Shawna in Texas]

Breakfast and lunch are pretty casual. Usually it's at the table surrounded by school books and a cat or two. Sometimes if dd has skipped breakfast and organized the table for just her inhabitation, then the youngest and me will eat in the living room.

 

Dinner is 75/25. If I make a proper meal (or a really messy one), we'll sit at the table. If it's sandwiches, or hot dogs, or we order a pizza, then we'll eat in the living room. When I had a cold a couple weeks ago, I told DH he was in charge for dinner one evening and at one point I got up to see why everyone was so quiet. All three of them lined up in front of the TV, watching a Powerpuff Girls DVD, in their underwear, eating a frozen pizza. :D

[Heather in Neverland]

We eat at a real table (and the TV is turned off) and I ate at a real table when I was a kid.

[HSMom2One]

We have a traditional table where we eat 99% of the time. A sandwich in the living room or up in the school room are only a rare thing.

 

My original family did pretty much the same thing as Chris in VA - a traditional table, but TV trays in front of the TV once in a while as a treat.

 

Lucinda

[Laura Corin]

We eat at a traditional table. I don't like crumbs getting through the house, so food is usually confined to the kitchen. Once in a blue moon we might have popcorn in front of the telly. I ate at a table as a child.

 

Laura

[myfunnybunch]

Yes. The exception is Saturday movie night. Most Saturdays, we order pizza and watch a family movie together.

 

Our "dinner table" is actually a sturdy work table handed down by dh's grandmother, but it fits our family of seven plus our exchange student(s) and any other stray guests who happen to be around at dinner time. We even bought a picnic table for our back yard so that we can sit at the table together when we eat out of doors.

 

Dh grew up eating in front of the tv. I grew up eating family meals at the dinner table. We're a busy family, going six ways to Sunday, so I feel really strongly about coming together for family meals, breakfast and dinner, as bookends to our day.

 

Cat

[AEC]

at the dinner table. Every. Single. Night. This is 100% non-negotiatable.

[Soror]

B-fast is at the kitchen table, unless dh is home then it is at the dinning room table. Dinner is nearly always at the dining table but rarely I let them take their plates for a family movie- maybe a few times a month.

[Melissa in Australia]

I mean, does your family eat meals around what is traditionally called a dinner table or supper table or kitchen table or dining table.

 

If you don't, where does your family normally eat? A coffee table? On tv trays? Something else? And if you don't eat around a traditional type of table, where did your family eat when you were a kid?

Yes, traditional table. We even have set places around the table.

[Alice]

Breakfast and lunch are at the kitchen table. Dinner is at the dining room table. The only difference is that the dining room table is bigger and fits all five of us better. It's rare that all five of us are sitting down together for breakfast and lunch and if we are, we sometimes sit at the other table.

 

We also do the occasional movie night and eat in front of the "TV" which is really our computer. We move the coffee table over for the kids and dh and I just eat off plates on our laps. Typically that would be pizza or sometimes popcorn/nachos for dinner or Chinese food.

[Donna]

We eat at the table in the kitchen. Occasionally, on a weekend if we have pizza or something quick we might eat in the living room and watch tv but this is a less than once a month occurrence.

[sassenach]

We eat together at a table.

[Jen in PA]

Regular table for meals as a family, but I do let the kids eat in the living room for some meals when DH isn't home and on family movie night.

[TheReader]

Traditional table.

 

For both (current family, family growing up).

[justamouse]

All at a table. Ever since I was a little kid (dh's family LIVES around the kitchen table-they're Italian), and we continue with our family.

 

ETA, we actually eat at the dining room table, we don't have a kitchen table. But yes, we eat all but few meals there.

Edited September 13, 2011 by justamouse

[Joules]

Wow, after looking at all of the responses, I'm a bit embarrassed. We don't eat together at the table, ever. Actually a few months ago, we bought a grand piano that has replaced the dining room table.

 

Ds and I share a big long desk with two computers in the classroom. We usually eat there or at the coffee table in front of the TV. Often we school through lunch. We eat a large breakfast and lunch and usually it's just yogurt and fruit for dinner. In my defense, dh is never here for meals.

 

Dh and I never had a table in our tiny apartment, so we never got in the habit. Once ds was born, he started working so much he was never home for meals, I tried to be normal for a while, but it just doesn't work for us. Fourteen years later, we still don't eat at a table and he's still not here for meals.

Edited September 13, 2011 by Joules

[ladydusk]

We eat at the kitchen table almost all the time. We occasionally use the Dining Room table, and I would like to get back to that on Saturday evenings for dinner.

 

Growing up, we ate along a long counter that surrounded the kitchen (there were 7 of us). But we pretty much always ate together there.

[mytwomonkeys]

on nights that my husband is home, we eat at the kitchen table (4 nights). the other 3 nights, we usually eat in the den together. we'll either watch a movie or play board games while we eat - it's fun for us.

[Orthodox6]

Breakfast/lunch at table in the kitchen. Dinner/supper at table in dining area (of a large LR/DR room). We use tablecloths because they look cheerful, and wash easily. We turned out to be a family whose members talk with each other a lot, and meals gives us good opportunities for that.