Do you eat meals at a "traditional" table?

[edelweiss]

Yes, we usually eat dinner at the table in our breakfast room (and rarely the one in our formal dining room). Sometimes, if DH is out of the town, the girls and I just eat at the breakfast bar in the kitchen.

[Firefly]

Kitchen table for most meals, dining room table for fancier/special meals with guests. Sometimes we eat breakfast on the front porch. Once in a while we'll eat in front of the TV... but it's pretty rare.

[Jenny in Florida]

We are all home for a "family dinner" only a few times a week. When we are, we eat at a traditional dining table most of the time.

 

Maybe once a week, usually on a weekend evening, we'll eat a snacky-type meal while watching a movie. On those nights, I put all the food on a small table we have in the living room. (My son uses it for projects when it's not being used for food.) Everyone makes up a plate and sits where they choose to eat.

 

The kids eat breakfast at the table, too. This school year, I'm reading aloud while they eat. (My daughter is "done," but she's listening to some of the read alouds I'm doing with my son.)

 

Lunch is a do-your-own-thing affair and is eaten wherever the mood strikes. My son often eats at the small table while watching something educational or reading.

 

Edit: I forgot to answer about my growing up. I don't honestly remember eating that many meals with my parents. I was an only child, and my mother worked from home. We had a dining table in the house where I spent most of my childhood, and we ate dinnders together there probably just a couple of times a week. The rest of the time it was in front of the TV or wherever you felt like eating. We didn't usually eat breakfast, and lunches were whatever each person felt like making. I learned to make my own mac and cheese and to do all kinds of things with Bisquick before I was 10.

Edited September 13, 2011 by Jenny in Florida

[BeckyFL]

We used to eat at the round kitchen table (6 of us), but for the last several years we have been eating in the dining room. Last year we got rid of our 25 year old table and got a new one that seats 8.

 

I love the feeling of eating in there.

[Serenade]

We eat all meals at a table. It's easiest to control crumbs and such that way, plus I believe it promotes family conversation.

[TravelingChris]

At this new house, we have changed how we eat. Here we eat dinner normally at our dining room table. (First time we have used it so regurally). OUr kitchen table has moved down to the second kitchen downstairs and we haven't used it yet at all. (WE had to disconnect the power from the range and oven downstairs and until we get the electricity boosted, I don't think we will eat down there). For lunches and breakfasts, we eat at our counter, in the sun room, or in the great room. IF we are having a prepared breakfast or lunch, we eat in the dining room. Occasionally we eat in the great room and watch tv- very occasionally for dinner.

[Stratford]

As a kid we always ate at the table....normally the kitchen table, occasionally the dining room.

 

We now eat most of our meals at the kitchen table. Just like growing up, we occasionally use our dining room, usually on holidays or Sundays or when we have company. The TV is off for meals except for maybe twice a year when will eat in front of the TV (for some kind of TV event) and have snacks for dinner (called a "snibble platter" in our family for reasons unknown.:tongue_smilie:)

[angela in ohio]

At the kitchen table. Dh is still finishing the dining room, and then we will eat dinner in there.

 

Once or twice a month, as a treat, we "picnic" in the living room in front of the Wii's TV and hook a VCR up to it for a movie.

 

And one night a week, we eat dinner in the car (if I planned ahead to pack) or at a restaurant on the way from one thing to the next.

[dirty ethel rackham]

We eat dinner around a traditional table. Breakfast and lunch are make-your-own, so they might be at the counter sitting on a stool.

[Ginevra]

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, we eat at the dining room table, in the actual dining room almost always (for dinner).

 

When I was growing up, we didn't eat a normal, family dinner. My dad was always glued to the boob tube and the dining table was often covered with junk. :glare: We usually ate whatever we could scrounge up, on tv trays in various places throughout the house. You can probably tell I'm bitter about it.

 

It was one of those absolutes that I came into marriage with: "We will eat a unified, homemade meal as often as remotely possible, around an actual dining table, with no tv in sight." :D

[chepyl]

We usually eat at the table. Sometimes, especially of my back hurts, I will eat in the living room chair. The kitchen table is right behind behind chair. We try for one or two meals a day with all of us at the table.

[songsparrow]

When we eat at home, we eat almost all meals at the dining room table. Occasionally one of the girls will eat a quick meal or snack at the kitchen island. Or if the weather is nice we'll eat outside on the patio table.

 

When after-school activities fall close to the time that my younger daughter gets out of school, we eat wherever we need to in order to make sure they're fueled up and ready to go. It's usually for ice skating practice, so we usually eat at a table at the skating rink.

[Daisy]

We don't have a dining room but we have a huge kitchen, so I guess we'd call it a kitchen table. Traditional oval table. :D And yes, every meal is eaten there.

[QuirkyKapers]

We eat a the table in our dining room. Kitchen is too small for a table.

[Tammyla]

We eat at the kitchen or dining room table.

 

 

(If someone must see the game, show or news, it can be seen from the kitchen table.)

[Sukale]

I don't have a dining room. We have a long kitchen with one end having our table, china cabinet and a sliding glass door going to a screened in back patio. We eat most dinners at the kitchen table. We like to eat breakfast and lunch on the picnic table on the patio as long as it is not to hot out. Sometimes we will eat pizza in the play room while watching a movie on Friday.

[Starr]

We eat at a big table in the kitchen after moving books, papers, projects and cats. :D

[Perry]

Dining room table for holidays, kitchen table for everything else. Dinner is the only meal we all eat together though.

[Jennifer3141]

We eat at the dining room table that is in the dining room most of the time. For more casual meals in the middle of the day, sometimes we eat at the kitchen bar.

 

But I like my table with candles. :)

[jenniferlee]

Yes, we do for every meal.

I did growing up as well.

[wapiti]

We only eat at the table all together occasionally - or only part of the table. It's often covered with books. Right now there are a bunch of papers, colored pencils and cuisenaire rods covering it :001_huh:

[thessa516]

Every meal at a traditional table in the dining room. It's also our homeschool room, so we have to clean up our messes during the day.

[Mona100]

My family is just myself and my 15dd and we eat in the living room. In fact, I am thinking about getting rid of my old dining room table and making that area into a library with a reading chair.

 

As a child, we sat at a kitchen table and then as a teenager I would eat in my room by myself.

[Parrothead]

As a group of introverts conversation around the dining table is practically non-existent. It is painful to watch.

 

So we eat in front of the tv unless we have more people here.

[peachskittles]

We have a dining room table, three in fact. One is in my son's room and can only seat four, so he uses it for his playing. One is in the playroom and that is where the children eat all their meals. That one can seat six if we get it repaired so right now, it's just a playroom table. The table we bought for our dining room was shrunk down and put in the kitchen. Once we move to a more permanent place, we will eat at that table again.

 

Either I eat in the kitchen, standing up, praying no one interferes for the few minutes it takes me to shove food in my mouth or I wait until children are outside playing or sleeping and actually sit, relax and eat. My SO eats at his computer.

 

I loved having a dining room. It was lovely. Then my son tried to start a fire with our electrical outlets in the living room and we had to flip the entire house to ensure I was able to watch him. He hasn't even attempted it again and I'd really like my dining room back again. It's kind of pointless since we are planning on moving whenever a place is available to rent.

[Lisa in the UP of MI]

Other than the rare occasions that we have a picnic on our deck we eat at our real table in the dining room. We ate at the kitchen counter sitting on bar stools growing up, so our version of a kitchen table.

[8circles]

Yes. At least it usually starts that way. At some point someone is under the table & someone is trying to climb on top of it. Occasionally someone has to go sit in the corner. But we attempt to eat at it. This is an almost-every-night occurrence during the week. 2-3 times a day on weekends.

 

ETA: We ate around a traditional table in my house growing up & I believe DH did as well. At least most nights. There were not as many variations as there are in our house today.

[Pretty in Pink]

Yes, those of us that are here at meal time eat around the dining table together. Since we still have several littles at home we do not allow food away from the table.

[JumpedIntoTheDeepEndFirst]

We eat at an actual table. Usually the kitchen, sometimes outside and on special occasions in the dining room.

 

Casual lunches might be eaten by adults in a comfy chair with a book or while watching TV-kids eat at the table.

[SweetMissMagnolia]

no....my husband has schedules that change every few months and kiddo and I usually just eat "wherever"....sometimes I"ll make him come and sit at the table with me and eat...depends on the mood......

[Princess Peach]

I grew up eating at the dining room table for every meal. Our family did that, as well, until we moved to our current place. There is no dining room and I can't fit our large table in the kitchen and the small one doesn't fit us comfortably. So we eat in the living room. It is what it is, but it's not ideal.

[Night Elf]

When I was a kid, mostly living room on tv tables. No formal dining room.

DH said they ate either living room or kitchen table. No formal dining room.

 

Now: We eat dinner at the kitchen table, though it's not mandatory. No formal dining room. We have no other official meals prepared so people get their own thing at their own time and eat it anywhere.

 

I've only owned 1 home that had a separate, official dining room and the only time we ate there was Thanksgiving and Christmas and only if family joined us. It was a better space for wall unit for books and homeschool materials. I miss that room.

[Barb_]

Where's the poll?? I love polls!

 

We sit at a big square counter height table that seats 8. When oldest dd and dh are both home, we stick two of the younger ones at the counter stools, but we all eat together.

 

Barb

[KrissiK]

Yes. We do now and both DH and I grew up that way!

[WishboneDawn]

We eat where ever most of the time. Sometimes that's the table but not usually.

[Jryanbass]

We eat in the living room. There isn't a time of day where "all" of us are together except for Friday and Sat.

[mommymilkies]

We do at almost every meal. Sometimes we're tired and fed up and eat at the coffee table with a movie. My table isn't pretty or decorated, though. Just a big square handmade table.

[WishboneDawn]

I should add that not only do we not eat at the table but generally so that some of us can go downstairs and watch Spongebob Squarepants. Double the horror! :D

[KS_]

No, our dining room table is where we do school (and even before then, we never sat down to eat at it regularly). We eat at the kitchen counter - it has seating on the opposite side of the kitchen.

[AHASRADA]

We almost never eat all together at a "dinner table", unless we have company. At lunch, we each eat when we are hungry, warming up leftovers and eating while at our laptops (me in the dining room, kids in their bedrooms or living room). As for dinner, dh and ds mostly eat in the living room in front of the TV, holding their plate/bowl on their laps and using side tables for drinks, etc. Dd might join them, but she often eats in her room watching a movie (since she doesn't want to watch CSI-type shows with the guys). I usually put the baby to bed while everyone else is eating, so once she's asleep, I make my plate and take it up to my room where I can continue the show I was watching. When I write this out it sounds so anti-social and technology-dependent, but it works for us. Since we spend ALL day together, EVERY day, meal time is our break time/alone time to do/watch/read what we each enjoy.

 

No, I was not raised this way. We ate at the dinner table, which I had to set and clear. I always thought it was ridiculous for one person to set out all the china and utensils, haul the food to the table, then haul the leftovers back to the kitchen and have one person, again, clear the table. So, in my house, even if we do eat at the "dinner table", everyone serves themselves buffet-style, and each one takes his/her plate to the kitchen (and, in theory, rinses it and puts it in the dishwasher). The last one to eat puts the leftovers away (or, if they are still too warm, the last one to bed takes care of them, usually dh).

[lynn]

When we purchased our first house 19 years ago dh had a table made for me as a gift. We still sit around that table every evening. We had a traditional dinner table where we all sat down every evening as kids.

[Ohdanigirl]

We eat at a dinner table.

 

I guess you could say I am pretty picky about this. As a teen, after my parents separated, my father always had us eat at a coffee table in front of the TV. I hated this. My mother always had us together at the dinner table. So now I have my family eat all 3 meals together at our dinner table. My kids couldn't imagine it any other way. ;)

 

Danielle

[A.Balaban]

We have a small kitchen table, so it is difficult to fit the four of us around. The kids usually eat in their highchairs/booster seats sort of around the table or within arms reach to us, but not at at the actual table. Add to that the small apartment, where everything else gets stacked on the kitchen table.

 

I had to admit this, but often we eat in the living room, simply because we have no room at the kitchen. The kids eat with a chair pulled up to the coffee table or at their little craft table. And then we eat on the floor some times... :lol: DH has done this the last couple nights because I think he is just too weary from cooking.

[maizeydaizey]

Always the dining table :001_smile:

[dragons in the flower bed]

We eat at a table in the dining room unless it's Sunday, when we have fen church and eat on the couch watching Dr Who on the iMac.

 

When I was a kid... hm... Mom made dinner when she was home and we ate it at the table. If he was working the evening shift, we ate upstairs in our aunt's home around her table, totally formally. At Dad's house, Grandma was on call as a short order cook; we had whatever we wanted whenever we wanted and wherever we wanted. If she had to go out in the evening, she'd make something we'd likely enjoy and leave it on the stove for us. My brother and I usually took dinner at the long crafts counter while working on our masterpieces.

 

I believe that talking to each other around the table is important in raising children who are connected, stable, mannerly and articulate. I'd hate to give that up to television of all things.

Edited March 6, 2012 by dragons in the flower bed

[MrsBear]

The vast majority of dinners (98%) are as a family, around a table - which one depends on who's here. The 2% we don't eat at the table is when we'll eat out or maybe, once or twice a year, eat in the family room.

 

If we have guests, it'll be the dining room table since the kitchen table really only seats four comfortably, although I can manage to get six around it if I wanted to; no guests it'll be the kitchen table, unless it's a holiday and we're having a fancier meal together, then we'll go into the dining room to eat; and if it's nice outside, we'll eat at the table on the deck (can do that too with guests).

 

For breakfast - DH is already gone before any of us wakes up, so he's on his own and I have no clue where he eats his breakfast; I don't like to eat breakfast....DS7 eats in the family room usually while I get DS1 ready for the day, DS1 eats breakfast in a high chair.

 

For lunch we'll eat around the kitchen table, with DS1 in the high chair....or picnic outside together.....or DS7 might have a playdate and eat with whomever he's playing with....or just eat at the table in the dining room where we're doing school work. I'm just not hard and fast about lunch - when we're hungry we eat and it can be any number of places, but mostly at a table.

 

Both DH and I grew up in families that ate together at a table too.

[mom31257]

We almost always eat at our kitchen table. We also eat almost every dinner together. The kids and I don't always eat breakfast and lunch at the same time, but I do try to have us eat lunch at the same time a 2-3 days a week.

[higginszoo]

Yes, we generally eat around a table -- the dining room table if there are 5-6 or more of us, the kitchen table if there are 4 or less. About once or twice a month, we have pizza and movie night, where the kids use the ottoman in the family room as their table and dh and I eat on the couch or in the recliner.

 

Growing up, this was the same case for both of our families. My brother and I had metal TV trays, but actually getting to use them to eat in front of the TV was a huge treat.

[DaffodilDreams]

We eat early meals wherever we feel like it, but we do eat dinner in the dining room. We also light candles and often play classical or jazz music, but we're weird that way.

 

I grew up eating in front of the tv (though when I was lucky enough to be with my grandparents, it was always at the table). Dh grew up eating without fail at a formally set table. I enjoyed eating meals at his home when we were dating, so that plus my grandparents' example influence what we do now. Ironically dh would be quite happy eating in front of the tv. Dd prefers our dining room routine because it inevitably leads to some sort of family game night after dinner.

[LuvingLife]

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.

 

Same here, unless we have company, but that's not all the time.