I never had to eat with my family during routine meals... I'm now long past being a teen, and I still do not understand why some families insist upon watching and listening one another chew on things... (For interaction, there are other, much better times. I personally was taught it is not polite to chew and talk.)

My mother insisted i eat at the table, when literally neither her or my step father ate at the table themselves. I don't have siblings either, they just had me eat alone at the table for some reason. They're kind of weird and hypocritical

Wtf

That sounds pretty sad, 15 :(

My parents always made us eat at the table. that was when we'd all catch up on each other's days and whatnot. Also, every Sunday we have Sunday lunch, even to this day. Everyone sits and eats and chats and then we all nap. It's pretty nice. I also never liked eating in my room anyways, never wanted crumbs or anything on my bed.

Actually most teenagers eat in their rooms

Why is this downvoted so much? I agree 100%! If those are the rules, then she is expected to follow the rules. If she is going to be rude the entire time, have her do the dishes or clear off the table.

She followed the rules. Unless you are going to make a new rule of she has to fake happiness in which case that's ****** up

Normal people have table in their room, at least for studying.

k

Or perhaps she simply does not like being stared at by another person who is chewing.

I highly doubt this is some sign of something wrong and rather is just a teenager disobeying their parent. Eating in your room which is fairly common isn't a bad sign.

She didn't disobey her parent, she sat at the table. She merely showed her displeasure at her mother by glaring.

I don't know why #6 is getting down voted. Of course there's the possibility nothing is wrong, but teenagers sometimes have shit they won't talk about and display it in weird ways. When I was in high school, every Friday I'd go to bed at 3 pm and wake up at 9 am. My mom would come in at 6 and ask me if I wanted dinner and I'd respond "no, I'm just tired." No one asked me what was wrong. If you're wondering, it's because I went all week averaging 2 or less hours of sleep a night. I'd be texting all my suicidal friends, making sure they were okay, and didn't start my homework until late into the night. When I approached adults about my friends' problems, I was told 1) I was making it up for attention 2) my friends were making it up for attention or (my personal favorite) 3) to "Talk to an adult about this" (thank you 52 yo mom...) It got to the point where I thought I was the only one who could deal with it. The weight of so many lives are heavy... Or she's just a spoiled brat.

Maybe she just likes to eat in her room. It's much more time efficient because you can do stuff while eating, and you can eat without other people looking at you. It doesn't mean that she has an eating disorder

Give and take, just treat them as people not property.

I eat in my room all the time. no roaches. why would roaches come from eating in your room versus a proper dining area?

I mean you don't want roaches in your room, sure. But if you get roaches you're most likely going to get them no matter where you eat.

Uh, if you're getting roaches simply from eating in your room, then you've probably been leaving plates of old food lying around.... You really think bugs are going to just magically appear because they smelled good in that location once, hours before...? Do it properly and clean up after yourself and this won't even be an issue, ever.... It's not that hard.

It's a dysfunctional family thing. My family never ate together, everyone served themselves whenever dinner was done, whenever they felt like it, and ate wherever they felt like eating. This happened because my parents hated each other.

I interpreted this to mean that she's not allowed to eat snacks in her room, not a full family dinner. I always ate dinner with my family (although I know that's not the norm for everyone), but would sometimes eat food in my room while doing homework.

It is NOT a "dysfunctional family thing". Some people just don't feel the need or want to all sit and eat together. Not everyone has a bunch of people in their house either. If it's like an only child and a single parent, maybe they don't want to spend every moment together. Not everyone has a swarm of siblings or even two parents. They don't need as much time because there's less people. So do not say that anyone that doesn't eat with their brood of relatives is "dysfunctional". That's not remotely true.

I do it but mainly because I'm anti social and I just don't like to talk and eat. When I eat I just want to enjoy my meal while watching something.