You wouldn't think what time you ate your evening meal would concern anyone.
And you definitely wouldn't think what you called that meal would bother people.
But one mum has gone on a furious rant about the "mealtime snobbery" she has experienced from her neighbours.
She said a couple were "patronising" when she told them she had eaten by 6.45pm.
Her post on Mumsnet led to a chorus of parents who had also experienced the same judgement.
She wrote: "What on earth is this mealtime snobbery about?
"At 6.45 this evening, darling husband and I went to sit outside at front of the house to have a coffee and enjoy the last of the sun - we live in a close with benches outside the houses.
"Almost immediately our neighbours came back from a dog walk. They chatted for a few minutes and then she said she was going in to make dinner.
"I mentioned just in small talk that we'd already eaten. And I swear she did a head tilt and tinkly laugh as she said gosh that's early.
"Then she went inside and her husband arranged his face in a sort of patronising / pitiful expression and asked why we'd eaten so early.
"It's not just them, I've come across it loads of times. It's as if there's a bizarre sense of superiority to eating at 8 rather than say 6."
Another parent agreed, saying: "I hear you. We eat at between 5.15 and 6 (because we are hungry then and because we start the day early) and I sometimes feel we are being a bit sneered at. But mostly I don't care!"
Some commenters suggested reasons for the snobbery.
One person wrote: "It stems from aristos back in the day having High or Afternoon Tea (depending on whether kids or adults being served) at around 4pm, so dinner wouldn’t be till 8 or 9.
'I couldn't care less what anyone else thinks'
And the conversation then descended into whether tea, dinner or supper was the correct name, with some people saying supper should actually be a snack before bed - and others saying they had two meals, one around 4/5pm and one at around 8pm.
We think one parent summed it up when she said: "We eat at 6, always have done. I couldn’t care less what anyone else thinks or when they eat, this is what I do. Don’t worry about them, if they think it odd, then surely they’re the weird ones for not understanding that different people do things differently to them."
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