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Breakfast in bed, yes or no?

(130 Posts)
Sago Sun 26-Oct-25 07:34:42

I have just read an excerpt from Baroness Glenconner’s book.
It describes how at house parties all the married ladies received breakfast in bed.

It seems a very outdated practice.

I cannot think of anything worse than eating in bed or even a bedroom for that matter.

Now a cup of tea is more than acceptable bit food a big fat NO!

Would you relish a breakfast tray in bed?

Calendargirl Sun 26-Oct-25 13:18:26

It’s a definite ‘no’ from me.

Porridge, toast, orange juice, coffee, all on a tray in bed?

No thank you, much prefer sitting at the table.

Feels very lazy and self indulgent to me.

LauraNorderr Sun 26-Oct-25 13:15:08

Never have enjoyed breakfast in bed. Not even a cuppa. Don’t like food in the bedrooms.
Too rushed when working and getting children off to school.
Since retirement we like to eat a leisurely breakfast together at the table.
Each to his/her own.

Sago Sun 26-Oct-25 13:08:15

I’ve just remembered the good old Goblin teasmaid!
Did anyone have one or still got one?

AmberGran Sun 26-Oct-25 13:01:17

Occasionally a cup of tea or coffee courtesy of DH once he knows I'm awake. We both used to get up at 5 am every day but now we're retired and in separate rooms I sleep in a bit later.

Breakfast is always cooked and always eaten in the kitchen.

knspol Sun 26-Oct-25 12:43:50

Often take a milky coffee and toast back to bed with me to enjoy at leisure. Late DH often fetched me tea and toast in bed before he became ill.

Norah Sun 26-Oct-25 12:10:25

No.

First mug of coffee in the kitchen, before walking. All others at the table.

HelterSkelter1 Sun 26-Oct-25 12:07:55

Can't imagine having grilled fish in my bedroom especially kippers!!! Maybe Pomfret Towers was very draughy and blew the smell away.

Coffees or a large mug of tea lovely in the very early morning. But I make it myself. In the summer I sometimes sit on the back step, but wintertime in bed.

Allira Sun 26-Oct-25 10:40:28

Ps Primrose have you had an X-ray?
Do they do them locally or could you get someone to take you while someone sits with your DH? Do you have a Befriending Group in your area? They would help.

Babs03 hope that clears up soon.

Breakfast in bed is overrated anyway!

Allira Sun 26-Oct-25 10:37:01

Primrose53

When I was about 17 a friend and I did a summer holiday as chambermaids in a posh hotel. We had to carry huge trays with breakfast in bed for some guests.

It might be scrambled eggs with smoked salmon, kippers, poached eggs on toast, toast racks, fresh juice, cereals, milk jug, cutlery, heavy crockery, tea pot etc. I was very petite then and carrying that lot was really difficult along long corridors.

When I was 16 I had a summer holiday job as 'au pair' to two young girls whose parents ran a large hotel.
Every morning I would have to take their mother breakfast in bed. I didn't have to prepare it, of course, the chefs did that.

Allira Sun 26-Oct-25 10:34:51

A cup of tea every morning but not food.

FriedGreenTomatoes2 Sun 26-Oct-25 10:28:34

Oh Primrose and Babs 🌺🌸 these are for you. x

CariadAgain Sun 26-Oct-25 10:25:16

Nope - I don't think I've ever had breakfast in bed. Though I've never been married or otherwise partnered-up.

Guess I could always make it and carry it back to bed myself - but I keep my bedroom at a lower temperature than the rest of my house (as it was always always cold when my mother was bringing me up!!). So now I'm in charge - it's always heated - but at that lower temperature - as I learnt to put as much bedding as I could find on my bed to combat her cold temperatures.

It's only a little bungalow I live in anyway these days - so it's only feet from my kitchen to my study (the 2nd bedroom) and so I carry it through to my study and catch up on the news on my computer whilst I'm having it. I know...I know....I should head into my dining table/chairs in the sitting room and eat it "mindfully" - as at least I do have a bit of "greenery" I can look at whilst eating meals there.....one day....

Primrose53 Sun 26-Oct-25 10:22:31

Babs03

Primrose53

I am nursing what I believe is a sprained ankle. It is terribly painful. I limped downstairs at 7.45 and checked on my husband who sleeps there due to a severe stroke.

He didn’t want a cup of tea so I made myself one and brought it back to bed and it is bliss up here! The sun is pouring in double aspect windows and I am propped up on a V cushion. If only someone would bring me some toast! No chance of that now.

I sympathise. Have got a dental abscess but have had to soldier on due to DH also having had a stroke. I do get my own cuppa in the morning and see if DH wants one but usually is just me. Am afraid brekkie in bed is just not going to happen. But anyway just think of the crumbs and butter stains.

Hope you feel better soon. 🤞
Yesterday I kept wondering what we would do if this ankle pain became permanent. How would we cope with both of us out of action.

I have been taking paracetamol every 4 hours and have just strapped my ankle up which has helped. When I get dressed I will dig out some ankle boots to support it even more. Resting it in bed overnight has also helped.

Primrose53 Sun 26-Oct-25 10:18:10

When I was about 17 a friend and I did a summer holiday as chambermaids in a posh hotel. We had to carry huge trays with breakfast in bed for some guests.

It might be scrambled eggs with smoked salmon, kippers, poached eggs on toast, toast racks, fresh juice, cereals, milk jug, cutlery, heavy crockery, tea pot etc. I was very petite then and carrying that lot was really difficult along long corridors.

FriedGreenTomatoes2 Sun 26-Oct-25 10:16:16

Sometimes we all need little things to remind us we’re actually retired and ‘loved’ too GrandmaFrench. 💕

TerriBull Sun 26-Oct-25 10:14:06

Coffee in bed always, OH kindly brings me a cup. Breakfast no! I like to be showered and dressed, I'm a late breakfaster anyway. On the couple of occasions I've had toast brought when maybe I was ill, somehow there'd be a crumb or two left behind.

FriedGreenTomatoes2 Sun 26-Oct-25 10:13:13

Apparently the late Princess Margaret stayed in bed all morning (hungover mostly I bet after a party the night before!). She’d eat, read the papers (Tatler too I expect), smoke using her cigarette holder and make numerous phone calls. Staff would draw her a bath. She’d then ‘dress for lunch’.

My kind of woman! Apart from the hangover and the cigarette …

Can you even imagine being waited on to that extent? I’m sure she’d have rung for coffee from her bed too.

How the other half live eh?

BlueSapphire Sun 26-Oct-25 10:08:34

Once our DCs had grown up and left home, DH brought me breakfast in bed every Sunday!
A much appreciated treat.

FriedGreenTomatoes2 Sun 26-Oct-25 10:05:53

Luckygirl3

The problem with evn a cup of tea in bed is that I then feel disinclined to get up and loll about for far too long.

I thoroughly enjoy 2 mugs of TIB (not at the same time, natch) and nibble a few soft dried apricots after my second brew. Time passes as it does. I’m not a ‘rusher’ never have been! 🤷‍♀️
Unless of course an appointment to go to and I do my level best not to make one before 10am!
#lazygran
I have been known to make myself a bowl of porridge and take it back …. 😂

pably15 Sun 26-Oct-25 10:00:28

eazybee

A description of a breakfast tray published in 1939.
". On her tray was a gay flowered breakfast set. Coffee and hot milk were in twin jugs with covered tops. There were three plates with covers on them, a little toast rack, two kinds of jam, about a dozen little balls of butter, sugar brown and white.There were an apple, an orange and a small bunch of grapes, with a gold knife and fork, and a napkin folded by her plate.. Under the first lid was a piece of grilled fish, under the second a fried egg on fried bread among crisp rashers of bacon, under the third little hot rolls of various kinds."
Pomfret Towers. Angela Thirkell.

I just wonder how large the tray was.

and how many people were employed to carry it ?

pably15 Sun 26-Oct-25 09:58:37

No, I don't like breakfast in bed, I like to get up shower get dressed and downstairs.

eazybee Sun 26-Oct-25 09:52:10

A description of a breakfast tray published in 1939.
". On her tray was a gay flowered breakfast set. Coffee and hot milk were in twin jugs with covered tops. There were three plates with covers on them, a little toast rack, two kinds of jam, about a dozen little balls of butter, sugar brown and white.There were an apple, an orange and a small bunch of grapes, with a gold knife and fork, and a napkin folded by her plate.. Under the first lid was a piece of grilled fish, under the second a fried egg on fried bread among crisp rashers of bacon, under the third little hot rolls of various kinds."
Pomfret Towers. Angela Thirkell.

I just wonder how large the tray was.

GrannyIvy Sun 26-Oct-25 09:50:27

No maybe occasional cuppa in bed. I am not really a breakfast person just have a bowl of chopped up fresh fruit and usually eat it reading Gransnet at my kitchen table

grumppa Sun 26-Oct-25 09:46:29

Never. I used to bring mugs of tea upstairs for DW and myself, but now I'm alone it is straight down to breakfast with coffee before showering.

Witzend Sun 26-Oct-25 09:46:27

Before dh retired and enjoyed his Sunday lie-in, I’d often bring him some toast, coffee and the Sunday papers. It was reciprocation for the fact that he’d often bring me a cup of tea first thing.
I still often get the cup of tea if he’s up first, but we haven’t done any breakfast in bed since we retired, and can (usually) get up whenever we feel like it.