Eating at a table

[Morning Glory]

I'm truly surprised by how many members eat 'on their laps'. Its honestly not something I'd have associated with people who are cooks and 'foodies'. To me its something people who are not much interested in good food do. No criticism intended. I just find it strange.

Maybe we should add a poll?

 

[Mountain Cat]

I'm truly surprised by how many members eat 'on their laps'. Its honestly not something I'd have associated with people who are cooks and 'foodies'. To me its something people who are not much interested in good food do. No criticism intended. I just find it strange.

Maybe we should add a poll?

If I put my plate on my lap, it's hard to cut the food -- and sooner or later it will flip over and off my lap onto the floor, where the cats will get to investigate it. So - no laps for my meal!

A poll would be fun.

 

[TastyReuben]

I'm truly surprised by how many members eat 'on their laps'.

To be clear, I don't hold a tray on my lap. We use freestanding tray tables with legs, so think of it as a personal dining room table.

 

[Morning Glory]

I added a poll (just for fun).

 

[Karen W]

When the weather is nice, dining Al fresco (in the open air) on tables are my favorite way to enjoy a meal. Recreation parks or campsites on picnic tables/long wooden tables (with gathered wildflowers - sunflowers, daisies, dandelions, as the centerpiece), at the pool, or on the sundeck. Rustic dining.

 

[The Late Night Gourmet]

When young, at the table. Now only at restaurants.

This sums things up perfectly for my family:

• I work until 4:45 most days; I have a drive home of about an hour, and I usually add a workout in after work, so I don't get home until about 7:00.
• My wife gets out of work at 3:15, and has a half hour drive home.
• My son's school is dismissed at 2:30, and he's maybe 15 minutes away by bus.
• My daughter just started college, and her classes are a variety of days and times.

Without this turning into a complicated math story problem, you can see that the times don't line up. I can't reasonably expect them to wait for me (though I know this was done in Traditional Households: like many families, we we waited until dad came home before we had dinner).

We do go out to eat as a family on weekends, and that's when we have no choice but to be at the same table at the same time. I'd love to have a family dinner time every night if it were realistic, but it just isn't..

At work, it's impossible to eat at your desk, because even though you're plainly eating lunch, some goober will still come up and say, "Oh, I know you're eating lunch, but could you blah blah blah?"

I eat at my desk just about every weekday. We have a microwave just down the hall from where I sit, but I usually don't have to reheat things. Again, not the ideal state of affairs, but I've gotten used to it over the years.

 

[TastyReuben]

I eat at my desk just about every weekday. We have a microwave just down the hall from where I sit, but I usually don't have to reheat things. Again, not the ideal state of affairs, but I've gotten used to it over the years.

I'm in the office one or two days a week. I almost always leave the office for lunch.

Not only can't people at my location respect a lunch boundary at one's desk, it even spills into the break room, where people will routinely come in at 12:15PM and start asking work questions.

I hate that. I don't know why someone would think it's acceptable to say, "I know you're eating lunch, but when you're done, could you look at the Collections queue - it's not processing and it was fine earlier - when you're done, of course, I don't want to interrupt your lunch!"

You jerk, you've already interrupted my lunch!

 

[rascal]

I'm in the office one or two days a week. I almost always leave the office for lunch.

Not only can't people at my location respect a lunch boundary at one's desk, it even spills into the break room, where people will routinely come in at 12:15PM and start asking work questions.

I hate that. I don't know why someone would think it's acceptable to say, "I know you're eating lunch, but when you're done, could you look at the Collections queue - it's not processing and it was fine earlier - when you're done, of course, I don't want to interrupt your lunch!"

You jerk, you've already interrupted my lunch!

Last 30 years I've never stopped for lunch, I eat on the run if anything. But don't stop for "smoko" or lunch breaks. I just like to keep moving. I do stop,for lunch at home in the weekends.

Russ

 

[rascal]

Although when helping a friend truck driving, he makes me take a break. Occupation and safety says by law I have to stop. I guess that's why I worked for myself for 30 years. Never liked being told what to do.

Russ

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

It looks like I'm the odd one out.
My early years were spent eating at the table but then mum remarried and wasn't home. We cooked for ourselves from an early age (8 years old) and work no patents home, are where we wanted, usually the tv room or our bedrooms.
When things got bag, it was almost always our bedrooms, out of the way. The sole exception was one day a week when we were picked up from school by our grandparents and taken to their place. Evening meal was at the dining room table. It was cooked by our Grannie and served at 6:05pm exactly. That gave grandad time to catch the evening news headlines.

If we were staying with them for school holidays them lunch could be at the dining room table or the kitchen counter depending on how many were eating. The kitchen counter was only big enough for 2 people.

The direct result of this eating in our bedrooms was that our never happens now. Then our bedrooms were a refugee from the rows going on at home. A way of avoiding our (now ex) step father and his temper. WayNe's just not to be seen, end of story.

My husband's family all are together at the kitchen table. Meals were served promptly and you were expected to be there. If you weren't it had tho have been arranged else no food would get put aside for you. It didn't matter what meal it was. Breakfast being the only exception, still taken at the kitchen table but not necessarily all together.

Now we operate a system of at the table. Which table is another matter. Indoors or outdoors depending on the weather. Even au my sister's we've cleared a space on the table in order to eat at one. This one's in the kitchen. But she also has one outside as well.

Food in front of the tv is unheard of. We eat at a table. Even when hubby is away from home I'll still sit at the table and eat. I just do away with the no electronics rule when in alone.

It's snacks only in front of the tv.

 

[Windigo]

We eat at a dining table near the open kitchen, or we eat at the bar built around the kitchen. We do eat snacks in front of the tv or sometimes desserts.

Usually we eat breakfast and lunch at the kitchen bar, and dinner at the table. The boys (my stepsons) eat all their meals at the dinner table as they are exeptionally messy and that keeps the mess in one place .

We eat dinner together when my husband is home.

 

[Mountain Cat]

This sums things up perfectly for my family:

• I work until 4:45 most days; I have a drive home of about an hour, and I usually add a workout in after work, so I don't get home until about 7:00.
• My wife gets out of work at 3:15, and has a half hour drive home.
• My son's school is dismissed at 2:30, and he's maybe 15 minutes away by bus.
• My daughter just started college, and her classes are a variety of days and times.

Without this turning into a complicated math story problem, you can see that the times don't line up. I can't reasonably expect them to wait for me (though I know this was done in Traditional Households: like many families, we we waited until dad came home before we had dinner).

We do go out to eat as a family on weekends, and that's when we have no choice but to be at the same table at the same time. I'd love to have a family dinner time every night if it were realistic, but it just isn't..

I eat at my desk just about every weekday. We have a microwave just down the hall from where I sit, but I usually don't have to reheat things. Again, not the ideal state of affairs, but I've gotten used to it over the years.

When I worked 10-11 hour days, it was a relief to go home and eat at a table. Then again, I live alone (and did so for much of those working years). I think the question was about eating at tables, and not necessarily with the rest of a family?

When I had a housemate, his schedule was different than mine, and he punted for himself for all but two nights a week (which varied) in which times we cooked together and for each other. He also had a very bland set of food preferences at the time (no fish, no seafood, no lamb, limited veggies) and I wouldn't eat peanut butter. Still, I ate at the table - and unless he was eating a sub sandwich in the car (something which I still don't eat) he also ate at the table when home.

PS, he does remain one of my best friends -- and he's expanded his taste profile to love raw sushi fish - but not so much any cooked seafood... and we all ate lamb tongue together at a restaurant a couple years ago!

When I worked, I tried to get my lunch break at the cafeteria with friends. Often I did have to eat at my desk - or by the time I could eat it was 3 pm and the cafeteria was closed so yes, it was at my desk by default. (When you work in a research lab, you CANNOT eat at the lab bench! Um, many reasons!)

 

[Mewmew]

I live in an upstairs flat - there's no room in the kitchen for a table, and the lounge might be bigger than the kitchen, but there's no real room for a table either, much less folding it up and storing it somewhere. It's the only reason why I have my dinner on my lap.

 

[Mountain Cat]

It looks like I'm the odd one out.
My early years were spent eating at the table but then mum remarried and wasn't home. We cooked for ourselves from an early age (8 years old) and work no patents home, are where we wanted, usually the tv room or our bedrooms.
When things got bag, it was almost always our bedrooms, out of the way. The sole exception was one day a week when we were picked up from school by our grandparents and taken to their place. Evening meal was at the dining room table. It was cooked by our Grannie and served at 6:05pm exactly. That gave grandad time to catch the evening news headlines.

If we were staying with them for school holidays them lunch could be at the dining room table or the kitchen counter depending on how many were eating. The kitchen counter was only big enough for 2 people.

The direct result of this eating in our bedrooms was that our never happens now. Then our bedrooms were a refugee from the rows going on at home. A way of avoiding our (now ex) step father and his temper. WayNe's just not to be seen, end of story.

My husband's family all are together at the kitchen table. Meals were served promptly and you were expected to be there. If you weren't it had tho have been arranged else no food would get put aside for you. It didn't matter what meal it was. Breakfast being the only exception, still taken at the kitchen table but not necessarily all together.

Now we operate a system of at the table. Which table is another matter. Indoors or outdoors depending on the weather. Even au my sister's we've cleared a space on the table in order to eat at one. This one's in the kitchen. But she also has one outside as well.

Food in front of the tv is unheard of. We eat at a table. Even when hubby is away from home I'll still sit at the table and eat. I just do away with the no electronics rule when in alone.

It's snacks only in front of the tv.

I am pretty much like you.

I WILL have my laptop in front of me (at a dining table) if eating alone at home. If I'm outdoors, no - I'll enjoy the outdoors ambiance. If with any others at all, indoors or outdoors: no electronics. Maybe music playing, NO TV or similar. (Other than the Olympics, I could give a hangnail about sporting events, and I wouldn't even watch the Olympics with company WHILE EATING.)

I want to sit at a sturdy table, which a tray table is not.

A lot of people have built current homes where they have 1) a kitchen island with seating, 2) a breakfast nook, 3) a dining room. (And many of those probably retreat off to where that ubiquitous TV is, ie, none of those spaces!)

I have one space for eating in my current (and my last two residences) - in this case a dining space where someone doing dishes can look over and continue any conversation with people dining - and people dining are sitting at an actual table in that dining space - and they can respond back or look out windows either south or east.

(If the weather is good, we can always go outdoors - more choices out there - often I'll go bring my own meal out, eating solitary - and sit at a table enjoying the ambiance of this green and verdant landscape.) But there's opportunity for guests, as well...

 

[Mountain Cat]

I live in an upstairs flat - there's no room in the kitchen for a table, and the lounge might be bigger than the kitchen, but there's no real room for a table either, much less folding it up and storing it somewhere. It's the only reason why I have my dinner on my lap.

In your case... yes. . I'd do it your way.