At home with your nuclear family do you eat family style, or fill your plate before it gets to the table?

Fill the plates before bringing them to table, helps with portion control. Both of us are watching what we eat.

Even as a child, we filled our plates off the pots & pans on the stove & then we all set down together as a family to eat. Now that I live alone, I fill my plate in the kitchen & then take my plate to my chair in front of my TV or computer to eat.

Usually fill your plate at the table.

Family style in my family is the meal is plated at the stove and carried to the table. The only bowl on the table is the salad, which is eaten French style after the main part of the meal.

An exception was Thanksgiving and Christmas, when my father carved the meat at the table, and all the sides were on the table.

We all work, eat, and sleep at different times, and eat at our computers. I have my grandsons put their laptops on the diningroom table while they eat because they are messy. I eat in my recliner, and my laptop table is in front of me.

Each of us makes our own breakfast and lunch, and I usually make a dinner, which is left in the kitchen for anyone who wants to go in and fill their plate when they are ready to eat.

There’s no rule in the family for such thing. Daily food catering is very popular where I live and many family use this service. Here’s how it works: You typically give the catering employee a set of 4 layers food container and they will give it back to you tomorrow when they come to deliver the food at the appropriate time, after you’ve finished the food for the day you wash the food container yourself to be given to the employee again tomorrow, that is why having two sets of 4 layers (that is the rule) food container is must for this service. The food provided are varied day by day (kind of Japanese bento style but typically with Chinese cuisine). I’ll have to mention that you need to cook your own rice as these food are meant to be eaten with rice.

With this food catering system the food is laid down on the table with coverings for the day and anytime someone wants to eat he/she can simply grab a plate of rice and fill the plate with the other things from the container to eat along with the rice. No rule that demand the family members to eat together at certain appropriate time (the same thing also applies when I stay in relatives’ house). The only thing that everybody agree upon is that at certain time at night the container will have to be washed so if you pass that time then you won’t get to eat anymore. We also sometimes buy a takeout from outside when we feel like it so it’s not a mandatory rule to only eat from food catering service.

Same as @Tropical_Willie. Whomever cooks, makes plates for family. If guests are coming, it’s more buffet-style, all laid out on nice dishes so they can select their foods.

Depends on what we’re having. If a main course is some sort of baked dish such as lasagne, I’ll put it on the table in the dining room. The meat course usually goes on the table. We ordinarily serve the starch and the vegetables from the stove. Salad always goes on the table.

But sometimes I put everything in serving dishes and bring it to the dining table just to make it a little nicer and let everybody practice passing things politely.

And I do always set the table, not a full, formal setting, of course, but plates, silverware, and napkins for everybody.

I light candles on the table every night, even when we’re just having soup and sandwiches or pizza.

Family dinnertime is a less stable custom than it used to be when my sons were younger, but even being honored in the breach counts for something. I think it’s immeasurably important for the family members to sit down together once a day.

No one has ever been barred from or sent from our table. Any guest on hand is always included. But if someone is late or chooses not to come, we no longer wait for them as we used to do. If they miss out, they can look for leftovers later.

If the kids are here we eat at the table family style. If I’m alone I usually eat at my desk but sometimes sit at the table and read.