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#Post#: 54012--------------------------------------------------
The Rules of Meal Time
By: sandisadie Date: July 3, 2020, 6:36 pm
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I thought it might be fun to talk about what rules you have in
place for the meal times at your house. In our house, for the
evening meal, we recently decided that two topics would no
longer be up for discussion in any way. One is politics or
political personalities. The other is COVID19. We realized
that we were forever bringing up something about these topics
every dinner time and these discussions were annoying and not
good for our digestion!
Our other rules that have been in place forever are: no cell
phones or other electronic devices at the table. We don't have
a TV or radio on. We always eat the evening meal together, but
not breakfast or lunch. We try to eat around the same time for
dinner every day.
What do you all do?
#Post#: 54016--------------------------------------------------
Re: The Rules of Meal Time
By: NyaChan Date: July 3, 2020, 11:11 pm
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No stealing or licking food on my plate. If you are allowed to
eat it, it will be put on a plate for you and put in front of
you. To be honest, no amount of admonishing seems to work to
enforce this rule so I tend eat pretty fast.
#Post#: 54019--------------------------------------------------
Re: The Rules of Meal Time
By: vintagegal Date: July 4, 2020, 6:38 am
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well I live by myself, so no rules. Breakfast is eaten in the
kitchen, other meals and snacks in the LR while watching videos
on the PC. (my TV substitute). When DH was alive, we had a rule,
no reading at table unless you were alone.
For a while, I had a stepsister who would go ballistic if
someone else was getting butter from the other end of the stick
that SHE was getting butter from.
#Post#: 54028--------------------------------------------------
Re: The Rules of Meal Time
By: oogyda Date: July 4, 2020, 9:46 am
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[quote author=NyaChan link=topic=1771.msg54016#msg54016
date=1593835895]
No stealing or licking food on my plate. If you are allowed to
eat it, it will be put on a plate for you and put in front of
you. To be honest, no amount of admonishing seems to work to
enforce this rule so I tend eat pretty fast.
[/quote]
Please tell me it's a pet you're referring to!!
#Post#: 54031--------------------------------------------------
Re: The Rules of Meal Time
By: Lilipons Date: July 4, 2020, 9:54 am
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There’s just the two of us and we’re retired but there are
several rules.
Reading is permitted at the table only at breakfast and the
reading should be news.
Lunch will be accompanied by a local jazz station unless the
station is playing something really weird.
Dinner will often be prefaced by a cocktail and the jazz station
will again be invoked to simulate a visit to a cruise ship
cocktail lounge. Dinner may be a bowl of soup and a hunk of
bread but the fiction must be maintained. The cocktail, however
will be genuine.
Shirts and a nether garment suitable to be seen in public are de
rigeur for meal service in the Pons household.
#Post#: 54034--------------------------------------------------
Re: The Rules of Meal Time
By: Wanaca Date: July 4, 2020, 11:16 am
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No feeding the cats at the table. We have nine indoor-only cats
and none of them beg at mealtimes because we've never fed them
from the table.
No disgusting topics at the table. DH grew up in a family where
any topic was okay. But I won't allow it.
No TV but that isn't an issue because our TV is in the basement
rec room.
No electronic devices but DH occasionally breaks this rule and
it drives me crazy.
Absolutely no clearing the table until everyone is finished. I
eat very slowly. It drove me crazy when we first got together
when DH would start to clear the table and do dishes when I was
only half finished with my meal. He's learned to relax and talk
with me (and he no longer inhales his meal in two minutes flat).
Meals are always at the dining room table and not in the living
room.
Soft music is okay in the background but no news or talk radio.
Although not rules, we always use cloth napkins and we silently
pray before meals at home.
#Post#: 54038--------------------------------------------------
Re: The Rules of Meal Time
By: AnnNottingham Date: July 4, 2020, 11:46 am
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We rarely eat meals together, it just didn't happen. Dinner's
left on the stove and it's serve yourself, just bring in the
dishes. We are a close family, so this doesn't bother us. We
don't really eat out (pre-virus) as DD has misophonia and
restaurants are a trial, not a pleasure.
Rather than my own family, this topic reminds me of the
different rules DH and I had growing up, specifically
communication styles at meals. My family was like Parliament;
everyone had a chance to speak, no interrupting allowed. I
wonder if this was partly because my father was nearly deaf and
couldn't hear if there were a lot of voices going on. He was
also a very formal man by personality.
DH's was the opposite. Everyone talks at once, the louder ones
overpowering quieter ones. When we were first married, I kept
waiting for my "turn" at dinner with his family and then got
angry at DH when I never got to speak!
Maybe we never quite found a compromise between the extremes,
and that's why we usually eat apart.
#Post#: 54040--------------------------------------------------
Re: The Rules of Meal Time
By: Aleko Date: July 4, 2020, 12:23 pm
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[quote]No stealing or licking food on my plate. [/quote]
Mine is the exact opposite - absolutely NO dumping food you
don't want for yourself on my plate with a benevolent beam, as
who should say 'Look how generous I'm being to you! Eat it all
up, darling!'
My late Viennese Jewish grandfather used to do that and my
parents and we kids all hated it. And now I have a MIL who does
it, if you aren't very fast and recalcitrant. I remember once DH
and I went out to a restaurant with MIL and step-FIL. She
ordered grilled sardines, and we had barely started on our meals
she decided that she had more fish than she could eat. Did DH or
I want a sardine? No thanks, we said firmly. Them she turned to
step-FIL and asked him. Now, poor step-FIL was already rather
Parkinsonian, and couldn't talk all that well or move very fast.
So he didn't reply instantly: and, I kid you not, she waited no
more than a second before picking up that sardine on her fork
and trying to dump it on his plate, right in the middle of his
steak. But DH and I both kind of lunged forward and prevented
her putting it down, while shouting 'Oi! Wait for him to say if
he wants it!'. He was able to mumble that no, he didn't, so she
was foiled (though she tried several times more during the meal
to persuade one of us to take it). But for heaven's sake: what a
way to behave! How can anybody take it on themselves to decide
that SURELY a person would just love to have a fish plonked into
their steak?
So whenever we have MIL over, or eat at her house, we have to
watch MIL for any preliminary moves so we can say in good time
'No, B, don't even think of parking your unwanted chips on me!
Put them down!'
(Don't get me wrong: I was also brought up in a frugal post-war
British household, and in a family environment I'm all in favour
of people saying, when people are far enough on in their meal to
know if they have spare capacity, to say 'These are yummy but I
don't think I can manage them all. Would you like one?' But
there's no excuse for pestering people after they have said no,
and still less for shoving it on their plates without asking.)
#Post#: 54042--------------------------------------------------
Re: The Rules of Meal Time
By: Winterlight Date: July 4, 2020, 12:34 pm
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No feeding the dogs at the table. My mom was the one who broke
that rule first, and now our spaniel sits on my dad's legs and
demands tribute when he's in his easy chair.
I live alone, so my rules are eating at the table and no
snacking. The latter only happens when I'm up really late, so I
try to get to bed on time.
#Post#: 54052--------------------------------------------------
Re: The Rules of Meal Time
By: NyaChan Date: July 4, 2020, 4:40 pm
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[quote author=oogyda link=topic=1771.msg54028#msg54028
date=1593873967]
[quote author=NyaChan link=topic=1771.msg54016#msg54016
date=1593835895]
No stealing or licking food on my plate. If you are allowed to
eat it, it will be put on a plate for you and put in front of
you. To be honest, no amount of admonishing seems to work to
enforce this rule so I tend eat pretty fast.
[/quote]
Please tell me it's a pet you're referring to!!
[/quote]
Yes! Lol I live alone w a cat
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