Tea for Dinner?

In California we have three meals a day: breakfast, lunch and dinner.  I spent some time in Oklahoma many years ago and their meals were breakfast, dinner and supper (the heavy meal was the mid day meal).  In Liverpool, people eat breakfast, dinner and tea.  Yep, they eat tea.  And sometimes they will have a light supper before bedtime.  The first time I ever heard someone say "I'm cooking tea" I thought they were taking the p*ss.  But that's what they call dinner in the north of England.  

I am just curious about the rest of you.  Some of you are from the midwest, some from the east coast, and you all live in different parts of the UK.  How do they refer to their mealtimes where you come from, or where you are now living?

They also call dinner "tea" here in Scotland and supper is a late night snack.  Luckly this fact has bypassed my husband (perhaps it is because he lived in England for almost 10 years and everyone says he has a "posh" accent.) so we never get into the whole dinner as tea discussion

Where I come from we eat breakfast, lunch and supper, though we also tend to call the biggest meal of the day dinner.  e.g. dinner is supper throughout the week, but we would have sunday dinner, which was at lunch time.

for me growing up in WI/MN, the meals were breakfast, lunch, and supper.  dinner was just another word for supper.

For me in NY it was always breakfast lunch and dinner. For my grandaparents and others of their generation it was the same but as they got older they began having their heaviest meal of the day for lunch and calling it dinner. This seemed to be the trend amongst their friends as well and I always assumed it was due to digestive issues.

As for tea/dinner in the UK. Some do call it tea here in London, but I've learned it's a class thing. If you're upper middle to upper class you would never call it tea.

Breakfast, lunch and dinner...never did refer it to supper.  The only time dinner was the biggest meal was on Sunday's - pasta.  And that dinner was a combo of lunch and dinner let's say around 2 pm or so...

I also found it strange when I first got here that lunch time was between 1 and 2.    Where I come from lunch is at noon, but we start the work day at 8 instead of 9, so maybe that accounts for it.  Now I love going at 1 as it makes the afternoon so much shorter.  

Like you Scrumpy I live in the north of England, and they all call dinner tea, and have supper as a late snack at night.  I still can't bring myself to say I'm making tea however, sounds like I'm going in to brew a big kettle on the stove like some witch.

I was born in Michigan and spent most of my young childhood there, and we called it breakfast, lunch and supper, when I moved down south to Texas the only change was calling supper dinner.

As for tea/dinner in the UK. Some do call it tea here in London, but I've learned it's a class thing. If you're upper middle to upper class you would never call it tea.

Oh, I say!  Tennis, anyone?  Pip pip, cheerio and all that.  

I still can't bring myself to say I'm making tea however, sounds like I'm going in to brew a big kettle on the stove

LOL
I know what you mean, Tweets.  The first time I heard "Tea is in the oven" I expected a cup and saucer on the rack or thought it was an extreme way to keep the teapot warm ... but we have a tea cosy, no need to turn on the oven.  Silly me!  

an extreme way to keep the teapot warm

  lol scrumpy    some of you guys really know how to make a girl laugh  

The first year we were here my daughter was invited to a friends house for tea. Upon her return she told me she had a really good time but they never did give her any tea, just loads of food.

I haven't heard that yet..but i guess they do in southeast england as well....breakfast,lunch and dinner....same here.... ..learning so much a bout the culture...even from you guys....

hmm...i've heard about the 'class thing' when i first moved here, too.  in hawaii it's 'breakfast, lunch, dinner' too.  some people here thought when i said dinner i meant lunch.  very confusing.   i thought 'tea' meant 'afternoon tea'...you know, the 4pm thing.  i got accused of trying to be 'upper class.' oh, brothers.

another source of confusion is 'brunch.' first time i made sunday brunch at home i made it at 11am and he said brunch is supposed to be closer to 1pm.   all i know is the brunches back home were open 11-230pm so to me 11am is fine.  anyone else encounter this?

I've encountered the breakfast, lunch, dinner, tea, supper thing. How many meals can you eat in one day?? I have also noticed that my husband is funny about when he will eat something in the afternoon - like making a cup of tea on Sunday afternoon has to be after 3pm? Also he is reluctant to drink a beer before 5/5.30pm and when we're at his mother's house you musn't drink booze before a certain time - funny.

In the States we always had breakfast, lunch and dinner and occasionally called dinner supper.

I have run into the brunch thing as well and they do eat it later and all it consisted of was an english breakfast  

.... when we're at his mother's house you musn't drink booze before a certain time - funny.

That is a left-over from the WWII days I am afraid to say.  It was not so long ago that pubs would not serve alcohol before 5PM on Sundays unless you had a meal.  The older generation is just so used to it.

Even the pub hours now are a left-over from WWII.  Too many amunition factory workers would blow things up because they were intoxicated   .  The government restricted the drinking hours, like closing pubs during the day for a few hours, to avoid too many of these things happening.

However we are more 5o years down the line so as a Belgian I cannot understand wa this is still the case  

I'm from the midwest - we had breakfast, lunch and supper.  Dinner was on Sunday, holiday dinner or dining out.   I lived in Texas for several years where it was breakfast, lunch and dinner...same in Georgia where I'm living (until the big move in the autumn!!) where it's the same.  

Willie is from Kent where they breakfast, dinner (lunch) and tea, although calling lunch dinner is one of those English class things and probably not correct.