Guys in work think it’s very strange.
My mum would make whatever I was having for tea and I’d eat it. Then she, and my stepdad, would make and have whatever they were eating. It carried on until I was cooking and eating my own meals.
Now I’m in my 30s, and my son eats his tea, then I eat mine. I eat separate meals from my partner as we both are gym go-ers and have different calorie targets and goals.
Anyone else?
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Nah we do this and will either decide if we’re having same meal or will have whatever we all want, first world problems eh.
I’d say the weird thing is having an opinion about the times other people eat.
Bit of a none issue. Grew up in a household where everyone had different schedules involving night shifts and such, we rarely ate the same meal at the same time.
I grew up eating every meal separately. Since I was a teen, I made my own dinner and ate alone, whilst my brother made his and my mum would make hers usually much later. We’d eat on the sofa, in our bedrooms, in front of the TV, rarely on the actual dining room table.
But now I eat nearly every meal with my husband and we both sit at the dining room table. It’s so much nicer. I want this for our kids when we have them.
I think it boils down to different perceptions of what food is to different families. Some families view food as a social thing, others don’t. In my experience if you’ve grown up with one perception you tend to find the other one weird!
Some people see the evening meal as family time as much as it is about putting food into yourself. It also makes sense to most people to make one meal for the family rather than make many meals at different times, for one thing it’s cheaper and easier.
With that said, it’s ok to not be normal and it’s ok to think something is strange.
Each to their own , do whatever suits you but i personally like the idea of sitting down for a least one meal together as a family.
Though I also love eating alone and eating slowly while watching something rather than quickly eating as happens in a group
I live with my niece and her boyfriend, and they cook all meals separately to me. We’re happy with this because we eat different things and at different times. My only wish is that we could eat together on Christmas Day, but that’s partly because they have a traditional roast dinner and I don’t know how to cook one.
Everyone is different, in our family dinner time was the only time we would be able to sit together as my parents worked like crazy especially my mum was working and did EVERYTHING else so she would get to sit down for dinner and like that was it. She’d have to go back out to work or be busy doing something for everyone else.
Whatever works for you and your family, even if it might not be the way other families do it.
My family are social with food and have dinner together but sometimes we also just dont
Like a personal discretion thing, we dont.
Growing up we always ate separately, we didn’t sit down to dinner every night. That was only for holidays.
My parents did that 80s thing of giving children “children food” (cheap, processed junk) at “children’s tea time” (early) and then making proper fresh food for my father later that we couldn’t eat. Of course, she ate a lettuce leaf and a bottle of a red wine.
Anyway, that’s not for me. I learned to cook when I left home and made a family meal, the kids eat it with me. There’s no other table to eat off and no one’s balancing on laps, think of the crumbs. So yeah. One meal, at the table.
I have gym targets/goals as well but I make the adjustments to the main meal myself without making a big deal of it. Mostly what we’re eating aligns with my goals anyway.
All depends when you need food really.
Say I had no job and free reign of when to eat throughout the day, I’d choose around 6/6:30.
But I’m currently doing 6-2:30 shifts and I live 20 miles away, and I eat lunch around 10/10:30 now so I’m finding myself eating closer to 4:30/5.
My friend works retail so sometimes early, sometimes late – if he has a day off he’ll eat around the same time as I do, and if he’s working late then it’ll be around 10pm. We’ll eat the same food but one of us tends to have it reheated or cold, I wouldn’t say it’s rare we eat at the same time but it’s probably 50/50.
Yes I’m the same without the gym bit, cheers 👍
Growing up, we ate the same meal but all in different rooms. We each eat off a tray for every meal bar the Sunday roast. We just wanted to avoid being in the same room as my dad for too long. Nowadays, my mum, my sister and I all eat at the dinner table together and are much happier for it.
Not at all. As long as you’re all happy with that then happy days. Some families like to eat around the table, or in front of the TV and some in their own company doing as they please.
I grew up with meals being a social thing with me and at least one parent, and tried to apply that to my family.
Didn’t work. One kid has ARFID so it’s a case of being relaxed enough to eat at all, two other autistic kids like eating alone, except on special occasions. Bloke and I try to eat together most days, but he needs his quiet lunch breaks too.
We still do bedtime stories and chat, though. Works for us.
We all eat separately cause we all like different things
I find that completely normal. Growing up I’d be glued to the Xbox, and I’d eat whilst playing. That has now turned into, getting into bed to have my dinner and watch TV.
But at my girlfriends house, we’ll sit at the table, eat and continue to talk for over an hour.
I’ve known two couples who ate separately. Both because they had quite different tastes in food. However, I personally found it weird in both instances.
No, I’d hate that, meals are a nice social time for our family.
My wife, son and I rarely eat together. Twice a week usually, largely due to my wife finishing work later than I do. I tend to cook my son his tea after school and then my wife and I sort ourselves out at some point in the evening.
Do what works for your life. A lot of people force family time at specific times, but as long as you all make time for each other it’s fine
My mum would make everyone the same thing, if you didn’t eat it you went hungry.