Is it considered rude to eat your meals in your bedroom in American culture?

40 comments

1. Entirely depends on the family. When I was younger we’d typically all eat dinner at the table as a family. As a teenager I ate most of my meals in my room more often than not.

   If I’m staying over at someone else’s house though I’m going to try and avoid eating in their guest room.

2. Uh, depends. Is the rest of the family sitting down to eat together? Rude. You live alone? Not rude. Your Aunt Gertude is visiting and going off on a rant about ‘dem dam foreigners?’ Still rude, but understandable to avoid Gertrude.

3. Depends. Are there other guests eating? If so, yes. If you’re alone? No

4. Not inherently rude, no. I wouldn’t do that in someone else’s home though. 

   Some individual families may have rules against it or only allow it for some meals and not others. In my house there are meals we eat together and there are meals we don’t. 

5. Depends on the household. I grew up that way where we rarely ate at the table, but then I came from a very broken home and am estranged from all my biological relatives minus one of my brothers. I personally like eating at a table with people, but I eat on the couch watching movies sometimes.

6. Not as far as I’m concerned in my family. I did have ban it when my kids were teenagers. Every spoon and bowl in the house had disappeared. They were all in various bedrooms.

7. Are you alone or the only one eating? That’s fine.

   Is everyone else eating at the table and you’re just trying to be a lonely loner on a lonely road? That’s rude.

   What about in the country that you live in?

8. I don’t think it’s rude but I don’t like it because I’m scared of getting bugs/mice. Rather keep it confined to a single area lol

9. Putting aside rudeness, I would never have been allowed to for simple cleanliness reasons. Food doesn’t go anywhere other than the kitchen and dining room, so that you have fewer places to worry about cleaning up crumbs to avoid attracting pests!

10. Depends on the situation. If there’s a family meal and you take a plate into your room then it’s rude. On the other hand cooking a meal for somebody doesn’t entitle you to verbally abuse them while they eat it.

    If you’re responsible for cleaning up after yourself and making your own food then I don’t see any reason to not eat wherever you want. Leaving half eaten meals, and dirty dishes in a room can attract pests so if that’s an issue I can see it being banned.

11. My family did not allow food outside of the kitchen for cleanliness. We always ate dinner together and would sometimes eat breakfast and lunch together on the weekends as well. You were expected to participate in the family dinner (and we took turns helping to cook and clean up) but otherwise were free to eat whenever you wanted, as long as you kept it in the kitchen and didn’t eat important meal ingredients. If we didn’t like the family dinner, we were asked to try a bite of each unfamiliar food and then could make another dinner for ourselves.

    As an adult, I also do not allow food outside the kitchen and I would find it rude if a guest took food into a bedroom.

12. As long as you’re intending to throw it away after finishing, then it’s fine.

13. My parents were strict about this and I was not allowed to eat in my bedroom. When I moved out on my own, I never did it. The thought of eating in my room is gross to me.

14. It’s not inherently rude and I do it all the time. But assuming the family gets together and eats meals together, then generally you’re supposed to do the same.

15. It can be. But it’s a hygiene thing in my family.

16. Depends, if guest are over it’s considered quite rude but if it’s just another day, no.

17. Not rude, just looked down up on. Standard teenager behavior, wanting to eat in their own space.

18. Not in our home

19. There is no one acceptable way. It all depends on the individual household. Usually based off how the people who are now the adults in the house grew up. Maybe they liked how their parents did it and want to do the same, maybe they hated how their parents did it and want to do something different. But yes, if there is more than one person eating the same meal at the same time it is usually considered rude to take your food and go to a separate room and eat it there.

20. I had a difficult family life as a kid and ate meals at the table with the rest of the family maybe a couple times of year. Only on holidays. Otherwise we all took food to our prefered places and that was that. I had to serve food to the adults and then sometimes I’d sit at the table if no one else was there. My sister and I often shared our own meals I prepared/bought separately in my bedroom.

    When I lived on my own I only ate at the kitchen table.

    Now that I live with random roommates I barely know (and we lack a kitchen table) , I eat at my desk in my room. The other roommates generally eat in the living room but I have no interest in watching TV while enjoying my food. This is in Europe.

    I never thought about how culture would factor into this. I was born in the US but we had a multigenerational household with 9 people. Maybe it’s easier to sit and eat together if you have a nuclear family.

21. If you have people over. Yes it is very rude

    If you are home alone. No, do what makes you happy.

22. like everyone else is saying it depends on the occasion. I personally tend to take my plate into the room with my computer and watch videos while my parents eat out in the living room on normal days. if I have a friend over I’ll stay out in the kitchen, if we have family over I’ll stay in the kitchen/living room.

23. growing up in my house, no, especially as me and my brother got to be older. my family rarely ate at the dinner table together because my dad had weird work hours and me and my brother had various after school activities so it was usually easier to just pick up fast food or have every man fend for himself

24. I eat meals in the kitchen, but eat snacks in the bedroom.

25. Are you a teen?

26. Every family is different. Mine never has strict dinners at the table together—some people sit on the couch and watch TV, some eat it at the table, and some eat it in their room. I guess other families might be more strict about it.

27. Depends on the situation. Family meals are generally done together whether at a table or in the living room watching a movie/television or outside barbequing. If you live with roommates, it is totally acceptable to eat alone.

28. Depends. Where is everyone else?

29. Not rude but I was never allowed to eat outside of the dining room, living room, or kitchen because of crumbs which can attract pests.

    Even as an adult I will not do it, I find it unhygienic.

30. Yes it is. Unless it’s Mother’s Day. That’s the one day a year a mom can “eat in bed”.

31. Bugs and vermin would love you.

32. I don’t think it’s rude or unacceptable. That’s kind impressive if you ask me, I’d never be able to fit in my laptop

33. Rude to who?? I think that depends who you are living with lol. I currently live alone so yeah i eat in my room watching YouTube like every day. I literally have a mini fridge and microwave in my bedroom just so i dont have to go downstairs to the kitchen to always eat. Oh and mini fridges are quite common. Im moving in with a roommate soon (shes has her own mini fridge too for her room) and thats probably not gonna change too much either. I’ll probably eat in the kitchen a bit more often just to spend more time with her but im still gonna have a fridge and microwave in my room and eat there often. Most days our schedules aren’t gonna match up so theres probably not many times we would even be eating dinner at the same time. I just dont see how its any more rude to eat in my room than it is to spend my time doing anything else in my room?

    Even if we did eat at the same time and i came down to grab something to eat, if i had a reason to go back to my room like oh im working on homework rn i wouldn’t feel it was rude to just take my food up to my room. If i wasnt doing something that i wanted to finish id want to eat with her tho rather than just being on YouTube.

    If i was hanging with friends and left to go eat alone yeah ppl would probably find it rude, or at least theyd find it odd and confusing like you’re avoiding them. Same with family, growing up it definitely was a thing that we all sat down and ate dinner together at the table so no way my parents would be cool with me dipping out to go eat alone but thats when i was a child and other ppl cooked for me. If ppl are cooking for you i do feel like youre kinda obligated to eat with them. But you may just have the relationship where yall are cool just going off and doing your own thing by yourself. Everyone’s relationship and tolerance for that kinda thing is different.

    Its mostly just the setting. If youre eating alone or made your own food idk who youre be being rude to and if have a group meal planned where ppl are cooking for others and all sitting down together it isnt the eating in the room thats rude, its being blatant about not wanting to spend time with your friends and family that would be rude.

    TDLR: the real question is, is that person gonna feel salty that you dont feel like spending time with them right now. If the ppl you live with have a more casual relationship its probably very normal that you dont spend every second together and do some things on your own. If something is planned together tho yeah dont blow off ppl especially if they took the time to cook for you.

34. I live by myself and don’t entertain. While I do have a kitchen table, that’s where the 3D printers live.

    Growing up, we generally ate as a family, either at the kitchen table, dining room table, or occasionally in the den watching a movie. That was always my favorite.

35. Every family is different

36. In my home it would be rude. No food in the bedrooms or living room; I don’t want crumbs and potential spills anywhere but the kitchen and dining room. I do enough battles against mess and ants as it is.

37. No my family has never eaten a meal together except for on holidays

38. If you need some time away from people, then by all means go eat by yourself. It’s better than forced socialization when you need to recharge. It’s more rude to expect someone to sit there and pretend just to keep to social norms.

39. Varies by family. Some families are still tight knit and traditional and do stuff like family dinner. Well other families just take their food and go wherever. My family used to do family dinner but would allow me to go upstairs to my room with a tray to catch crumbs and potential spills as my mental health worsened.

40. My kid’s bedroom: where dirty dishes go to die