Does this happen in your family? Dad/Granddad is first in line at dinner.

[Hamlette]

One of Mitt's sons (can't tell 'em apart) said when their family has dinner Mitt is first in line because it takes the kids and grandkids too long to go through the line and get their food. It sounded like when they were eating at home, at Mitt and Ann's house.

Sure isn't how its done in my family. My Dad was always the back of the line. Making sure everyone else got what they needed first. Even as a guest in my house, Dad and Mom went last. Making sure the grandkids got what they wanted and were settled in and then us kids. Of course, the host always goes last. In my home, I remember because I followed Dad and Mom at all the big family dinners.

How does your family do it?

[trof]

1. When I'm host, I'm last.

A a guest, I'll go first if host insists.
And only then.

[roguevalley]

48. same here. kids first, olders next and adult middles last. Never did my papa or the men

in my family go first. babies first. What a pathetic sad man this is.

[elfin]

2. Patriarchy Plus

Also bet he gobbles it up to be FIRST done.

Whatta guy.

[Care Acutely]

44. Mittens Plan for the Future: Trickle Down Gastronomics.

[1StrongBlackMan]

3. In my household ...

I am always the last in the food line ... I got that from my dad.

[jberryhill]

4. That would unusual in mine also

[liberal N proud]

5. If it is at my house, I am the last

Even after my wife.
If at a host house, I usually let everyone go and then it is between me and the man of the house.

Mitt is that selfish and his son just told everyone that.

Pay attention America, you are treading on dangerous ground if you entertain the thought of Romney as President.

[Lex]

6. Didn't you ever hear Chris Rock's routine about Dad getting the

biggest piece of chicken at the dinner table?

[Motown_Johnny]

7. Food..... Line?

My God I Must Be Old!



Back in my day people sat down at the table and said Grace before digging into the various bowls and/or platters of food in the center of the table.


We never ate cafeteria style.

[FreeJoe]

13. I'm with you

We're not a grace family, but we all wait until everyone is sitting at the fully set table before we start eating.

[cali]

17. Buffet style has been around for a long time

when you have over 20 people eating, it's not a bad idea. It's how my mother usually did it on Thanksgiving and Christmas if there were a large number of us.

[Motown_Johnny]

20. On special occasions, sure. But this sounded like it was an everyday kinda thing.

[LadyHawkAZ]

8. Our family sets up family dinners buffet-style

small children got their plates filled first by parents, then guests went in no particular order, then Mom and Dad last. I thought hosts were supposed to go last. That's common courtesy.

[broiles]

85. Teen-age boys last so there is stuff for the rest of us.

[Bobbie Jo]

9. To this day

Dad always goes last, kids first.

[Adsos Letter]

71. I'm a dad and that's the way we do it around here.

It just feels better that way. Don't really know why.

[enough]

10. He has to eat first to have time to set up the traditional

smash-the-grandchild's-face-into-the-butter trick. Has to decide which small grandkid it's going to be, then get the butter out, etc.

[jberryhill]

62. Another heartwarming Romney family tradition

Hallmark is planning to use it for their commercials.

[xchrom]

11. We all ate family style -

Everybody sat and passed the plates.

[laundry_queen]

12. We never really had an 'order'

but I can tell you one thing - my dad (or my ex's dad) would NEVER take their food before the little kids got theirs and were eating. Ever. Yet another piece that is the Rmoney shit puzzle.

[grasswire]

14. I thought he said that Ann goes first because the line is so long.

I thought it was odd, even then. Grandma is usually fussing over the table to make sure everything is perfect. I guess if you have servants, Grandma doesn't have much of a role.

[monmouth]

26. My two maiden aunts (raised on a farm) would stand by the table when people first started to

eat, and then when they were sure there was nothing lacking, would sit and eat with the family. Everyone would tell them to sit but they just wanted to wait and see if they had forgotten something. I always remember that as a kid. Grand old women..

[Frustratedlady]

30. That's the way we still do it. I do that so that when I DO sit to eat,

no one is asking for a bowl to be filled. You never know how much each person is going to dish up, so it is easiest to wait until everyone is served before fixing my own plate.

Children are always fed before the grownups.

[Igel]

15. Too small a family for a "line."

Most of the people I know of that have guests in go last in line. Size of the guest doesn't matter. Kids go in line with their parents.

Usually, I thought, it was so guests would get served all they wanted and the best. Most of the time it's vats of stuff and there is no real "best." And we all know that at the end there'll be lots of left-overs, so getting all you want isn't an issue.


Most of the people I know don't consider members of their own family to be "guests." In some of them the head of household goes first, in true patriarchal fashion. In some of them the head of household, patron-like, goes last. There might be some sort of cultural preconditioning. Haven't noticed.

[surrealAmerican]

16. Small children always go first in our family.

They are the least likely to be able to wait. After that, I don't know that we have any particular system.

[seabeyond]

18. my dad and 2 brothers stand back. hubby and i getting together. parents getting for kids...

then, everyone kinda does.

but we let the older kids who serve self go first mostly.

i am generally last

[FirstLight]

19. old school thought

the man of the house gets first dibs... Though we didn't eat cafeteria style, we sat at the table.
I recall at the table if there was a last piece of bread and I took it without asking my dad would be a jerk about it... my mom once challenged him and said that children should get more food cuz they are growing, but he said he got dibs cuz he was working for US.... seriously like 1950s thinking.

sounds rethuglican, women and children are LAST, don'tcha know?

[Cleita]

21. Eating at friends houses when I was a kid, no, the adults were served last.

There were just three of us in my house so there wasn't a pecking order. Sometimes I got fed first and she and my dad ate together alone later after I was put to bed.

[nadinbrzezinski]

22. At dinner no order... for regular meals that is

we just got food, period.

With guests, this is a very European, Eastern European tradition, the head of household is served first, then the guests, starting with women, then the children, and finally the mother.

It is a very Eastern European tradition.

For us, funny, the parrots get to eat first, but otherwise the squeaking is enough to leave you deaf!

Also in the tradition with my family, which is pretty much patriarchal, for the Jewish new year dad got the head of the fish...

[Grave Grumbler]

23. What line?

We all sit at the table together.

[MANative]

24. My late father would never take a single morsel...

from a serving dish until everyone else had filled their plates, regardless of how many times we tried to get him to take something, or even tried to add food to his plate ourselves, even in the last months of his life when he needed the strength. We all learned to just shut our mouths and fill our plates, because he'd just sit there with his hands folded until we did.

[JBoy]

25. Typical primitive republican behavior. I've got mine / first at the kill.

Sounds to me like the antithesis of being a "provider" for a family.

[Burma Jones]

27. For large, multigenerational Holiday Feasts, Thanksgiving, Christmas and Passover

Youngest Kids first, then Moms and Dads that need to eat with those really young Kids, then the eldest that may need a little help with their plates, then the older Kids and College Kids, then Matriarchs, Patriarchs and finally the cooks.........

Funny, whether it's Seder with my Inlaws or Christmas with my Family or Thanksgiving (which has had both sides), it just works out that way without any direction. For Seder and those Thanksgivings at the Inlaws, my Mother in Law does most of the cooking, and gets her chow last. For Christmas and Thanksgiving at my house, I do most of the cooking and I get my plate last.....My Inlaws are giving up the Passover and Thanksgiving duties though - they're in their mid 70's now and the kids are taking over. My Folks are also in their 70's, but I've been the Big Meal host for about 8 years now.

Day to Day with the Wife and Kids (14, 12 and 6) ......we sit around the table and generally serve the six year old first and then the rest of us dig in. It's rare, maybe twice a month, when we all don't sit down together for Dinner......I have the feeling as the kids move through High School, they'll be at fewer Dinners......hopefully not too much.

[Lars39]

28. Not in my family.

Too many adults were children during Great Depression, or were born slightly after. "Food insecurity". And after everyone eats, "Did everyone get enough to eat".

[yawnmaster]

29. I eat while I'm cooking, usually, and so one might say I eat before even the first...

in line.
by the time the line starts I'm full.

[Raine]

31. When I'm hosting a buffet I ALWAYS wait till everyone else has

gotten theirs.

[REP]

32. My uncle ate first and took the best/biggest pieces for himself.

He was also mentally ill and a John Bircher. The two were actually related.

[CountAllVotes]

33. My late father did the cooking and the serving

And, it was always, "Ladies first, Gentlemen last."

Always ...

Miss you Dad!

[whistler162]

34. WHen I am host I am in line first

and eat first. Everyone waits 5 minutes or so to make sure I don't keel over from poison!

[4th law of robotics]

39. That's sensible

I don't trust food if the cook won't eat it first.

Also it makes sense to put the eldest people in the front of the line: the have the least time left.

[uponit7771]

41. lol

[nanabugg]

35. Our family always feeds the children and elderly first.

Each parent pair or single parent is expected to see that their child(ren) (under 12) have plates fixed according to their wishes.
Offspring of elderly parents see to it that their parent is served according to their wishes.
The children are usually seated at a separate table in the same room.
Then it's every person for themselves with the women usually going first if it's buffet style.

If not buffet style.
Grandpop and Grandma always waited until everyone was seated at the table before sitting down. Then the food was passed around at the table.

[avebury]

36. But you must remember

that he is Lord of the Manor.

[LWolf]

37. We don't have a big crowd for family dinners.

We're a very small family. I'm talking a total extended family of 8; the largest nuclear family has 3 members. Our homes are small enough that we don't have room to sit all of us at the table AND have serving dishes, so we serve from the counter. When it's time to start, we clear our throats, look around, and spend a moment saying things like "Let's get started. You go first." "No, you." "That's okay, go ahead." We all compete to go last, lol, until someone sighs and breaks the log jam by getting up and serving him or herself.

[TeamPooka]

38. I would surmise he Romney's have never faced a shortage or lack of food so of course Mitt goes first

the idea they would not have enough of what they want is laughable
to them

[cally]

40. We always wait until every one is served before eating

but young kids can start before if they can't wait. My late Dad always went last no matter how often we encouraged him to go first.

[treestar]

42. No.

I cannot remember anything like this at all. Everyone sat down. Or if buffet style, there was no talk of who was first or last, it was just whoever got there in what order.

This is yet one more thing that makes me think less of Mittens. He's so weird. Even McDouche didn't have stories about him like this.

[mythology]

43. My stepdad is always last to get his food,

but that's mostly because it usually takes him 5 to 10 minutes from when my mom calls him for him to meander into the kitchen. She usually gives up waiting.

[mulsh]

45. At the formal dinners our greater family had every one waited until my grand parents were seated

and served. Usually one or two of us kids did the serving. These were event like holiday meals and special occasions. If someone else was hosting the dinner we waited for them be seated and served. At nightly dinners at my parent's house we always waited for our dad and mom to sit down. It was part of us kids learning and using table manners.

At big old barbeques and other informal dinners and meals things tended to be an eat when you get it kind of thing. At those events and parties it was sometimes a good idea to "count your fingers before you leave the table" and "watch out for flying cutlery".

Every insight into the Romney's "family life" makes me feel they're ill mannered and rude. All that money and not one little etiquette class. How sad.

[grasswire]

46. some guys go through the line last to take big servings

I knew a couple of guys like that. Big eaters. They would be last in line so that they could take their time and really fill their plates. Both MDs, incidentally. Both dead too young.

[Ilsa]

47. He's a bully. He does what he wants. nt

[HiPointDem]

49. At family gatherings when I was a kid, it was men first (cause they were the workers), then kids,

then the women.

Now it's random.

[DLevine]

72. Yes, that is how it was in my mom's family when she was a child.

They had a large extended family living under the same roof (very religious PA Dutch). The women would cook, of course. Men would eat first. When they were finished eating, the women would do the dishes, & serve the kids. When the kids were finished, the women did the dishes again and finally served themselves.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

50. We set down and pass the food around.

Parties, where I have a buffet, we feed the kiddos and moms with young kids first, and then everyone else gets in line. It's a random order after the little ones and moms.

[Arugula Latte]

51. My dad would get his food first, sit down, and start eating, regardless of everyone else.

He probably felt entitled to act like that because he was a white male born before WWII. I just thought it was rude. My husband would never, ever do that. He's the one who cooks most of the meals, anyway.

[eShirl]

52. we sat around the table and passed serving dishes of food to the left, after taking some

a.k.a. family style

pass the turkey on the left hand side

[texanwitch]

53. My father told me that when he was little the kids ate last.

The adults ate first, the kids just had to wait.

Seems cruel to me.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

54. Maybe because of all the times Mitt pushed faces into dinner plates on the way to the head of the

table, Three Stooges style, no one wants to sit down in front of a plate of food until Mitt is seated and on his way to finishing his own meal.

[Aviation Pro]

55. Kids always eat first....

...I always eat last.

Learned this in the service, it's called leadership.

It's what Lurch the Fucking Stiff^TM lacks.

[Firebrand Gary]

56. Kids, elderly, women, men. In my family, in that order!

[Scootaloo]

57. Kids first, then free-for-all

The goal is to shut the kids up while the rest of us have fork-fights over the neck skin.

...We are not especially civilized people.

[kestrel91316]

58. My dad was raised a jack Mormon but never had a thing to do with them after the local

bishop/Boy Scout leader shafted him for not being churchey. His parents taught him good manners: ladies before gentlemen ALWAYS. Never pushy, never needed to be first in line at anything.

Rmoney is a PIG.

[KansDem]

59. When we have family over for a big meal...

...like Thanksgiving, my wife and I set the table and invite the guests to help themselves. I go last because I slip out to the kitchen while everyone is helping themselves (no particular order) for one last glass of scotch before coming back with the wine...

[brewens]

60. When I'm at my girlfriends, we go last. I always jump in and do dishes.

She has about 12 or 13 people at holiday dinners. I'm the potato peeler too. While watching some of my vast collection of holiday DVD's with the kids. She does most of the hard work. Bacon in the dressing! That is just unfair. Makes me go for the misery plate every time!

[Kalidurga]

61. Never saw that happen at any family dinners.

And the style food was served depended on who's house we were at. My great aunts was the best. She was a caregiver sort of a foster home for disabled adults. She would make their dinner well before any guests arrived and she made extra that day. The left overs would be set on a table downstairs where we were going to eat together. Anyway people arrived well before the family dinner and we could snack on left overs, many of us kids didn't actually have family dinner per se at her house, we had our snacks and went off to play. So, the adults would all mill around talk and eat their dinner and then us kids would have their left overs if we got hungry by then. Those were huge gatherings and went on for hours and hours and hours seemed like it anyway.

Grandma's house was everyone sit down at a table and we passed food around.

Another aunts house we would get a snack and have to wait forever to have dinner that was buffet style. Moms and little kids first then everyone else no particular order. My grandpa usually ate last, but then he would be snacking in the kitchen so...

[Lugnut]

63. Nobody starts first in our house.

Nobody eats until we all sit down and start passing the serving dishes.

[tammywammy]

64. My grandfather always ate first at family gatherings with buffet style

At least after he turned 80 he did. Then it was everyone else in no particular order.

[siouxsiecreamcheese]

65. My brother's family are born agains..

My brother isn't as bad as his wife, but every time we have a buffet at thier house, she always says something about how the men need to go first because it says so in the bible. What's worse, she taught her daughter the same thing. The last time I was there they were throwing a pre-wedding bbq for my (now)husband and I. Her daughter says something to my husbands uncle something like "mommy always lets daddy go first because we are to remain subservient" or something like that. She's 11. Anyway my brother, her husband overhears, and he just rolls his eyes. Even he himself finds it kind of weird and freaky that she believes that, but he goes along with it to make her happy. My husband and his uncle just look at each other and mouth "woooooowww". They are both pretty liberal guys and didn't know what to say lol. It kills me that my niece is being brought up this way.

[LiberalAndProud]

66. Children first is just courtesy.

Someone has to help the kids fill their plates and get settled in. Usually that meant the helpers settled in at the back of the line to fill their own plate. Mitt doesn't concern himself with the comfort of others. That much is clear.

[AnneD]

67. In our family....

Cherokee based....children first, elderly next, adults last. And you don't often break bread with just anyone outside the clan, but everything is shared freely.


Edited to add....being invited to dinner is an honor. You eat after the children and with the elderly, but most elderly and even children can insist you eat before them.

[onpatrol98]

68. My husband always eats last...but,

My father always gets his plate first, if it's cafeteria style. In my grandfather's house (my father's father) for Sunday dinner (if the preacher was visiting), only the men sat at the table. Maybe even older male cousins. Women, girls and small children ate in the kitchen IF there was food left. I can remember many a day watching a male cousin (same age) taunt me from the dining table, when no one was looking, by waving a chicken leg. And, sometimes, with enough bribes or threats, you could convince one to tuck you back a piece. Unless they simply felt sorry for you.

Those were long dinners. The preacher would casually eat piece, after piece, after piece...as you'd wonder if you'd get any at all. There were really no guarantees. My grandparents raised their own chickens. If the pastor had a good appetite or decided to bring a deacon or too, you were out of luck. Then he would want to sit and chat. I really don't think some of them realized that no one else (women & girls...small kids) could eat until they were finished AND had left the table. My grandmother wanted to make sure all the "guests" had their fill.

We would be so anxious to clean the table. (Girls ONLY of course) My grandmother would be so proud. She never seem to catch on to the fact that we were hungry and simply wanted to bring the food back to the kitchen to eat. It didn't even seem weird then. It was just life.

My grandfather's traditions died with him, though. We all sit down together to eat. Even if we have to spread out through several rooms (dining, breakfast nook, sunroom...LOL.)

Now, when it was a regular day with my grandfather. We all sat down together. Everyone was served together. But, we still didn't eat until he came to the table.

But, he was seldom late to the table.

[marlakay]

69. Usually kids first because they get fussy if hungry

and then parents. And if you have company they go first. I just had my kids and grandkids over and we served ourselves after they did, that is what is polite.

Obviously Mitt is use to being spoiled and getting first place all of his life.

[Adsos Letter]

70. " Making sure everyone else got what they needed first."

That's the way we do it in this house. Seeing everyone else getting enough gives me more pleasure when it's finally my turn.

[WooWooWoo]

73. doesn't really matter who goes first, just as long as dad or grandpa got the last piece of shrimp

oh lord help us if he didn't.

[Ikonoklast]

74. Youngest and Oldsters first...ALWAYS.

The men in my family eat last, period.


If you don't know how the dinner drill works as The New Guy to our family, you'll soon be informed as to just how we do things.

[a la izquierda]

75. In my family, nobody did squat until my grandfather started eating.

But there was no "line." Like a buffet line? None of that, and my family is enormous. We all sat and the women waited on the men. Mom's family is Mediterranean. I find myself waiting on my husband at family parties, like a "good Spanish-Italian wife," as my grandma says. I generally cringe when she says that.

[MadrasT]

76. Whoever gets there first eats first around here.

There is no typical "order".

[Berlum]

77. No way

Sheesh

[MrSlayer]

78. Dad gets the big piece of chicken.

Or in our case the piece of pork in the Sunday gravy.

When I was a kid my mom would serve us dinner and my dad would get the lion's share, be it the aforementioned piece of pork, the big steak or bowl of stew or whatever. Dad always carves the turkey and serves everyone else on thanksgiving but makes sure to secure a drumstick first.

In my house, with my family, it's everyone for themselves unfortunately. With both of us having to work we very rarely have a sit down family meal. When we do, whichever of us cooks does the serving.

[Warren Stupidity]

79. What line?

By the way rMoney, living in a mansion with a car elevator, is unlikely to get in line for anything.

[Trailrider1951]

80. When I was young and living at home with my parents and 3 siblings

Mom always served Dad first, then her children, beginning with her youngest first, and herself last. Dad always got first choice as a sign of respect, after all, he was the one who brought home the bacon. And I was then and now OK with that.

[notadmblnd]

81. In my house we all sit for dinner

dinner is set on the table and we all pass it around. There is no lining up whether there is 2 or 20 of us. Certain people do have their place at the table, but it does not mean they get their food first.

[ejpoeta]

82. kids are always first. at our house kids are first too. make sure they get

vegetables and such. bob always saves the fruits and veggies for the kids anyway. money is tight and we don't have a lot of that stuff. at family functions we let the elders go first and then the kids and then the kids parents.

[southernyankeebelle]

83. The children always went first. Then dad and mother was kind of last because she was always making

sure everything was on the table and set. At least for special occasions. But in my family during the holidays we all work together. Some set the table. Mother and dad usually cooked together at the end everyone brought their own plate to the kitchen and some finished clearing off the table and some did the washing of the dishes and putting all away. It took know time.

I remember going with my husband to visit a family and my husband worked with the father of that family. Anyway they had a small child's table in the kitchen and in the dinning room sat the grownups. I didn't care for that to much. But what really kind of upset me was they served the kids hot dogs and the adults were served steak. I was really surprised. I would never do that. We all eat the same thing. It was not they couldn't afford to give the kids steaks. They were getting CA money because they adopted 3 kids. So money really wasn't an issue. Anyway they were a weird bunch anyway. I felt very sorry for the children. The father was a scary SOB and the kids were scared to death of him.

[Zen Democrat]

84. In my grandmother's time, in the deep south, it was men first, kids next, women last.

I was told this was an old custom because the men ate and went back to work in the fields. After they were done and gone, the women and children ate and cleaned up.

[barbtries]

86. don't get to have the big family dinners much anymore,

but with my two sons who have been with me at thanksgiving in recent years, we put everything on the card table, load our plates, have a toast and eat together.
i can't recall throughout my life there ever having been an order to tell the truth.

[Jennicut]

87. My Dad fixes my children's plates first at every picnic and big family celebration.

He always sits down last too. He actually tries to do too much and at 65 I want him to slow down at bit. Of course, he is also a conservative. I try to overlook that since he really has been a very good father and is really great with my kids. We always agree to disagree on our politics.
I think Mitt has no idea how to put others before himself. Must have been the way he grew up.