Rules At The Dinner Table

Aunt Bea said:
This thread made me think of friends that grew up in homes where the parents ate steak and the kids ate hot dogs, mac and cheese, or something similar.

I grew up in a house where we all ate steak or we all ate pancakes.

How about you?
Click to expand...
that was us...... father always had the best cuts of meat, pork chops etc. I can see him now sitting at the head of the table chomping down on chops while reading or looking at the tv which was near him, .. we weren't allowed to look at the tv... ....... we kids got horrible stew..or campbells tinned meatballs ( one can between 4 kids .. and one packet of Uncle ben's rice between all of us kids) ... or Mac & cheese occasionally.. btw did you know you can have Mac without the cheese..? that's how we got it a lot of the time. with chopped liver in it instead......or we'd get Birds eye fish fingers... ( fish sticks)

There was 6 people in the household when I grew up (7 total one was already gone) .. woe betide us if we ate our way through one loaf of bread a week...

There was never anything to put on a sandwich.. so the only thing to put on a slice bread when hungry was tomato ketchup...
 

Last edited:
Dr.Colosso said:
The old generation was so extreme that their kids did the opposite. Here have some nuggets and an icecream, as long as you eat something. But now Gen Z, the young ones, go against their way too easy going parents and want to only eat healthy.
Click to expand...
I never allowed my daughter to have fast food or anything in place of a wholesome dinner.. but then I only served her food she liked. ..except brussel sprouts. She didn't like them , lol... so when she was small i told her they were crying for her to eat them, and so she would chomp them down fast...:ROFLMAO:...

However, at Chrtimas time, I let her choose anything she wanted for Christmas lunch or dinner... if she wanted a choc-ice and fries.. she could have them....
 
Not much in the way of "rules", per se.

Don't start eating until grace has been said.

Elbows off the table.

Don't take two of anything until everyone has had one. After that, it's a free-for-all.

Try everything. If you didn't like it, you didn't have to eat it but you did have to try.

No arguments at the table. We talked a lot, but arguing was a no-no.

No bolting down your food and dashing. You had to stay for a reasonable amount of time unless there were really convincing reasons to leave.

Now and then, it would get a bit rowdy and my dad would say, "Let's hear less talking and more chin music!" (Chewing)

If anyone belched loudly, my dad would put on a fancy accent and ask, "Did I awwwwsk anyone here for an organ recital?" and we'd all crack up.

No "boardinghouse-reaches" permitted. You were expected to ask for something to be passed. Not that we didn't forget the rule frequently. Dad would say "Whoa there, Private. This isn't the messhall!"

And, in addition to grace being said, my dad always said a formal "thank-you" to my mom for dinner.

If the phone rang, someone was sent to answer it, but if it wasn't an emergency, it had to be handled later. Pretty much everyone knew not to call at dinner back then.
 
hollydolly said:
I never allowed my daughter to have fast food or anything in place of a wholesome dinner.. but then I only served her food she liked. ..except brussel sprouts. She didn't like them , lol... so when she was small i told her they were crying for her to eat them, and so she would chomp them down fast...:ROFLMAO:...

However, at Chrtimas time, I let her choose anything she wanted for Christmas lunch or dinner... if she wanted a choc-ice and fries.. she could have them....
Click to expand...
Oh my mom did that with me. She had to feed me some vegetables when I was 4 or so. I remember that. I didn't want to eat it and she'd go meoww meoww meoww it's so cold outside. Can you please let me in? And then I felt so sorry for these spinach cats that I ate em lol.
 
We ate together every night. Kids had to stand behind their chairs until the adults were seated. This must be an offshoot of the rule that when adults enter a room, the kids must stand. Table manners were very important. After drinking, blot your lips before resuming eating. Napkins in lap, of course, at the beginning. There was no problem getting everyone to eat -- we all loved my mom's cooking.

I was excused from eating sliced tomatoes (now one of my favorite foods). I hated fish (flounder) so I fed it to the dog. I never got caught. I tried feeding her various greens that my dad required me to eat 1T of, but no dice. She didn't like them either.

We had to ask permission to leave the table. Kids had to clean the kitchen, which was fine.
 
Aunt Bea said:
This thread made me think of friends that grew up in homes where the parents ate steak and the kids ate hot dogs, mac and cheese, or something similar.

I grew up in a house where we all ate steak or we all ate pancakes.

How about you?
Click to expand...
Yes, it was the same for my family when I was growing up, and for my own family when I was raising kids.

That said, if one of the kids didn't like dinner I would not prepare a separate meal just for them. If they didn't want to eat what I had made, they were free to have cereal or something afterward. Of course, I always tried to make something I knew they would all enjoy.
 
hollydolly said:
that was us...... father always had the best cuts of meat, pork chops etc. I can see him now sitting at the head of the table chomping down on chops while reading or looking at the tv which was near him, .. we weren't allowed to look at the tv... ....... we kids got horrible stew..or campbells tinned meatballs ( one can between 4 kids .. and one packet of Uncle ben's rice between all of us kids) ... or Mac & cheese occasionally.. btw did you know you can have Mac without the cheese..? that's how we got it a lot of the time. with chopped liver in it instead......or we'd get Bird eye fish fingers... ( fish sticks)

There was 6 people in the household when I grew up (7 total one was already gone) .. woe betide us if we ate our way trhough one loaf of bread a week...

There was never anything to put on a sandwich.. so the only thing to put on a slice bread when hungry was tomato ketchup...
Click to expand...
I'm so sorry you and others had to live a life of food and emotional depravation(and worse) as kids.
 
We usually liked what our mother made for evening meals. We were told to never lick the plate. Our father used to tell us
about the days he spent at work. He was a boilermaker and gave a vivid description of how many rivets he fired into the boiler
and would imitate his offsider who was called The Donk who could hardly speak English. It was always quite funny.
 
hollydolly said:
There was never anything to put on a sandwich.. so the only thing to put on a slice bread when hungry was tomato ketchup...
Click to expand...
Oh God. When I was a student I lived in a big house with 5 other students and next to us lived a grandma who had her grandkids with her all the time. She was sweet, but I think she was poor. The mom was not 100 percent.

That girl always walked around with a slice of bread with butter. If there's one thing I find disgusting it's butter. She too I guess, but she got nothing else. I always let her eat at our place. The Netherlands, one of the richest countries in the world. That girl was sooooo happy. Wow I can eat as many slices of bread as I want? Wooooow! There's sprinkles, cheese, peanut butter. Kid was having a blast. So grateful. Really sad. She often came over. Her mom once picked her up and with a totally surprised face she said: You really like hanging out with her?
 
Dr.Colosso said:
Oh God. When I was a student I lived in a big house with 5 other students and next to us lived a grandma who had her grandkids with her all the time. She was sweet, but I think she was poor. The mom was not 100 percent.

That girl always walked around with a slice of bread with butter. If there's one thing I find disgusting it's butter. She too I guess, but she got nothing else. I always let her eat at our place. The Netherlands, one of the richest countries in the world. That girl was sooooo happy. Wow I can eat as many slices of bread as I want? Wooooow! There's sprinkles, cheese, peanut butter. Kid was having a blast. So grateful. Really sad. She often came over. Her mom once picked her up and with a totally surprised face she said: You really like hanging out with her?
Click to expand...
Thank you for being a good friend to her!
 
At one of the children's homes were were put into... 3 of us together, which was unusual, usually it was just me... but this time there was my brother and sister with me too...

We were there for some months and it was very regimented, but we did get very good food.. good standard healthy fayre..

We'd get breakfast and dinner.. and then lunch at school... and on weekends 3 meals a day. The kitchens were huge , with 2 cooks...and various 'aunties''...

It was where I got my love of wholemeal toast spread with butter & marmalade..something that was never allowed at home.. and to this day I love it.. in fact I had it this morning for breakfast.

However I do remember we were expected to eat everything or as much as we could. There was 16 children.. and the aunties and the Matron and we all sat at the very long dining table together for meals.

I was 10..B&S were 9 and 6 at the time... ...and my sister had a hatred of the Baked whole apples in syrup that were often served for Sunday Dessert... so she couldn't eat them,... and so having no pockets to hide the apple.. she wrapped it in the serviette, and stuck it down her knickers... until we left the table and she could dispose of it...

It still makes me laugh to this day.... :D
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top