What happens when you tell your dad that you’ll be traveling home for a visit and will be there in time for dinner?
Well, in my case…he would expect my family to show up around noon. But in reality, we wouldn’t show up until 6ish. Oops.
This has certainly been a problem before. I have learned to be very specific about what I mean when I say “dinner” to my dad who lives in Kansas.
I grew up calling the noon meal dinner and the evening meal supper. When I got married and moved to Nebraska, it seemed that most people called the noon meal lunch and the evening meal dinner. Therefore I defied the loving teaching I had been raised with my entire first 21 years of life and converted to become an evening time dinner eater. Why, I haven’t eaten supper in years. Oh, except for the last time I went to Kansas. I suppose then I had supper several nights in a row.
Maybe it’s a family thing. Maybe it’s regional. But what I want to know today is…
When do you eat dinner? Lunchtime or evening time? Ever showed up to someone’s house for dinner at the wrong part of the day?!
Jena says
we never eat dinner…It is breakfast, lunch and supper!!
Jessie says
We have breakfast, lunch, and dinner, as I did growing up. Unless it’s a holiday at my grandmother’s house. Then Thanksgiving/Christmas/Easter Dinner starts at around 1pm.
Tracey says
I also grew up with breakfast, lunch and supper. Holiday meals, usually eaten in the mid-afternoon, were called dinner (i.e. Christmas dinner).
Holly Anderson says
I am from Iowa, and my family used breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We could also call it supper, but usually dinner.
Misty says
We eat breakfast, lunch and dinner in our home – in that order. However, my family tree is deeply rooted in the south (and some relatives that moved to Kansas, now that I think of it :) and I recall the supper/dinner dilemma from my childhood. I never really cared much what they called it – I knew there were good things waiting and I was keen to oblige the cooks by cleaning my plate at each meal. My momma raised me right – however, I have learned that if I use a smaller plate I don’t have to feel so guilty these days about finishing it off. That’s just an added bonus for you – you know, not that you asked for dieting tips or anything. :)
Karen says
In our house, we generally call meals breakfast, lunch, and supper with the biggest meal of the day interchangably being called “dinner”. On Sundays and holidays, that’s generally lunch. Most days dinner and supper are synonymous.
carla says
We eat breakfast, lunch and dinner (We live in Mo…right near the Kansas border!) But, I have family that says supper….we always specify a time to avoid confusion!
Christie says
Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner…. or at times it’s been Breakfast, Lunch, and Supper… but never Dinner for Lunch. :)
Sweetpeas says
For us (both when I was growing up, and now), dinner is the “big meal” of the day. So during the week, when we have the main meal at night, we eat lunch, then dinner. But on Sabbath, we eat “dinner” when we get home from church and a light supper in the evening. On holidays (Christmas, Thanksgiving . . .) we tend to eat brunch and then “dinner” around 4pm. So, it’s more the “big meal” than a specific time for us.
Amanda Fletcher says
Breakfast, lunch, and dinner – in south FL when I was a kid, in southern CA where I grew up, and in north TX now.
Beth says
I grew up in New Brunswick (Canada), and it was always Breakfast, Lunch, Supper for me… “dinner” was used for special occasions sometimes… but it was always at suppertime. When I moved to Ontario (Canada), I discovered that no one there said “supper”, it was always “dinner”. I’ve never heard of dinner being at noontime though…
Nicole says
I grew up in Lincoln and it’s definitely breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Now I’m living in Colorado, and it seems to be the same. I do have a lot of midwest friends, though . . .
Laura says
Dinner in the evenings and we are in KS. My daughter and I just finished the LIttle House series, so we’ve recently had this discussion, as they ate a noon dinner.
kristin says
I live in Kansas also, but for us lunch is at noon and dinner and/or supper are one and the same. LOL
Catherine says
We have lunch and dinner, although my English grandmother used to call the midday meal dinner and the evening meal ‘tea’. Sometimes I find myself calling the family to the table to ‘tea’ in the evening.
Erica says
I grew up with breakfast, dinner and supper but once I moved out west at age 13 it was breakfast, lunch and dinner
Org Junkie says
LOL, we have this same problem in my family. My Ont family calls it dinner and supper but here in BC we call it lunch at noon and dinner is definitely the evening meal. It gets confusing at times for sure :)
Lisa L says
I grew up with breakfast, lunch, and dinner; but if we had a big meal at lunchtime, which we did on Sundays, then we called that dinner. So now every time I call our Sunday noon-time meal “dinner” my boys look at me like I sprouted another head. They’ll get it one of these days, though!
jayme says
We have breakfast, lunch, and dinner. As a kid though…yeah…there was the dinner/supper issue. It didn’t stick though. Lunch is lunch. Period. :)
Angie says
I live in Georgia and we call our meals Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner. But when my in-laws have us over for dinner they tell us to ‘go ahead and dip your plate’ instead of ‘go ahead and make your plate’.
Em. says
It’s breakfast, lunch, then dinner here in Michigan. Supper is a rarely used word in these parts. You’ll occasionally hear it, but not often. I can imagine it would get quite confusing …
carmen says
We usually call it breakfast, lunch and dinner. But, I remember my grandpa saying that the noon meal was called dinner and evening meal supper. I also think in my family it depends on what is being served. If it is a big meal at noon then it is dinner. Like we always eat “Christmas dinner” in the middle of the day. A simple meal like sandwiches is lunch.
Sheena says
I grew up in Texas and ate breakfast, lunch, and dinner. My husband, who’s from Ohio, only calls the noon meal “dinner” when we’re going to his Mom’s for that meal. Strange. :)
Michelle says
Breakfast, lunch, dinner. I grew up all over the South, but now live in Kansas. I haven’t actually heard the supper/dinner debate and we have lived here a little over 5 years now! Huh!
Deja says
I live in West Texas…transplanted from Upstate NY…
The older generation down here eats breakfast, dinner and supper. My children were quite confused our first several months here when we would eat meals with other families, because they had learned (in NY) to eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Shortly after moving here, my 5 year old exclaimed tearfully one night, “I didn’t even have LUNCH today.” I gently explained that she had dinner at her Grannie’s house…at lunch time. Then we went out for supper. Poor thing, she was so confused!
Camille says
I grew up in Michigan and it was breakfast, lunch and supper, but now I call “supper” dinner for some reason!
Shannon says
In Oregon it has always been breakfast, lunch and dinner. But the college I went to in Kentucky was very serious about it being dinner and supper. The other words that were strange for me were the carts at the grocery store being called a “buggy” and a vacuum cleaner being called a “sweeper.” I thought they must be talking about a broom, and had a hilarious conversation before I figured it out.
Bethany says
This post reminded me of my grandmother. We always called it breakfast, lunch and dinner. She always said breakfast, dinner and supper.
Laura says
Ooh, I have that debacle when I’m visiting my family, also. I grew up in Florida and my grandparents have breakfast, dinner and supper BUT my parents have breakfast, lunch and supper. THEN when I got married, I changed to what my husband prefers, which is breakfast, lunch and dinner… Confusing much? My kids get incredibly confused when we’re visiting my family!
Laura E. says
Like a couple other folks mentioned, it’s breakfast, lunch, and supper for me, unless it’s Sunday (or a holiday), and then the noon meal is dinner… My mom pretty much never uses the word dinner, which seems kinda funny to me seeing as she would have grown up using it the same way as your dad…
One year I had multiple invites for Thanksgiving, and with the “dinner” issue, I wound up double booked for one of them…
Fifth Street Mama says
Well we eat lunch and supper. If I was invited for dinner I would show up in the evening though:)
Travelin Pilgrim says
My husband is from the South. He grew up saying dinner for lunch and supper for dinner. I grew up in the Northwest. We say lunch for lunch and dinner for dinner. It was extremely difficult when we first got married… especially with his parents. We had to make sure we communicated correctly and then we had to double communicate and MAKE SURE we knew when to show up! Now, I catch myself saying supper all the time, but I never use “dinner” for lunch. Are you confused yet?
Megan says
I eat dinner in the evening, but here in the South, there are plenty of folks (like some of the older ones) who say dinner for the noon meal. I’m in North Carolina.
Amy T. says
Breakfast, lunch, and supper for us. Oh, and lots of snacks. :)
Alison says
LOL that’s cute. Dinner is around 5:00-6:30 over here. My parents call it supper but lunch is still the noontime meal.
For a few years the word supper irked me for some reason, but then I realized that was silly. But it is still dinner for us!
Danielle says
Yeah the word supper irks me too. It’s just weird to call it that. But it’s normal if that’s all you’ve ever called it.
Hezzie lee says
“Well, we eat lunch and supper. If I was invited for dinner I would show up in the evening though:)”
I agree with this comment…
Danielle says
It’s ALWAYS been breakfast, lunch and dinner. And I’ve lived in PA all my life. But we do eat our biggest meal of the day at lunch (for digestion sake). And we have sandwiches or something light for dinner.
sally says
Dinner is at night. Except for Sundays growing up when Mom would make a roast or fried chicken or something else yummy after church, and then it was called “Sunday dinner”, and we’d just eat snacks that night. But, we’ve never said supper in reference to anything…sounds weird to me.
Jessica says
We usually call the noon meal “lunch” and the evening meal “supper”, although we sometimes do call it “dinner”.
But, my dad, too, is one who calls the noon meal “dinner”. So, sometimes, we do have to clarify as to what time dinner will be. ;)
Heather says
My husband and I had this discussion many times! He grew up with breakfast, lunch and dinner (in the city). I grew up wtih parents who knew it as breakfast, dinner and supper and then moved to an area where it is in transition…some call it breakfast,lunch and dinner and some call it breakfast, dinner and supper! So I would call the noon meal either and the evening meal either. At first my hubby didn’t know what I meant when I asked what he wanted for supper! It will be funny to see what our kids use. I lean towards lunch and supper I think…more confusion!
Jo says
This is comical…..I have mulled this around in my brain on occasion.
Growing up it was “Breakfast, Dinner, Supper”. But as I grew up and got out on my own, I noticed that sometimes you’d hear “lunch and dinner” or “lunch and supper” or…..
I started saying “lunch and dinner” since that’s the one I heard the most. Now, at 45 years old age, I’ll capitulate between “lunch and dinner” and “lunch and supper” and “dinner and supper”….I’m confused!!!!! lol
Julie says
I’m in SC. I’ve noticed the older generations call lunch “dinner” and the younger generations refer to supper as “dinner”. And in our house we have lunch and supper, but not dinner. Hmm…I guess we’re all confused in this area.
Julie says
Looked it up on Wikipedia. Here is what it said:
“Dinner is the name of the main meal of the day. Depending upon region and/or social class, it may be the second or third meal of the day.[1] Originally, it referred to the first meal of the day, eaten about noon, and is still occasionally used in this fashion if it refers to a large or main meal.”
Cassie J. says
We eat dinner after church on Sunday’s. I don’t know why, it’s just always been “Sunday dinner.” But, we have lunch and supper the other six days of the week! Those Southern sayings all have a life of their own.
michelle says
LOL!! I am a Kansas girl and was raised that it was dinner and supper but at some point it became lunch and supper and sometimes lunch and dinner…Very conflicted childhood:) I am not sure that I even know what we call it now with the kids I think lunch and supper but I may call one of the meals dinner at times:0
Terri Robinson says
I grew up in Michigan and we called it breakfast, lunch, supper. After moving to California I now call supper dinner. When my parents come to visit and refer to dinner as supper my 3 year old son always looks at them like–what are they talking about. Gotta love regional or family differences. :-)
Diana @ Paying Down the Mortgage says
I grew up with breakfast, dinner, and supper. My husband grew up with breakfast, lunch, and dinner. His parents are a great deal older than mine so we just thought it was a generation thing and not a regional one.
patty romack says
i can so relate!!!!! i grew up in iowa, where we had breakfast, dinner and supper!! then i moved to the chicago area, where i met and married my husband and learned to call it breakfast, lunch and dinner. talk about the problems it would cause when we’d tell our iowa relatives that we’d be there for dinner, only to arrive at 5 or 6:00, which was OUR dinner time. we had to apologize MANY times!!
~patty
Kimberlie says
I grew up with Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner in the San Francisco Bay Area. My family moved to Ohio for a couple of years and we had to adjust to the Dinner/Supper confusion because Dinner could mean either the noon or evening meal. Denver, Colorado was a Lunch and Dinner area, but now were back in Ohio so I’m very careful to specify a time for every meal because again, it can go either way!
AllieZirkle says
I had no idea that people used B D S. Dinner for lunch? Sooo strange to me!! as a San Diego native, you’ll only catch me saying B L D !!
Allie
Rhonda says
that dinner word is too confusing
I say breakfast, lunch and supper too, never dinner.
Stephanie Broersma says
Me too!
Kimberlee says
I grew up in WY and it was breakfast, lunch and supper with dinner being somewhat interchangeable with supper. Dinner could also mean a more formal meal…like Christmas dinner. We never called it Christmas supper. Funny post, Laura. Thanks.
B. Keefer says
A Texan born and raised, we say Breakfast, Lunch and Supper. Dinner is a large noon-ish (more like 1:00 in my house) meal, usually on special occasions, Sundays or Holidays.
Hope says
I Live in IA and we say dinner or lunch for the noon meal and supper for the evening meal. However after my daughter went to college she started saying dinner for the supper meal making things confusing for us as well.
Beth says
Dinner is the evening meal, unless it’s Sunday, and then it’s the noon meal. Confusing, I know!
Josette says
breakfast, lunch and dinner here in Arizona. (but I might say supper :)
I was wondering about soda. I grew up calling it “pop”. Nowadays I call it soda.
However if we went to someone’s house for a party (or had a party) we referred to all soda as a coke. Do you want a coke? and then asked what kind. funny huh?
elizabeth says
Ha ha we do that at our house too, with the Coke. All soda is Coke. :)
I am in south FL, btw.
Laura, we call it breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Never supper.
Lindsey @ The Herbangardener says
Fun question! I was born & raised in Colorado, and we’ve always said Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner. My grandparents called it “Supper” although they were from the mid-west originally.
To further confuse things, when I lived in New Zealand, they called the evening meal “Tea”!! It took me a long time to finally figure out that “tea” meant dinner!!
Tara says
My husband and I were just having a similar conversation about who defines dinner as the noon meal or night time meal. I grew up eating dinner at night, but found others to eat dinner at lunch time. I learned years ago that saying lunch and supper take away the risk of a problem. Glad I’m not the only one who calls it different things.
Ann says
I guess I use dinner and supper interchangably. I grew up eating dinner at noon (from Ohio) and since our family was always milking cows at “suppertime” we never sat down together to eat supper. Now I always refer to the noon meal as lunch to eliminate confusion.
Jane says
Colorado…breakfast, lunch and dinner. When my parents, from NY, come to dinner and ask about “supper” my three children laugh at them.
Dawn says
I do hope that the ladies who are being somewhat derogatory in their remarks about the word “supper” being so “weird” will keep in mind that using the word “dinner” for the evening meal sounds funny to some of us!! I was born and raised in the south, and am still here, and we have only ever used breakfast, dinner and supper. Lunch was what we ate when we were at school, but it was dinner at home!!
Laura says
I was thinking the same thing (and cringing when I read some of the comments)! Normal to you is normal to you…everything else shouldn’t be WEIRD, just different!
Deanna in Florida says
I was raised in the south small little town in central Florida and we always said dinner was defined as the biggest meal of the day, which in my family was lunchtime. I now say breakfast, lunch and dinner sometimes supper. Around my house now supper is our biggest meal so that makes it dinner.
Melinda says
I think this is a regional thing, but also becoming a generational thing. I live in the SE and we were taught to say dinner and supper, but it seems that younger people now say lunch and supper.
Tami says
I thought it was a “country” thing. I’ve lived in Nebraska almost my whole life. On the farm, we had breakfast, dinner, and supper. My city-boy husband always had breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Deanna in Florida’s definition is what I’ve always heard also. (Although if you pay attention to all those weight-loss “experts”, we probably should still be having dinner at noon and supper in the evening!)
Holly says
Hmm, interesting. I am in VA and grew up with Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner. That being said, I live in a location now where there are a lot of imports from other parts of the country (near DC). Somehow I didn’t notice it but I’ve been dropping the word “dinner” altogether, and saying Breakfast, Lunch and Supper. Funny how I hadn’t noticed it until now.
Renee says
I have the opposite regional experience. I grew up in Missouri (6 blocks from Kansas) calling the evening meal dinner. My husband’s family in Nebraska calls the noon meal dinner! I’m very careful about making plans when we’re visiting our families. We may make dinner (noon) plans with his family, then drive the three hours to make our dinner (evening) plans with my family!
LaRue MIller says
In my family my mom is Southern, dinner was at 6pm Monday through Saturday night. Sundays after church, Daddy was a preacher, we had dinner at 12 noon and supper at 6pm. Boy, were we in trouble if we called it supper any other night of the week. So my children all call it dinner except Sunday night to this day. It was very confusing to my husband.
Shelley says
Okay this is just too funny…My husband is from South Carolina and his mother loves to tell me that I am “citified” and I’m “citifying” her grandbabies…Well she was coming up to visit us in Pennsylvania and said she would be there by dinner time. So I got out a huge roast and was going to make a huge elaborate dinner. She showed up at 11am!!! So yeah, I say dinner for the evening meal. I never say supper and they all do the whole dinner=lunchtime and supper=evening meal. Good to know I’m not the only one this has happened to….^_^
Harriett says
So, in Oklahoma, on the farm, it was usually breakfast, dinner, and supper for us. Unless it was wheat harvest time, which necessitated the change to breakfast, dinner (served to the crew at the house at noon), lunch about 4pm (served to the crew in the field), and supper at home (about dark-thirty) for just the family. Did Mom and I cook all day? Yes we did.
B. Keefer says
Going back and reading all the comments now, it seems that it is more of a family thing than a regional thing. It’s all in how you’re raised. :o)
Oh, and here in TX, we too call all sodas “Coke”. haha. I have family that hails from Minnesota and it cracks them up every time we ask what kind of coke they want.
Melanie says
Too funny! I grew up a couple years in TX, we have always said breakfast, lunch & supper. My hubby grew up in KS, but his folks are from NE. They live about 5 miles from them in KS now, and I still have to clarify which meal it is if they invite us for ‘dinner’!
Step says
A Michigander here and we call the meals breakfast, lunch and dinner. We really don’t do supper, though I know what it means. We used to summer over at our cottage in Canada and dinner was definiately the noon-time meal and supper was a lighter meal served in the evening.
Oh, and I read a few comments about what everyone calls a soft drink. Michiganders call it pop. I am originally from NY and I stubbornly still call coke, pepsi, sprite, the fizzy, carbonated high fructose water, soda. If you ask for a soda here in Michigan, they think you mean an ice cream soda. If you ask for pop in NY, they think you mean someone’s dad. Go figure!
Megan says
I think that should be the next question: what do you call your carbonated beverage? Soda, pop, or otherwise?
Sharon says
I grew up in Iowa with the noon meal being considered Dinner and the evening meal Supper. Then I move to California and no one ever heard of Dinner at noon so the evening meal Dinner.
Later I lived in Florida where my husband was in the Navy. Our first Thanksgiving he invited all the guys that couldn’t go home for the holiday to our small mobile home. It was my first experience with turkey & pumpkin pie etc. We had invited them for Dinner which to us then meant the evening meal. One of the guys from Wisconsin showed up at noon for Dinner. My husband who had had night duty slept most of the day while this guy had a sandwich and watched sports on the t.v. while I nervously prepared Thanksgiving “Dinner” . It went fine and we really did enjoy being able to share a meal with a bunch of guys who would have had to eat in the mess hall. The guys were truly appreciative. I still look back at that day and wonder how I pulled it off. I think God must been whispering in my ear as I cooked that meal as my cooking skills were pretty minimal as a young bride.
Amanda says
Having grown up in Wisconsin on a farm we were a breakfast, dinner and supper family. After marrying a man raised in the city, it is now breakfast, lunch and dinner. It drives him crazy when my mother would invite us over for dinner and mean a noon meal. She now asks us to come over for a noon dinner or a 5pm supper to avoid any confusion!
Melia says
Monday through Saturday it is Lunch and Dinner. On Sundays it is Dinner and Supper. I have no idea why.
Karen says
My husband and I were both raised with dinner being at noon and supper being in the evening. What I find extremely interesting is that we are both from Nebraska (I was raised in Northwest Iowa though), and we now live in Nebraska as well. In fact, not far from you – which I find interesting when you look at the variety of terminology people use just within a small area. Even in our surrounding area, and within our relationships with people at work or church, you find such a wide variety of they way people use words.
Rebecca says
We eat breakfast, lunch, and supper. We use the term dinner to refer to a large meal. It can be scheduled at any time and often (though not always) implies that we will be having guests. For example, we usually have our Thanksgiving Dinner at around 12:30 pm. Christmas Dinner is often at around 6 pm.
Regarding soft drinks: Here in the south, it’s all called Coke. If we tell you we’ll bring a few bottles of coke to the picnic, we might bring Coca-Cola, but it is more likely that we will bring root beer, Pepsi, orange soda, sprite, and any other flavor of coke we think people will like. It might even include sweet tea and bottled water.
Amanda Y. says
My grandparents from central Pennsylvania use dinner and supper, but I was raised in almost the same area (2 hours away) and learned lunch and dinner…crazy isn’t it?
Debbie Patterson says
I live in Illinois and I call the noon meal lunch and the evening meal dinner BUT many people here I know call the noon meal lunch and the evening meal supper, so I think it’s more of a “family” thing…not necessarily a regional thing. Others I know call the evening meal supper ecept on Sunday, the evening meal is called Sunday Dinner.
Heidi says
I live in the Pacific Northwest, in Washington State, and we have breakfast, lunch and dinner. Coke, at least in my family, means Coca-Cola; Pop is just carbonated soft drinks in general.