# Having your kids' teachers over for dinner **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 19, 2011, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-your-kids-teachers-over-for-dinner/603428 "2011-11-19T07:21:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2011, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-your-kids-teachers-over-for-dinner/603428/1 "2011-11-19T07:21:04Z")
When I was a kid in the early 50s, I remember a few times when my older brother’s teachers were invited over for dinner. I guess this was common back then, but by the time I was in school, 3 years later, it apparently was no longer done. Anyone else remember this? Is it still done in places? (Personally, I can think of few things more horrible, from the kid’s point of view.) ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2011, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-your-kids-teachers-over-for-dinner/603428/2 "2011-11-19T07:25:15Z")
My parents never had any of my teacher over for dinner. We have not had any of Kiddo’s teachers over. ---
**Author:** ![Farmer\_Jane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Farmer\_Jane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farmer_Jane)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2011, 8:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-your-kids-teachers-over-for-dinner/603428/3 "2011-11-19T08:21:32Z")
I’m thinking this would happen more in smaller towns, private schools or minority cultures in the US. You know, love em with food and all that. My stepbrother’s teacher was the daughter of my dad’s good friend, so yes, she shared meals with us. I have not been invited to dinner to a student’s house, but I was invited to a baby shower. \ Awkward, but I went. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2011, 8:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-your-kids-teachers-over-for-dinner/603428/4 "2011-11-19T08:52:01Z")
I went to school in the sixties and seventies (in a rural area). My family never invited any of my teachers home and I never heard of any other families that did so. ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2011, 9:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-your-kids-teachers-over-for-dinner/603428/5 "2011-11-19T09:10:40Z")
When I was 8 I went fishing with my uncle and I caught a fish. Maybe a 10-inch fish. At any rate, big enough to keep, and it seemed very large to me! So my uncle said, “Great, you ought to invite your teacher over for dinner.” So, being a literal-minded child, I did, even though I didn’t particularly like that teacher. The teacher accepted. I guess they didn’t get paid much, and free food! I told her we would be having my fish that I caught. My mother was a bit put out by the whole thing. “What, did you think you were Jesus feeding this multitudes with this little fish?” Then, when I felt thoroughly chastised for inviting my teacher for lunch, my mother went on to tell me that my uncle had somehow preloaded that fish on my line, so I hadn’t even really caught it. Pretty dismal lunch, that. ---
**Author:** ![BeaMyra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/2bfe46/32.png) [@BeaMyra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeaMyra)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2011, 10:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-your-kids-teachers-over-for-dinner/603428/6 "2011-11-19T10:45:06Z")
It was an episode of “Leave It To Beaver” too. 🙂 The Bev has his mother invite Miss Landers over, and Gilbert, Whitey and Larry decide to spy in and see if Miss Landards does anything interesting, maybe even \ smoke ---
**Author:** ![Ashes\_Ashes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/db5fbb/32.png) [@Ashes\_Ashes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ashes_Ashes)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2011, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-your-kids-teachers-over-for-dinner/603428/7 "2011-11-19T12:07:41Z")
All the darned time my teachers were at the dinner table. 'Course my parents were teachers and those _were_ their friends, but still! Actually, it was pretty neat. They were interesting people and if I was having any sort of trouble it was handled tout de suite, before anything could snowball. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2011, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-your-kids-teachers-over-for-dinner/603428/8 "2011-11-19T13:38:11Z")
My mother socialized with a few of my grade school teachers, most notably my first grade teacher. That would be in 1962 or 63. They’d get together after school, but I don’t think that the teacher ever came over for dinner. ---
**Author:** ![Pai325](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Pai325](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pai325)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2011, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-your-kids-teachers-over-for-dinner/603428/9 "2011-11-19T14:26:20Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > (Personally, I can think of few things more horrible, from the kid’s point of view.) I’m a teacher, and what makes you think only the kid would think it horrible? 🙂 I only ate at a student’s house if I were already friends with the family. I was never invited anywhere just because I was the teacher. ---
**Author:** ![ShelliBean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f9ae1b/32.png) [@ShelliBean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShelliBean)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2011, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-your-kids-teachers-over-for-dinner/603428/10 "2011-11-19T14:37:10Z")
I grew up fully believing that my teachers went to a cot in the back room of the school promptly at 3:30 and stayed there until 8:00 am the next day. I remember my shock at seeing one “in the wild” one night while out to eat at a restaurant - I was probably in the second or third grade. I was probably another year or so after that fully realizing they had, you know, \*lives \*outside of school. My family did not have any teachers in it or teachers as friends at that time. ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2011, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-your-kids-teachers-over-for-dinner/603428/11 "2011-11-19T15:36:19Z")
My mother invited my teachers to our house for lunch one day. First grade teacher, second grade teacher, music teacher and gym teacher. This was in the mid-80s. It was a public school. ---
**Author:** ![WarmNPrickly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d78d45/32.png) [@WarmNPrickly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WarmNPrickly)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2011, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-your-kids-teachers-over-for-dinner/603428/12 "2011-11-19T18:04:38Z")
We did it all the time. Many of my friends did it too. It was a pretty standard practice at my elementary school. Somehow it just seems like this is no longer normal ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2011, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-your-kids-teachers-over-for-dinner/603428/13 "2011-11-19T19:40:23Z")
Yeah, for some reason that strikes me as something that people just don’t do. Maybe we should! My 5th-grade teacher also attended my church and was a near neighbor and friend of my mother’s, so I saw quite a bit of her. Once I spent the night when my parents had to go out of town. I still see her sometimes even though everyone has moved since then, and her nephew is married to our friends’ daughter. It’s a small world. ---
**Author:** ![Runs\_With\_Scissors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/278dde/32.png) [@Runs\_With\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Runs_With_Scissors)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2011, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-your-kids-teachers-over-for-dinner/603428/14 "2011-11-20T06:17:14Z")
I’m a teacher. It used to be pretty routine for me to have dinner at students’ houses. It’s been a long time, though, since that’s happened. I miss it, actually. My students’ parents have excellent red wines and whiskeys 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2011, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-your-kids-teachers-over-for-dinner/603428/15 "2011-11-20T06:53:38Z")
Not one of the teachers, but I had not only had one of the classroom aids over for dinner, but I had slept over at her house more times than I could count\*. \*She was my aunt. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2011, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-your-kids-teachers-over-for-dinner/603428/16 "2011-11-21T14:24:09Z")
> [@BeaMyra](#): > > It was an episode of “Leave It To Beaver” too. 🙂 > > The Bev has his mother invite Miss Landers over, and Gilbert, Whitey and Larry decide to spy in and see if Miss Landards does anything interesting, maybe even \ smoke There was a great episode of “The Cosby Show” where Cliff invited Theo’s feared math teacher (I think her nickname was The Dragon Lady) to dinner after she called him to request a meeting. Turned out she was pregnant & wanted Cliff as her OB, which was a complete shock to Theo - “You’re pregnant? But you’re a teacher!” ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2011, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/having-your-kids-teachers-over-for-dinner/603428/17 "2011-11-21T17:51:42Z")
I would think that many teachers would turn down the offer, if only to avoid having to go have dinner at the houses of all 20…30…or more of their students every damn year! It’s a nice thing to offer, but it could snowball into a bit of a chore. I’m the daughter of a teacher, so several of my mom’s friends were my teachers at one time or another, so I did see them at dinners and Christmas parties and whatnot, though the talk never seemed to turn to their kids’ performance at school (why would you take your work home with you like that?)